‘Last Man Standing’: Kristin Baxter Reveals She’s Pregnant in Season 8 Premiere

Last Man Standing returned for Season 8 on Thursday night with a big revelation. Kristin, played by Amanda Fuller, is pregnant again, meaning the Baxter family is about to grow. This news was welcomed by Mike (Tim Allen) and Vanessa (Nancy Travis), especially since it comes under very different circumstances than her first pregnancy, but it caused a brief rift between Kristin and Mandy (Molly McCook).

In “No Parental Guidance,” Vanessa told Mike she was suffering from empty nest syndrome, now that all three girls are out of the house. At the end of last season, Mandy and Kyle (Christoph Sanders) finally got their own apartment, and Eve (Kaitlyn Dever) is still at the air force academy. Mike decided to have all three daughters over for dinner. When Vanessa served her daughters Champagne Kristin refused to drink, which surprises everyone. Eve joked about Kristin being an alcoholic, which Kristin said she is not.

“Exactly what an alcoholic would say,” Mandy chimed in.

“Maybe there’s another reason why I’m not drinking,” Kristin hinted.

“You’re already drunk?” Mandy asked.

“Kristin, are you…” Vanessa began.

“Pregnant!” Kristin excitedly finished. “Almost four months. Surprise!”

“I swear to God, I knew it,” Mike said.

While everyone was happy, this angered Mandy, who has been open about her and Kyle’s struggles to get pregnant. Mandy was frustrated that Kristin did not discuss this with her before breaking the news, considering what she has been going through. She decided she could not even talk to Kristin, and Mandy stomped out.

Later on, the sisters were locked in the Outdoor Man office and had to hash things out. Mandy explained that she was hurt by Kristin’s decision to tell the whole family all at once, instead of telling her first. Kristin reminded her about how she was the first person to know about a previous pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage. So she decided to wait a little longer to reveal the news this time, and it just came out during the dinner. Mandy decided to have an announcement do-over, which helped smooth things over.

“I can’t wait to be pregnant now, so we can go through it together,” Mandy said.

“Yeah, it’s a blast,” Kristin said sarcastically.

Kristin’s pregnancy comes at a very different time in her life. She and now-husband Ryan (Jordan Masterson) were in high school when Boyd (Jet Jurgensmeyer) was born. Now, Kristin is running the restaurant at Outdoor Man and Ryan is running the marijuana dispensary Mike’s father (the late Robert Forster) opened.

The reason why Kristin is now pregnant in the show is because Fuller was pregnant in real life during production. She and husband Matthew Bryan Feld welcomed their first child in November.

“I’ve been on enough shows where you try to hide it, and it really doesn’t work too well,” Last Man Standing showrunner Kevin Abbott told TVLine.

Abbott later explained that this season will see the family joking about the different circumstances surrounding pregnancy number two. Another episode sees “Kristin and the entire family delighting in the fact that this time around, they actually get to walk into church and say, ‘Hey, we’re pregnant!’ because she’s married and she’s got a career, as opposed to the first time [when she was a teenager and had Boyd out of wedlock],” Abbott said.

Last Man Standing airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

Photo credit: Michael Becker/Fox