LOS ANGELES — Kelsey Grammer said Tuesday that Fox is dropping his sitcom “Back to You,” calling the decision a surprise and a shame.

“They have let it go,” Grammer told The Associated Press. “We were told all this time we were in good shape and we were coming back.”

Last Friday, Grammer taped an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show promoting the series. When the veteran sitcom star (“Cheers,” “Frasier”) arrived home later that evening, he received a call telling him that the show was canceled.

“Back to You,” co-starring Patricia Heaton and set in a Pittsburgh TV station newsroom, debuted strongly last fall with nearly 9.5 million viewers. But its audience has slipped, with last week’s episode drawing just under 7 million viewers.

Television watching overall is down, a trend that’s been blamed in part on lingering effects of a 100-day writers’ strike that shut down TV production.

Grammer said he spoke with Fox executives Peter Liguori and Kevin Reilly on Saturday and that they didn’t fully explain the decision. He speculated that their interest in the show had “waned” so they were unwilling to be patient with it.

“I’m not really sure what the real reasoning is. I think they ended up with a show that was going to be a great show. It was a great show,” he said.

In an interview, Grammer dismissed talk that the show, with two high-profile TV stars in him and Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), was too costly for Fox.

“That’s rarely a stumbling block if they really want a show,” he said. “There are ways around that. They just really didn’t want it.”

Fox’s this fall

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Fox announced Thursday it’s new prime-time schedule for this fall:

8 p.m. — “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” 9 p.m. — “Prison Break”

8 p.m. — “House” 9 p.m. — “Fringe”

8 p.m. — “Bones” 9 p.m. — “’Til Death” 9:30 p.m. — “Do Not Disturb”

8 p.m. — “The Moment of Truth” 9 p.m. — “Kitchen Nightmares”

8 p.m. — “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” 9 p.m. — “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!”

8 p.m. — “COPS” 8:30 p.m. — “COPS” 9 p.m. — “America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back”

7 p.m. — “The OT” (NFL Post-Game) 8 p.m. — “The Simpsons” 8:30 p.m. — “King of the Hill” 9 p.m. — “Family Guy” 9:30 p.m. — “American Dad”