‘Shifting Gears’ With Tim Allen Becomes ABC’s Best Series Launch in 6 Years With 17 Million Viewers | Exclusive
The "Abbott Elementary" and "It's Alway Sunny in Philadelphia" crossover also marked a series high with more than 8 million viewers The post ‘Shifting Gears’ With Tim Allen Becomes ABC’s Best Series Launch in 6 Years With 17 Million Viewers | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.
The “Abbott Elementary” and “It’s Alway Sunny in Philadelphia” crossover also marked a series high with more than 8 million viewers
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“Shifting Gears” revved up nearly 17 million total viewers after seven days of cross-platform viewing on ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms, TheWrap can reveal exclusively.
The Tim Allen and Kat Dennings-led comedy series brought in a total of 16.95 million viewers, a 173% increase over the show’s initial live-plus-same day viewing of 6.2 million, according to Nielsen. Among adults aged 18 to 49, the show earned an 0.87 rating.
It marks ABC’s strongest series debut since “The Conners” in 2018 and the most-watched ABC series premiere on streaming to date, based on views in its first seven days on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
Excluding linear encores, “Shifting Gears” brought in 12.45 million total viewers, a 101% increase compared to the initial live-plus-same-day audience. On linear, the series earned 7.82 million total viewers, a 26% increase over its initial audience.
“Shifting Gears” follows the reunion between Matt (Allen), a stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop and his estranged daughter, Riley (Dennings), who comes crashing back into her dad’s life with her adolescent children. Starring alongside the pair are Seann William Scott, Daryl Chill Mitchell, Maxwell Simkins and Barrett Margolis.
Allen serves as an executive producer alongside showrunner Michelle Nader, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, Richard Baker, Rick Messina, John Pasquin, Jim Patterson, Bob Daily and John Amodeo. Dennings also serves as a producer on the series, which is produced by 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios.
In addition, the winter return of “Abbott Elementary” and crossover event with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” reached a series high of 8.05 million total viewers in multiplatform viewing, based on the first seven days on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, and a 2.57 rating among adults ages 18 to 49. On linear, Abbott’s midseason return scored 4.9 million total viewers, up 28% from its initial live-plus-same-day audience of 3.82 million.
The episode sees the “Always Sunny” cast become volunteers to help out Abbott – and inevitably shake up dynamics among the teachers – with Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Frank (Danny DeVito) crossing paths with Janine (Quinta Brunson), Gregory (Tyler James Williams), Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), Ava (Janelle James), Jacob (Chris Perfetti) and Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis).
The episode was executive produced by Abbott Elementary co-showrunners and EPs Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker.
“Shifting Gears” and “Abbott Elementary” air Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, respectively, and stream the next day on Hulu.
The post ‘Shifting Gears’ With Tim Allen Becomes ABC’s Best Series Launch in 6 Years With 17 Million Viewers | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.
