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Shifting Gears is “a story about relationships that can be repaired,” sitcom legend Tim Allen says of his return to network TV. “Or restored, as we say,” he clarifies with a knowing smile.
Restoration is at the heart of the new multicamera comedy, in more ways than one. Allen stars as Matt Parker, the owner of a North Hollywood classic car remodeling and restoration shop. Already dealing with the recent passing of his wife, Matt’s world is upended when his estranged daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) comes crashing back into his life.
“She just shows up on his doorstep with her two kids. She’s getting a divorce, and her life is falling apart,” Dennings says. “She has no money and she needs to stay with him. So it turns both their lives upside down.”
“It’s a very relatable story of a family trying to restore itself,” explains showrunner Michelle Nader, who is reuniting with her “muse” Dennings after collaborating on 2 Broke Girls and Dollface.
Disney / Mike Taing
After 15 years apart, that won’t happen overnight. Matt and Riley “have such different styles and completely different beliefs,” Dennings tells TV Guide Magazine. “But what’s fun about them is that she is his daughter, and they are exactly the same. So when they butt heads, it’s just very, very funny.”
Their characters might be at odds, but the actors themselves couldn’t be more grateful for one another. “Kat’s so freaking talented,” Allen gushes. “We’re born on the same day, which is kind of weird. Certainly different ages!”
Dennings shares the sentiment. “Tim’s a really amazing actor, and I’ve told him this to his face, so I’m definitely happy to say it in print!”
The ensemble cast also includes Seann William Scott (of the Lethal Weapon series) as coworker Gabriel, “a guy who grew up with the family,” Scott says, “and has worked at Matt’s car shop since he was 15. He just loves cars and is a weirdo in all the best ways.”
“I’ve been so freaking fortunate,” Allen says of all his costars, who include Daryl Mitchell as Stitch, another member of the car remodeling team. “They all can do their own scenes, whether I like it or not, without me. And it’s just as funny without me in these scenes. Not a good thing for me!”
Disney / Raymond Liu
Beyond the theme of the series itself, there’s a broader restoration the series is driving at — that of the multicamera network sitcom, filmed in front of a live studio audience. Streaming may have put the format into neutral for a few years, but Shifting Gears hopes to “restore the classic form and modernize it a little bit,” Nader says. “I think people are really ready for that reinvention.”
The series’ stars are certainly excited to gear-shift back into multicam. “It’s so unlike any other way of making TV or film,” says Dennings, who rose to fame on 2 Broke Girls. “It’s a collaborative, magical, fun experience between the audience and the actors.”
It’s also a new adventure for Scott. “This is my first multicam experience and I’m absolutely loving it — just doing something totally different than anything I’ve done. It’s not often you get to do that and to be challenged in a totally different way.”
“There’s nothing like sitcoms,” agrees Allen. “They seem tired. Until you watch one in person.”
Speaking even briefly to the TV veteran, you get a sense that what keeps him coming back to sitcoms is part of a larger reverence for craftsmanship. It’s no coincidence Allen always plays men who work with their hands. Construction (Home Improvement), the outdoors (Last Man Standing), and auto design are all passions of his. In fact, Allen owns an auto shop in real life, and many of the classic cars featured on the show are ones that he’s restored himself.
“I’ve done a full circle. I look around and I’m on the Disney lot, and I keep walking by the Home Improvement set, which is over that way. I sat in front of the set and they still have a sign on it: Home Improvement. I’m kind of finishing, if you will, where I started.”
