The 2025 TV schedule has kicked off with both beloved shows and new entries, with Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears among the latter. Also starring sitcom veteran Kat Dennings, the sitcom centers on Allen’s classic car-restorating widower, whose estranged daughter moves back home, only this time with her kids. While Shifting Gears just premiered, the Last Man Standing vet's appeal is clear from the impressive ratings, and time slot rival Chicago Med may have to look out.
Shifting Gears’ premiere on Wednesday, January 8, drew in upwards of 6.1 million total viewers, with a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demo, according to TVLine. It’s apparently the 8 p.m. ET slot’s strongest showing a while for ABC, and it’s not so surprising considering both Allen and Dennings are no strangers to both popular sitcoms and movies.
It certainly blew most other scripted shows out of the water that evening, as well as two of its time slot predecessors on the network, The Conners and The Goldbergs. And while it wasn't the night's most-watched series, it very nearly beat out NBC mainstay Chicago Med whose midseason premiere airing on January 8 brought in around 6.2 million viewers for the 8 p.m. ET slot, which was an uptick from the first half of Season 10.
Med was catching up to Chicago Fire's ratings with its fall finale, and actually secured the top spot with its winter premiere. But even if the medical drama won in total viewers, its 0.5 demo rating fell short of topping Shifting Gears'. Clearly, Med has some tough mid-week competition, and will quite possibly be tested on a regular basis by Tim Allen-loving viewers, even though series nearly always lose viewers from Week 1 to Week 2 and beyond.
The fact that Shiftin Gears is already winning the demo battle with just its series premiere is impressive. ABC definitely has a hit on its hands, and it looks like behind-the-scenes problems prior to the premiere were not significant enough to derail anything. .
Even though Shifting Gears enjoyed impressive premiere ratings, it was unclear how well the show would do after critics shared less-than-glowing reviews for the episodes that were screened. But while it’s entirely possible that viewers and ratings could dip as the season goes on, it’s also entirely possible they will go the other way. It’s definitely too early to tell, but fans will provide more clarity by tuning in each week.
Med has its own chance for a viewer uptick with the long-awaited One Chicago crossover event on January 29. That will probably help with the show’s ratings, but again, it’s hard to predict how things will go in the following weeks and months, and Med will be swapping time-slots for the event, so Shifting Gears will have some slightly different competition.
For the most part, Shifting Gears and Chicago Med will continue to duke it out on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and NBC, respectively.
