By Michaela Gordoni
THE ROOKIE isn’t going anywhere.
ABC renewed the show for its ninth season. It’s longevity is due, in part, to its success through TikTok clips — a hit with the under 18 crowd. The show is ABC’s third longest-running drama after GREY’S ANATOMY (even THE ROOKIE can’t beat its 23 seasons) and NYPD BLUE.
“So far, the mindset across the board is, as Melissa O’Neil said, ‘Let’s GREY’S ANATOMY this thing,’” said creator Alexi Hawley. “I think everybody is having a good time, it’s a cast that truly loves each other and enjoys coming to work, they get to do fun stuff every day. And at this point, heading into Season 9, I don’t feel like we’re anywhere near out of ideas.”
“Part of that is we’re not a procedural where I have to come up with a body drop every week. We really can reinvent ourselves a lot, and that helps with not feeling like you’re running out of story,” he said. “Every time you bring in a new rookie or a new character, that also changes things. So, yeah, I would do this until they turn the lights out.”
Season 8’s premiere was the among the top five ABC premieres of all time.
Related: ABC’s THE ROOKIE Kicked Off Newest Season With Exciting Twist
“It’s been a great season, I’ll put it that way,” Hawley said. “I feel that our popularity has never been higher, which is great; we spoke at the beginning of the season about what going to Prague was like in terms of seeing the international appeal of our show as well. I’ve been feeling like we’ve been putting out really strong episodes all season, and people have been showing up.”
Something that helps renewals is an LA tax credit — the ninth season was awarded $34.9 million by the city, which is more than twice the credit the show got for Season 7.
“As a sad comparison, I will say we did not get the tax credit for Feds, which also shot in L.A. and so that show was very hard to make for the money to try and make it an action-y show, to try and be out as much as we were on ROOKIE,” Hawley said. “It was really, really hard. We ended up having to lose our ninth day to try and balance it. So, yeah, the tax credit makes a huge difference to how film-friendly LA can be.”
He thinks the show’s spontaneity pulls people in.
“Is it going to be a big fun event in the episode? Is it going to be more comedic or romantic or scary? I like switching things up, I like that sort of energy of it,” Hawley said.
Though he likes to switch things up, he’s never killed off a main character.
“You never say never. At the end of the day, one of the things that I’ve always tried to lean into in the show is that you have to do the most dramatic thing possible when you can, even if it’s hard on the audience, like breaking Chenford up a few seasons ago, people were not fans of that,” he said.
“But I felt like it was important to do that for the story. No, there’s no plan to do anything crazy right now, but never say never.
As for Season 8’s finale, Hawley said it might leave fans on their toes.
“I would say yes, there might be a cliffhanger at the end, potentially,” he said. There are only a few episodes left in the series, which will end in mid-May.
The last episode, which aired on Monday, featured two guest stars from SUPERNATURAL: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. The next episode comes out on April 20.
Read Next: From THE ROOKIE to WATSON: These Shows Will Premiere Mid-Season
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +1Share:
– Content: +3