'The Rookie' Renewed For Season 8 At ABC

Nathan Fillion’s John Nolan may be getting older, but the cops are staying the same age as The Rookie has been renewed for Season 8.

It comes as part of a slew of renewals for ABC, which also revealed that it is bringing back Grey’s Anatomy for Season 22, 9-1-1 for its ninth season and third on ABC, Will Trent for Season 4 and Shifting Gears for its second season.

The move comes after ABC previously handed out renewals to High Potential for a second season and Abbott Elementary for a fifth season.

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All of these shows will join 9-1-1: Nashville as part of the Disney-owned network’s 2025/26 slate. Doctor Odyssey remains on the bubble.

The Rookie has been buoyed by recent ratings growth; last month, the show drew its largest audience – 8.25M after three days – since an episode in its fifth season in January 2023. The cop drama has also been performing well on streamer Hulu.

The show, which is expected to have 18 episodes, per sources, follows John Nolan, once the oldest rookie in the LAPD, who has used his life experience, determination and sense of humor to keep up with rookies 20 years his junior. Now recovering from a gunshot wound and feeling the effects of his age, John and the team welcome two new rookies and continue the hunt for two dangerous escaped prisoners who have very personal vendettas.

New rookies Deric Augustine, who plays Miles Penn, and Patrick Keleher, who plays Seth Ridley, join Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper, Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez, Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Wade Grey, Melissa O’Neil as Lucy Chen, Eric Winter as Tim Bradford, Jenna Dewan as Bailey Nune, Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers and Lisseth Chavez as Celina Juarez.

It’s not clear whether The Rookie will remain as a midseason show; the first two seasons of the show, which premiered in 2018, aired in October and September, respectively, before moving to January in 2020, largely as a result of the Covid pandemic. Seasons four and five premiered in September, before it moved to midseason with a shortened sixth season – thanks, in part due to the strikes – with season seven getting a January premiere with an 18-episode order. It’s not clear how many episodes The Rookie will have for season eight.

The Rookie is also the subject of a new spinoff in the works from creator Alexi Hawley. It would be the show’s second after The Rookie: Feds, which ran for one season.

The show is produced by Lionsgate Television in partnership with 20th Television. Hawley exec produces alongside Mark Gordon, Nathan Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Bill Norcross and Brynn Malone.