Home Improvement and Last Man Standing star Tim Allen made his highly-anticipated return to network TV in the 2025 TV schedule with Shifting Gears. Also starring Two Broke Girls' Kat Dennings, the show was a breakout hit from the very start... but then the future seemed less bright, with recent rumors suggesting that it could be cancelled in the same season that ABC loses The Conners. Now, fans can count on a bright future for Shifting Gears.
Shifting Gears has officially been renewed for Season 2, with Deadline reporting an order of ten episodes to match the total for Season 1. The freshman sitcom was part of the network's renewal spree, which also includes more seasons of Grey's Anatomy, 9-1-1, The Rookie, and Will Trent. Comedy Abbott Elementary and Kaitlin Olson's High Potential were both already renewed earlier this year, with NCIS: LA alum Chris O'Donnell's 9-1-1: Nashville also scoring a primetime slot.
The uncertainty about Shifting Gears' future largely lay in the fact that its exceptionally strong audience for the pilot, at 17 million viewers across platforms after the first week, wasn't sustained by the new sitcom. (The show is currently available streaming with a Hulu subscription.) The decline by 40% in linear viewing and 50% in the valuable 18-49 age demographic might have been enough to lead to a cancellation.
The sitcom reportedly scored a renewal thanks to the season average numbers that placed Shifting Gears fifth among ABC's scripted offerings in the 2024-2025 TV schedule, although that average was presumably skewed by the premiere total. The network is also said to have faith in the star power of leads Tim Allen and Kat Dennings. For his part, Allen was quick to celebrate the news on social media, posting on Instagram:
Kat Dennings had a celebratory Instagram post of her own, writing "See you in season 2!" The cast certainly does have a lot to celebrate, since it wasn't that long ago that Shifting Gears' instant popularity seemed like it would lead to an early renewal. In fact, the premiere did so well that it nearly beat NBC's Chicago Med elsewhere in the 8 p.m. ET time slot on Wednesdays, which is a big deal. After all, One Chicago's medical drama was coming back from a cliffhanger.
Unfortunately for the ABC sitcom, the viewership just didn't hold up from the impressive series premiere numbers, and Kat Dennings was "on pins and needles" waiting for news after the Season 1 finale aired in March. Shifting Gears was rumored to be on the cancellation bubble along with fellow ABC freshman show Doctor Odyssey, which is still waiting on news for its fate.
If you want to revisit the first season of Shifting Gears now that it has been renewed for Season 2, you can do so now streaming on Hulu. It remains to be seen if it will return early in 2026 as a midseason show like how Season 1 released or join Abbott Elementary in ABC's fall slate.
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