Shifting Gears Gets Exciting News Ahead of Premiere

Tim Allen has been a sitcom staple for more than three decades. His current ABC series, Shifting Gears, was renewed for a second season following rumors it might be canceled, but now things are looking up for Allen’s newest sitcom venture.

In the latest development, per Deadline, Shifting Gears, which also stars Kat Dennings, has been given an additional three-episode order for its second season by ABC. Now, Shifting Gears will consist of 13 episodes instead of the original 10 that had been planned.

The multi-camera Shifting Gears launched as a mid-season addition to the network and follows Allen’s character, Matt Parker, a widower who is reunited with his estranged daughter, Riley (Dennings), after she and her children move into his house.

Even with Shifting Gears’ 13 episodes, which is more than the first season’s 10, it is short of a full 18-episode season order. That paves the way for room for ABC’s reboot of Scrubs. Scrubs is reportedly on tap to be a mid-season addition to ABC’s lineup and could wind up in Shifting Gears’ Wednesday night time slot when its season finishes.

So far, ABC has just one comedy series planned as a mid-season replacement show, and it’s the Scrubs reboot. The Bill Lawrence-created Scrubs, a medical dramedy, initially ran for nine seasons starting in 2001. While the network hasn’t yet announced its midseason schedule, Scrubs will likely slide into Shifting Gears’ Wednesday time slot when it debuts.

Scrubs Creator Teases “10th Season” of the Beloved Series

The Scrubs revival will feature original cast members, including Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, and John C. McGinley. Reyes’ character, Sacred Heart Hospital nurse Carla Espinosa, will make her return to Scrubs after sitting out the sitcom’s ninth and final season.

The reboot is being billed as the tenth season of Scrubs and is set to reunite Doctors John “J.D.” Dorian (Braff) and Christopher Turk (Faison) as the pair “scrub in together for the first time in a long time.”

Lawrence previously teased that the revival will delve into how the medical “system has not only changed, but how it has beaten some of these people down, and how they retain their optimism with a new wave of young characters.”

“My hope would be that we establish where everybody (from the original show) is, whether they’re still with us at the hospital, or not,” Lawrence said.

ABC has a stacked fall comedy lineup, which features Shifting Gears and Abbott Elementary. The upcoming Shifting Gears will feature a Home Improvement reunion of sorts. It was previously reported that Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn, and Debbe Dunning will be guest stars on Shifting Gears.

Richardson is best known for playing Jill Taylor, the wife of Tim Allen’s Taylor, on the long-running Home Improvement. Karn played Tim’s “Tool Time” co-host, Al Borland, while Dunning played the “Tool Time girl,” Heidi Keppert. Shifting Gears also stars Daryl Mitchell, Seann William Scott, Maxwell Simkins, and Barrett Margolis.

The first season of Shifting Gears is streaming on Hulu.