Shifting Gears, Series Premiere, Wednesday, January 8, 8/7c, ABC
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Steelers have big concern as team reportedly doesn't think key player takes his job seriously
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been in the sports news cycle throughout the 2025 offseason. It has been an extremely busy time for general manager Omar Khan and the rest of the front office. Moves have been made on both sides of the ball, which has fueled excitement in a city that has not seen a playoff win since the 2016 campaign. One of the more intriguing pieces to the puzzle as training camp gets underway isn't necessarily any of the new faces, but rather, a group that returns its core from 2024. The offensive line is expected to play a crucial role. Offensive line coach Pat Meyer is on the hot seat for what seems like the third year in a row, and his training camp got off to the wrong start when the most experienced member of his unit, Isaac Seumalo, was placed on the non-football injury list. This will provide a challenge during team development, as offensive linemen need to build rapport with one another and be in unison once the regular season kicks off. Another storyline is the presence of 2023 first-round selection, Broderick Jones. The Steelers traded up to pick him out of the University of Georgia, but he has yet to live up to the hype. In all fairness, he was drafted to be a left tackle, but hasn't gotten the chance to play there permanently. He will have the opportunity to do so in his third professional season, and he has a fifth-year option to consider that could be declined in the 2026 offseason if he underperforms. One of the most team's most respected insiders, Gerry Dulac, appeared on the "Steve Jones Show" on Wednesday, and when the left tackle came up in discussion, it wasn't all positive. The Steelers apparently believe he can be a phenomenal lineman, but they aren't convinced he is completely bought in. "They really really think Broderick Jones is immensely talented," Dulac said of the third-year offensive lineman. "They would just like to see him mature, kind of professionally, personally [and] take his job and his performance just a little more seriously." This is certainly a concerning comment from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter. Jones was looked at as a raw prospect coming out of college, but he always possessed the size and talent to be a great player in the NFL. If he isn't taking his job seriously enough, it would suggest that he is trying to rely on his skills alone, which is never good enough at the highest level. The offensive line has the ability to determine how the Steelers' 2025 season goes. With a 41-year-old quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, the big men up front will need to keep the guy under center upright. The team will also want to run the ball effectively, so it will be imperative to create holes and win the line of scrimmage on a consistent basis. Pittsburgh isn't necessarily starting off training camp on the right foot with Seumalo unable to participate in team activities, and now the comments from Dulac surely will be cause for concern when it comes to Jones, who has yet to convince the fan base that he was worth a first-round pick in 2023. If he wants to remain in the Steel City long-term, Jones should be preparing to be the most serious individual in the locker room. Steelers should have one clear advantage on the offensive line Zach Frazier was selected in the second-round back in 2024, and he was one of the most important rookies in the NFL. Entering his sophomore season, he is expected to not just take a step forward, but play like a Pro Bowler. While there could be some questions and inconsistencies in certain spots, Frazier should be the No. 1 guy that the group can rely on week in and week out.
Five reasons the NHL's new 84-game schedule is a bad idea
“The NHL schedule is just too short!” said no one ever. In early July, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association ratified a four-year extension to their collective bargaining agreement through September 2030. The deal was rightfully praised as a win for the sport. After decades of bad blood and the lingering threat of labor stoppages, an extension — that kicks in for the 2026-27 season — arriving more than a year early speaks volumes on the health of the players’ relationship with the league. Amid the good vibes, it was easy to discount one small change with potentially significant consequences: an increase from 82 to 84 games in the NHL’s regular season. We’re diving into the league’s new schedule and considering the unforeseen impact of adding more games to a packed calendar. Here are five key reasons this subtle shift is an ill-timed cash grab by hockey’s power brokers. History of the schedule Before we get into the future schedule, it’s important to understand the league’s past. The visual below shows the maximum number of combined games a team has potentially been able to play across the regular season and postseason since expansion. Forcing more games out of the talent is far from a new idea. With the exception of abbreviated lockout and pandemic calendars — excluded above — the NHL’s schedule length had been the same since the mid-1990s. Teams currently play 82 regular-season games, while the Stanley Cup finalists can play another 28 if their four best-of-seven series go the maximum. That’s 110. The league briefly dabbled with an 84-game season schedule in 1992-93 and 1993-94 where teams played a pair of neutral-site games to serve as feelers for future expansion. It didn’t stick. For 30 years, everyone seemed to agree — the season was long enough. 82 games wedged into six-plus months and four grueling playoff rounds was plenty. Plus preseason games, All-Star weekends, and international events. Every cent had been squeezed, every sweat drop had been left on the ice. Until now… ✅ Arguments for Change Prior to picking apart the new 84-game version, the reasons supporting the additional games deserve their day in court. And there are reasons, sort of. It balances the schedule. 