The Rookie is on the move… again. ABC‘s hit crime procedural starring Nathan Fillion will premiere its ninth season on Jan. 6 in a new time period on a new night, Wednesday at 9 PM. It will serve as a lead-in to new spinoff The Rookie: North, headlined by Jay Ellis, which will debut on the same date and air Wednesdays at 10 PM.
The news was revealed in a sizzle reel played at New York Comic-Con Sunday which provided a first glimpse at the shows’ new seasons, including John Nolan (Fillion) & Co.’s mission to rescue LAPD squad members Tim (Eric Winter) an Lucy (Melissa O’Neil) who were kidnapped in the Season 8 finale cliffhanger.
During the Rookie universe NYCC panel, Alexi Hawley, creator, executive producer and showrunner of both series, announced that Troian Bellisario, Dulé Hill and Molly Kunz will guest star in The Rookie Season 9 as a new rookie, Watch Commander and EMT, respectively, and confirmed that Andy Allo will guest star in the premiere season of The Rookie: North.
This marks the eighth time period change for stalwart The Rookie which started its eight season in the Tuesday 10 PM slot before being relocated to Mondays at 10 PM to make room for ABC’s latest light character-based procedural R.J. Decker. (As revealed at Comic-Con, the Season 9 premiere will be a two-parter. )
The Rookie and The Rookie: North will now run in a block on Wednesday, presumably following ABC’s comedy block of Abbott Elementary and Shifting Gears. ABC is yet to announce its midseason schedule but Wednesday 8-9 PM has been traditionally its comedy block, with Abbott Elementary as the anchor with a 22-episode full-length season while Scrubs and Shifting Gears both have limited-run orders, one for the fall, one for midseason.
ABC was expected to pair The Rookie and The Rookie: North together, a practice regularly employed by networks in expanding franchises that helps to launch new offshoots and allows for seamless crossovers. That is in the cards here. We already knew that Fillion is making an appearance in The Rookie: North pilot, Hawley revealed on the panel that Winter and O’Neil also will be in the spinoff, which is set in the Pacific Northwest.
Bellisario will recur on The Rookie as Stephanie Monroe, a thirty-something, single-mother looking to reinvent her life by becoming a police officer. She will be on the opposite side than her character on Amazon’s On Call, who was a training officer with her own rookie. Bellisario, who directed an episode of The Rookie last season, will be partnered with Nolan, and Fillion called her his most favorite rookie to train so far.
Psych alum Hill will guest star as Lt. Hughes, a distracted, thirty-year veteran of the job trying to navigate his new job as Watch Commander while his personal life is in growing turmoil. Hughes will likely be filling in while Watch Commander Tim Bradford is abducted.
Kunzwill guest star as Quinn, a small town girl determined to become an EMT in Los Angeles.
As Deadline reported, Allo will recur on The Rookie: North as Brooke, a warm, smart, attractive, and effortlessly charming first-year ER resident who quickly forms a connection with a rookie police officer (Ellis).
The teaser, which you can watch below, shows Tim and Lucy in captivity, with Tim being tortured, and the dangerous rescue operation.
“We’re risking everything we love to save them,” Nolan says.
The teaser also introduces Ellis’ Alex Holland, who is encountering some of the same problems Nolan did while embarking on a new career as a cop midlife but in a leafier, more rural environment — and the same conviction.
“It’s what I’ve been missing all these years, doing something that matters,” Alex says at the end.
Both The Rookie, which is set and films in Los Angeles, an The Rookie: North, set in the Pacific Northwest and shooting in Vancouver, air on ABC and stream next day on Hulu. They are produced by Lionsgate Television in partnership with 20th Television.