1. Too Expensive
Mike Epps is a major name in show business. One of the reasons why Uncle Buck was canceled would land one possible factor: how expensive it is to produce the show. My guess is that Mike Epps was probably too expensive for ABC to handle. But will we know for sure what happened behind the scenes? You decide.
2. Ben Sherwood is a Douchebag
Well, I like to thank my not-so-creative juices for coming up with a Supernatural-inspired heading about Disney-ABC Television Group president Ben Sherwood. As president of the entire television division at Disney-ABC, he makes all the decisions on show's fates, leaving Channing Dungey to work her PR-savvy magic and to keep Shonda Rhimes happy. Thanks for the heads up, Jon!
Likewise, the fact that Sherwood plays favorites when it comes to television shows reminds me of former CW president Dawn Ostroff. She sent Smallville, Supernatural, and Nikita on Fridays to basically fend for themselves while she scheduled teen soaps and other female skewing programming on Monday-Thursday. It didn't work out too well. Ratings collapse plus a regime change led to a more male-skewing CW for the taking, with Arrow starting a DC empire. But enough with CW comparisons, let's get back to Sherwood.
Sherwood was a major factor in the ousting of Paul Lee earlier this year. Tensions were apparently coming to boils, with Sherwood wanting more procedurals on the drama end. Things didn't end too well, as Sherwood, along with Dungey, decided to clean house and cancel both Castle and Nashville. But kept low-rated The Catch and The Real O'Neals, with the latter on a new Tuesday comedy block anchored by The Middle in the 8pm timeslot. It's serving as a lead-in to soon to be outgoing Agents of SHIELD. That's not going to fare well.
Back to Uncle Buck, here. Uncle Buck was greenlit by Paul Lee before the ousting. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a major factor, given how things turned sour between the two near the end.
3. It Got Dumped to Summer = Cancelation?
Well the dump to summer treatment brought two hits: NBC's Undateable and The Night Shift. I have to admit, the TV Grim Reaper inspired this next possible factor. Uncle Buck was originally supposed to air midseason. But since The Real O'Neals got renewed at fractional numbers, it got dumped to summer. Uncle Buck got higher ratings than The Real O'Neals, but since this is ABC here, the exile to summer definitely sealed its fate. However, we shouldn't take this headline as gospel since standards are different for different networks.
Overall, the combination of financial reasons plus internal politics could serve as major factors on why Uncle Buck was canceled. We may never know the real reason behind this.