84 games ensures each team plays its division rivals exactly four times. Argument against: Ah, competitive balance. It’s a nice idea. But let’s be serious. If anyone had the slightest interest in fairness, the current playoff format would be scrapped. The NHL’s division-based bracket often features first-round series between elite teams. The format doesn’t reseed either, leading to easier postseason paths for weaker teams. We can’t pretend a balanced schedule matters. The preseason has been reduced by two games. You may be screaming that this is all noise as the new CBA has offset the preseason by two games — a net-zero change in game count. Argument against: Established veterans mostly sit out the exhibition calendar anyway, reluctantly drawing in for two or three low-intensity games to appease fans and shake off rust. Two intra-division games tacked onto the schedule don’t offset meaningless autumn skates that top players mostly watch from home. There is money to be made. Money is the only (real) reason for adding to the schedule. Two extra divisional matches sell more tickets, TV ads and draft beer. The owners and players share equally in any new hockey-related revenue. Argument against: Sure, 84 regular-season games generates more dollars than 82 games. So would 86 games. Or 100 games. A postseason play-in round would create “must-watch” games too. But where does this line of thinking end? Everyone signed off on the change. While we’re not privy to the details on whether scheduling was a contentious issue, both the NHL and NHLPA bilaterally agreed from negotiations. Argument against: The NFL added one game in 2021 to create a 17-game schedule. Many players still hate it. There’s now buzz of an 18th game. While money talks, sometimes leadership needs to save the players from themselves. ❌ Why 84 games is a bad idea The new CBA had its chance to prove to us more games is good for hockey. It hasn’t. Let’s get down to why this money-driven move shouldn’t have gone forward. 1. Players are finally getting healthier. While missed games aren’t a perfect measure to weigh frequency and severity of injury, it’s a reasonable proxy for player health. Enter NHL Injury Viz, which houses 25 years of player injury and illness data. I’ve normalized games missed by season for schedule length and team count over the past quarter-century, and the results are fascinating. From the visual, we can see that games missed have now dropped below pre-pandemic levels. Given the data counts injuries and illnesses that players actually miss games from, we can’t say that every single physical issue is factored. But we can conclude that in 2024-25, NHL players missed the fewest relative number of games in at least 23 years. In a league where players missing “only” 6,641 games is a positive trend, cramming in a few more tough matchups to juice a percentage point of revenue feels wrong. 2. We are wearing out our biggest superstars. No one is going to cry for Connor McDavid. He’s 28 years old and has earned just shy of $100 million in his 10-year career before endorsements. His next deal could push him near $20 million per season given the rising salary cap. Two more games shouldn’t wreck a finely tuned athlete. But consider his last two years. On top of the preseason schedule, McDavid faced 164 regular-season games (missed 21 due to injury), the midseason 4 Nations Face-off (scored the winning goal), plus two All-Star weekends (designed and won the 2025 skills event). He’s also played an additional 53 games of nasty postseason hockey with fewer than 90 days off each summer. That’s more than 230 game days in 21 months. While international best-on-best hockey is great for all of us, McDavid will fly to Italy and back for another six Olympic contests in February 2026. This compresses the NHL season further, resulting in 13 back-to-back outings for the Oilers, who have a famously exhausting travel schedule. With international play now slated as part of the league’s bi-annual calendar, do we need to drain the top guys further? 3. Load management is inevitable — if it hasn’t already started. Hockey fans famously chirp their basketball-loving pals about NBA talent skipping games. Hockey players would never sit out to rest. Well, we might test that theory soon. Every sport has a tipping point. In an NHL where 10 of 16 playoff teams can usually sleepwalk to the postseason, someone is going to implement the obvious benefit of load management. It may have crept in late last season… McDavid missed eight games in April with a lower-body injury. With a playoff spot secured, he was not rushed back, coasting to his 100th point in the season finale against the lowly San Jose Sharks. Leon Draisaitl, with the Rocket Richard Trophy locked, missed Edmonton’s final seven games with an undisclosed injury. He was fit enough to play the Oilers’ first playoff game, logging two points in 22:02. After leading NHL forwards in average ice time (22:47), reigning MVP Nathan MacKinnon sat the final three games with an undisclosed injury. It may have cost him the scoring title — he lost by five points to Nikita Kucherov — but ensured MacKinnon was well-rested for the postseason. While these might not be random Tuesdays in January, three of the league’s biggest stars may have quietly started a trend last spring. They were good with recovering slowly for the greater good. Goaltenders are already ahead of the curve to maximize performance — only five started 60 games last year. Will these two extra games, combined with a recurring international slate, finally push sport science in hockey to its inevitable conclusion? 4. The NHL product will get watered down. Logically, the longer the season, the less important each game becomes. The new CBA is effectively telling us that by adding to the calendar. It’s not good for entertainment purposes. Here’s why: Even if players don’t sit out, there is another consequence … they just don’t play as hard (gasp). Again, it’s two games. But we all know that feeling when you see your favorite team play the first minute of its first April playoff game. The elevated speed and physicality on that opening dump in where you lean toward the TV and nod at your buddy? This is what we give up with more games. Like you or I, athletes only have so much to give in a week, a month or a year. With ongoing talk of further expansion, more teams spread out talent. More games spread out intensity, further diluting the product. 5. The cap is already rising significantly. In the last decade, when the salary cap rose modestly — or not at all during the pandemic years — adding games to the schedule was a defendable lever to pull. Wealthy owners and athletes or not, things were ugly in the not-too-distant past. When would fans return to arenas? How much escrow were the players facing? Would league economics ever get back on track? While many dollars were lost from COVID, the rising salary cap tells a story of a league confident in economic resurgence. The cap ceiling is set to rise 29% from this past season by 2027-28. We saw the first signs of player compensation boosts in July as teams and player agents stickhandled their new reality. While free agents always get paid, they were paid this offseason given the generous cap space. Adding to the schedule as the cap quickly climbs feels like missing the forest through the trees. Conclusion: Adding two games to the calendar may not bring mass injuries, load management and a tired product overnight. But tipping points are difficult to identify in the moment. The new schedule also messes with recordkeeping and milestones, among other statistical issues. Much-needed labor peace is a win for anyone in hockey, yet even the biggest superfan would have to admit the season runs excessively long. At best, the NHL and NHLPA have taken a shortsighted risk. At worst, it could deliver a host of negative, unintended consequences.
