In an apparent attempt to deflect criticism over its wet-noodlish cancellation of the reality series “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” ABC has designed a clever justification for canning the show:

Basically, it just wasn’t very good.

ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson discussed the cancellation at a press conference.

McPherson said the network was actively promoting the airing of the show, while racing to get the rest of the episodes ready, and had not seen the completed series.

“As we started to see it, we realized that if you air it in the episodic nature that it was scheduled to air, you could, maybe confuse the audience as to what the message you are trying to get across and what you were trying to portray,” he said. “And it really became a question of what’s responsible, to air it or not. We didn’t want to air something just because of the controversy. And I really felt like when I looked long and hard at it in this form, it wasn’t right. The show was not ready to go, and the responsible thing was not to air it.”

McPherson did not rule out the possibility that ABC would eventually air the series. (And with all the built-in publicity the show now has, why wouldn’t they? Who wants to bet they’ll let Donald Trump test the waters?)

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