‘Last Man Standing’ Season 9 Premiere Hit With Slight Delay

Last Man Standing Season 9 is still set to begin airing in January, but the season premiere has been hit with a slight delay. According to TV Line, Last Man Standing‘s final season will debut at 9:30 p.m. ET, which is one hour later than was initially announced. The episode will still premiere on Sunday, Jan. 3, so luckily, fans won’t have to wait too much longer for the new season of the beloved sitcom.

Fox first announced in October that Season 9 would be the final outing for the sitcom. “I’ve been one lucky dude to have been part of Last Man Standing,” series star Tim Allen said in a statement at the time. “I so appreciate the incredible support from our fans over this near decade of work. As we approach the ninth season, I just admire and feel grateful for all the hard work our wonderful cast and crew have done. We had all considered to end the show after last season, but together with Fox, we decided to add a year so we could produce a full season to create the gentle and fun goodbye. I’m looking forward to a memorable and hilarious final season.”

While the show’s return is reason for cheers and celebration now, there was a time earlier this year that its future was quite uncertain. The show had to shut down production in March, after the coronavirus first began spreading around the nation. The show had not filmed its season finale, which was the only episode that needs to be shot. However, ahead of the filming day, the cast was told that they could not return to set.

“I don’t know what we’re doing,” actress Amanda Fuller, who plays Kristin in the show, said in an exclusive interview with PopCulture in April. “Nobody really knows what’s happening, if we’re going to be able to go back and finish it.” Fuller later added, “If not, I guess we’re cut short an episode, which is really a bummer because the season finale was a really special one this year. I’m hoping that we get an opportunity to film it.”

“We have a lot of people over the age of 60 in our crew,” Fuller went on to say. “A lot of them are from Home Improvement with Tim because he’s so loyal, he likes to use the same crew whenever he can, and so we just felt this responsibility to make sure that they were safe and protected, especially nobody really knew what this thing was, well, is. It just was getting worse and worse.”

She then added, “They were really trying to hold on and make it happen because we only had two days left to shoot. That was it. It was like home stretch.” Thankfully, however, Last Man Standing was later renewed for a ninth and final season, with will air next month. Hulu subscribers can catch up on the first eight seasons now, before Season 9 debuts.