Penn State QB Drew Allar gets candid about team's struggles against top opponents
It is no secret that Penn State has struggled to win big games under head coach James Franklin. While the Nittany Lions have finished with double-digit wins in six of the past nine seasons, including a 13-3 season in 2024 that culminated with a loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals, they have struggled to beat quality opponents. Quarterback Drew Allar, who enters the 2025 season with the fifth-shortest odds (+1600) to win the Heisman Trophy, per FanDuel, was honest about Penn State's lack of success during his appearance at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday. "We definitely need to get over the hump," Allar said, per ESPN's Jake Trotter. "There's no question about it." Penn State is only 4-20 against top-10 opponents under Franklin, although the three losses last season were all by one score. Allar is 23-6 as a starter, but threw a costly interception against Notre Dame that ultimately led to the game-winning field goal from the Fighting Irish. With experience on its side and lofty expectations entering the season as the No. 1-ranked team in ESPN's offseason poll, Allar pointed to better execution as a key to Penn State's success. "We definitely need to find different ways to come out with different results in those games," Allar said. "We haven't really been blown out of the water by any team. ... it's just about execution. ... finding those areas to make one or two more plays throughout those games. ... That's going to be our focus." One key for Penn State is the return of its two leading rushers from last season, Kaytron Allen (1,108 yards) and Nicholas Singleton (1,099 yards), who combined for 20 TDs. That experience, along with Allar's improved accuracy (66.5%) and career-high 3,327 passing yards from 2024, gives the Nittany Lions a lot of upside going into 2025. Allar did have an uptick in interceptions (eight) and was sacked 19 times last season, which are two concerning areas, especially against top-ranked opponents. That must improve for Penn State to reverse course and finally win meaningful games. For now, the focus is on its lack of success in those games under Franklin. If Penn State can execute and not beat itself, perhaps one of those games will eventually go its way. Until then, it will face the same questions as it looks to put its past struggles in big games behind it.
Free-agent profile: Why is this former Stanley Cup champion still unsigned?
It’s difficult to think of another active player who has had his career derailed by injuries more than Robby Fabbri. A former first-round selection of the St. Louis Blues back in the 2014 NHL Draft, Fabbri’s only season with 70 or more games played came back during his rookie campaign during the 2015-16 season. Despite his multiple ACL surgeries, Fabbri has shown flashes of being a capable and even above-average tertiary scorer at the NHL level. Still, even though he’s only 29 years old, there’s little chance of Fabbri becoming a consistent top-six winger anymore. Unfortunately for Fabbri’s earning power, he is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. Again hampered by injuries, Fabbri finished the 2024-25 season with eight goals and 16 points in 44 games for the Anaheim Ducks. It was his lowest output since scoring an identical amount in 2022-23 with the Detroit Red Wings, in 21 fewer games. Stats 2024-25: 44 GP, 8 G, 8 A, 16 PTS, -6, 20 PIMS, 65 shots, 16:12 ATOI, 42.8 CF% Career: 442 GP, 106 G, 110 A, 216 PTS, -95, 203 PIMS, 737 shots, 15:05 ATOI, 46.4 CF% Potential suitors He’s not much of a defensive asset as evidenced by his -95 career rating and 90.1 on-ice save percentage. Given that, any team signing Fabbri this offseason will assuredly view him as an option to increase the team’s overall scoring on the fringes. This means that any team with an open roster spot, is looking to add some scoring, and has a readily available insurance option, should injuries shorten his season again, could offer Fabbri a contract this summer. Teams like the San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Boston Bruins, New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks all make sense in some manner or another to add the 2018-19 Stanley Cup champ. Projected contract Unfortunately, Fabbri’s most recent string of injuries has cost him most of, if not all, of his bargaining power. After earning a $4M salary from the Red Wings and Ducks the past two seasons, Fabbri is destined for a league-minimum prove-it offer. Given that most teams have addressed their scoring needs this offseason, or are expecting younger prospects to make bigger steps next season, Fabbri may have to wait until training camp in September for a professional tryout, or have the unfortunate reality of waiting for another player to get injured.
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