‘Last Man Standing’: Mike Tries to Keep Jen’s Arrival a Secret in New Sneak Peek

Last Man Standing fans are in for a treat! On Thursday’s episode of the popular FOX show titled “Jen Again,” Mike (Tim Allen) has a little surprise for his wife, Vanessa (Nancy Travis). However, keeping this a secret is going to be a challenge.

In the sneak peek, Mike tells Kyle (Christoph Sanders) that they’re expecting a visit from the family’s former exchange student, Jen (Krista Marie Yu), but wants to surprise Vanessa with this news. In the scene, Vanessa walks in and asks what the two are “whispering about” and in efforts to not break the secret, Kyle panics a little. He says, “Just, no one’s visiting ever …” before Mike distracts his wife and slaps Kyle in the throat causing him to cough. She gets back up and asks if he’s okay, and he says, “I’m okay” as the audience laughs.

Now that Last Man Standing is it its final season, executive producer Kevin Abbott told Entertainment Tonight that bringing Marie Yu back on set was a difficult challenge due to COVID-19. He detailed that shooting a show is already a huge hurdle to jump, but to add in more talent, runs a much higher risk. While the cast and crew want to make it a special season for fans, they’re trying to keep everyone as safe as possible. “We went into the season where I basically said, ‘Guys, we’re going to have to do most of the series with just the people we have,’ because bringing in people, there are too many variables,” he explained.

“We’re very conscious of trying to be safe on the set and everything. Anytime you introduce another person, you’re just running an extra risk. So the edict is if it’s a great story, yes, we’ll bring somebody in. Otherwise, can we tell the story with our people?” he continued. “The hoops are already much more difficult to jump through in order to get any show shot. Adding in another thing is very, very difficult. But again, that being said, we have had a couple of guest people already. If the story’s are great or if it’s Kaitlyn Dever, then we’ll have them on.”

Last Man Standing premiered in 2011 on ABC. After a few years of running on the Disney owned network, they moved over to Fox in 2018. Last Man Standing airs on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. PT/ET on Fox.