Fox cancels Almost Family following allegation Timothy Hutton raped a 14-year-old girl in 1983

Variety

The controversial drama starring the Oscar-winning Hutton as a sociopathic IVF doctor was canceled less than two hours after Buzzfeed reported on Canadian ex-model Sera Johnston's allegation that he raped her in a hotel room in 1983. The article was published this afternoon after being in the works for more than a year. It's not clear if Almost Family's cancelation revelation is tied to Buzzfeed's story. The drama, which also starred Brittany Snow, Megalyn Echikunwoke and Emily Osment, aired its final episode on Feb. 22 and was expected to be canceled after Fox relegated it to Saturdays. Almost Family proved to be controversial with critics accusing Fox of turning the story of an infertility doctor who impregnated patients against their will into a heartwarming family drama. Or This Is Us with "medical rape," as The Daily Beast described the show. Hutton has issued a statement denying Johnston's allegation. "For the past two-and-a-half years, I have been the target of multiple extortion attempts by a woman named Sera Dale Johnston to extract millions of dollars from me," Hutton told Deadline. “She threatened that if I did not meet her demands, she would go to the press with a false allegation that I sexually assaulted her 37 years ago in Canada."