Beth Behrs Joins Shifting Gears Season 3 for 2 Broke Girls Reunion With Kat Dennings

Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs are officially sharing the small screen again, and somewhere Max Black is probably already making a joke about it.

Nine years after 2 Broke Girls ended its six season run on CBS, Behrs is set to guest star alongside her former costar in the Season 3 premiere of ABC’s Shifting Gears. The casting reunites the actresses who spent six seasons playing unlikely best friends Max Black and Caroline Channing, and while this is not the revival fans have spent years asking for, we will happily take the reunion.

Behrs will play Dr. Johnson, an emergency room doctor who treats Dennings’ Riley after she suffers a back injury. That means Max and Caroline are unfortunately not reopening their cupcake business, but after nearly a decade without Dennings and Behrs sharing a sitcom screen, seeing the two trading lines again should be enough to get longtime 2 Broke Girls fans watching.

The reunion is also happening behind the scenes. Shifting Gears showrunner and executive producer Michelle Nader previously served as an executive producer and co showrunner on 2 Broke Girls, making Behrs’ guest appearance a mini reunion for more than just the actresses.

2 Broke Girls premiered on CBS in 2011 and followed Max and Caroline, two women from very different backgrounds who became friends while working together at a Brooklyn diner. Max was the sarcastic, street smart waitress while Caroline was the formerly wealthy socialite attempting to adjust after losing her fortune. Their eventual plan to launch a cupcake business became a running storyline throughout the comedy’s six seasons.

CBS canceled the sitcom in 2017 after more than 130 episodes, leaving fans without much closure for Max and Caroline. There have been occasional conversations about whether the series could return someday, but nothing has materialized. Behrs showing up on Dennings’ current sitcom certainly is not a revival, although ABC clearly knows exactly what it is doing by putting these two back in the same episode.

Behrs is coming off another lengthy sitcom run after starring as Gemma Johnson on CBS’ The Neighborhood for eight seasons. The comedy concluded its run in May, meaning her next sitcom appearance will bring her directly across from the costar she spent six years working alongside before joining The Neighborhood. Talk about television bringing things full circle.

Shifting Gears stars Tim Allen as Matt Parker, the widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop whose life changes when his estranged daughter Riley and her children move into his home. Dennings stars as Riley, with Seann William Scott, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, Maxwell Simkins and Barrett Margolis rounding out the main cast.

The ABC comedy has also developed a habit of turning its guest casting into sitcom reunion territory. Allen has already reunited with former Home Improvement costars Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning, while his Last Man Standing costar Nancy Travis has also appeared. Apparently Shifting Gears has quietly decided that giving sitcom fans reunions is part of the job description, and we are not complaining.

Now it is Dennings’ turn. No, Max and Caroline are not officially back, and nobody has announced that the cupcake business is reopening anytime soon. But Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs sharing a sitcom screen again after nine years? For 2 Broke Girls fans, that is a pretty sweet consolation prize.

Shifting Gears Season 3 will premiere in 2027 on ABC.