Last Man Standing Sneak Peek: The Cards Are Stacked Against Mike

Ryan Schwartz

Mike Baxter knows when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em — but he knows next to nothing about Bridge.

TVLine has your exclusive first look at Thursday’s back-to-back episodes of Last Man Standing (Fox, 8/7c), in which Mike and Vanessa attempt to play Ed and Bonnie’s favorite card game. Mike struggles to make sense of the rules, then suggests that they all move on to something a bit less difficult.

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“Can’t we play something less complicated than Bridge? Like, why don’t we build a bridge?” he asks. “This is a nightmare. I’ve got a straight, a flush and blackjack.”

In the first episode, titled “Yours, Wine and Ours,” Mike struggles to balance his need for “me time” and finding common hobbies with Vanessa, while Kyle and Ryan mourn the passing of their favorite graphic novelist. Then in “You’ve Got Male (or Female),” Kristin entrusts Mike with her gender-reveal party, while Chuck and Joe turn Ed’s spare room into an oversized dollhouse for Bonnie.

Last Man Standing opened Season 8 on Jan. 2, christening its new Thursday-night time period with 5.2 million total viewers and a 0.9 rating, marking its best audience since March 8 and matching its May finale in the demo. (TVLine readers gave the first half-hour an average grade of “A-.”) Back-to-back episodes will continue through Jan. 16, before the Jason Biggs/Maggie Lawson comedy Outmatched assumes the 8:30 pm time slot on Jan. 23.

Press PLAY on the video above, then hit the comments with your reactions. (For additional scoop on LMS Season 8, click here.)

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