ABC Renews 'The Rookie' For Sixth Season

The Nathan Fillion starring ABC drama, "The Rookie," has officially been renewed for a sixth season. ABC confirmed the news on Monday (Apr. 17) on the show's social media.

The following season will take the show to over 100 episodes.

https://twitter.com/therookie/status/1648071551512723459

The show is among ABC's Top 5 most-viewed scripted shows, and it's reportedly been great as a utility player for the network, per Deadline. The show has also been performing at No. 1 in its timeslot among Adults 18-49 since moving to Tuesday nights at 8:00 pm.

The series is produced by Entertainment One (eOne) as the lead studio and international distributor. It's co-produced with ABC Signature under Disney Television Studios. The series stars Fillion as John Nolan, a divorced man in his 40s who joins the Los Angeles Police Department. Throughout the show, Nolan has managed to graduate from being a probation officer to becoming a training officer for his Mid-Wilshire Division.

The show also stars Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Melissa O'Neil, Erik Winter, and Mekia Cox. In later seasons, Shawn Ashmore and Jenna Dewan joined the cast as regulars. Ashmore portrays attorney Wesley Evers, who later married Diaz's Angela Lopez, and they are currently expecting their second child in the series. Dewan describes Nolan's girlfriend, Bailey Nune, a firefighter and army reservist.

https://youtu.be/iCtPpiBYPps

In Season 5, Nolan and Bailey are currently engaged. Also, after multiple seasons of buildup, Winters' Eric Bradford and O'Neil's Lucy Chen have finally started dating and going out together. Bradford was Lucy's training officer during the show's first two seasons.

Season 5 has seen Nolan training his first rookie, Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez), a young woman who firmly believes in the supernatural and uses it as part of her police work. The fifth season finale of "The Rookie" is slated to air on May 2. Meanwhile, Flula Borg is set to return as Skip Tracer Randy on tomorrow's new episode.

Deadline also noted that ABC has been taking longer than usual for its TV renewals this season. The time has been used to evaluate several current series against the pilots for the limited slots available. Broadcast network programming budgets are reportedly in a tightening phase with the general decline of linear ratings. A potential writers' strike is looming with the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

https://twitter.com/therookie/status/1647993329865355266

Other shows that ABC has also renewed this season include "Grey's Anatomy" and "Abbott Elementary." "The Rookie: Feds," a spinoff of "The Rookie," is still up in the air for renewal, along with "Station 19," but Deadline reports that talks look promising for both those shows. "The Rookie: Feds" debuted its first season last September. "The Conners" reportedly needs to see the actor's deals renegotiated, which Deadline notes is a "pre-renewal ritual."

Deadline's report indicated that the forecast doesn't look good for "Big Sky," "Home Economics," and "Alaska Daily" getting new seasons.

"The Rookie" currently airs on Tuesday nights on ABC. The entire series is available to stream now on Hulu.