ABC’s comedies Shifting Gears and Abbott Elementary opened their 2025-26 seasons with decent-sized audiences for their initial airings — and a big bump from streaming and other delayed viewing.

The two shows’ Oct. 1 season premieres added millions of viewers and each more than tripled their initial rating among adults 18-49 over seven days of cross-platform viewing. Abbott , in fact, grew by more than six times its opening number in the key ad-sales demographic.

After a week of streaming on Hulu, Disney+ and other platforms, plus DVR playback, Shifting Gears had 7.57 million viewers and a 1.17 rating among adults 18-49, equivalent to about 1.59 million people in the demo. The total audience grew 73 percent from 4.37 million for the Tim Allen-led show’s first airing on ABC, an

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