The Rookie
ABC
The Rookie is going international. For the first time in the show’s eight-season run, some cast members from the beloved ABC police procedural left the scenic backdrop of Los Angeles to film a high-stakes mission abroad. But why exactly are John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), his wife Bailey Nune (Jenna Dewan), and Nyla Harper (Mekia Cox) in Prague, Czech Republic, with corrupt lawyer Monica Stevens (Bridget Regan)?
Read on for everything you need to know about the next season of The Rookie, including its release date, plot, cast — and a quick tease from TV Guide’s upcoming interview with creator and showrunner Alexi Hawley, which will be released after the premiere on January 6. For a refresher about what happened in the Season 7 finale, click here. (You can also click here to read Eric Winter‘s thoughts on what’s next for “Chenford.”)
Everything you need for winter TV:
When does The Rookie Season 8 premiere?
The Rookie will make its long-awaited return on Tuesday, Jan. 6. Much like last season, the show will serve as the nightcap for a night of excellent ABC procedurals this winter, following in the footsteps of Will Trent (which will debut its fourth season) and High Potential (which will be returning from its midseason break). All three shows, which will each produce 18 episodes this season, will continue to stream the next day on Hulu.
Is there a trailer for The Rookie Season 8?
While the network has yet to release a formal trailer (as is customary for its returning drama series), ABC has released a short teaser for the new season of The Rookie. There is not a lot to go off of right now, but the teaser reveals that the LAPD has agreed to help the FBI track down terrorist targets.
What will happen in The Rookie Season 8?
ABC’s official synopsis for Season 8 reads: “John Nolan, once the oldest rookie in the LAPD, now uses his life experience, determination and sense of humor to keep up with rookies 20+ years his junior. John and the team must navigate the intense, unpredictable nature of their jobs and personal challenges, while uplifting the next generation of first responders.”
Heading into the eighth season of The Rookie, Hawley thought about how he wanted to take his show into new territory — both literally and figuratively.
“Once I was like, ‘I want to go somewhere for the premiere,’ it became a conversation about where, which is both a story and a budgetary conversation, just to be totally transparent,” Hawley told TV Guide. “You’re like, ‘Where are tax breaks? Where’s the dollar strong?’ And all that kind of stuff. Because at the end of the day, we absorbed this trip into our budget. We didn’t ask for [more] money for this, so we couldn’t go crazy, but Prague immediately jumped out as such a cinematic city. It obviously feels very different from Los Angeles, and it could not have been a better experience.”
Set only a few days after the events of the Season 7 finale, the Season 8 premiere will see Nolan, Harper and, yes, even Bailey teaming up with FBI agent Matthew Garza (Felix Solis) in Prague to take down a notorious arms dealer who works out of multiple cities and countries. Monica, who was somehow able to broker an immunity deal with the U.S. government in the finale after top-secret intelligence was stolen from the NSA, will be part of that sting operation. Meanwhile, the rest of the police officers will stay put to stop the arms dealer’s operations in Los Angeles.
While viewers will have to wait to see how long this operation will take (and how long the officers will have to work with Monica), the action will eventually return to responding to calls in the City of Angels, where Hawley promises plenty of action in a season that feels more “supersized” than usual.
“I think it’s a really dynamic season,” Hawley teased. “We challenge everybody. I think marriages will be strained — not Harper and James. Obviously, we went through that last season [with James almost being shot and killed]. But I think stuff’s going to come up for several of our other couples, both professionally and personally.”
Over the years, viewers have gotten a little more insight into Tim’s family life. He began the series while estranged from his ex-wife Isabel (Mircea Monroe). His physically abusive father Tom (James Remar) finally appeared in a pivotal episode of Season 4, in which Tim bade a painful farewell to his old man on his deathbed. Tim’s sister, Gennifer (Peyton List), has appeared in a few seasons, most recently in last season’s “Wildfire” episode.
But viewers, and Winter himself, have been clamoring to see Tim’s mother for years. They will finally get their wish in Season 8. “We’re going to see Tim’s mom this season for the first time, which is exciting,” Hawley revealed. “It took us a little while to try and land on who that might be. I don’t want to spoil who we got, but we got somebody amazing to play the part.”
Here are some more quick, non-spoilery tidbits that we can reveal from our latest conversation with Hawley:
Aaron Thorsen (Tru Valentino) — who transferred to the North Hollywood Division between Seasons 6 and 7 to get a fresh start away from the fallout from his former therapist’s manipulations — will make his long-awaited return this season, but Hawley declined to specify how many episodes he will appear in. Valentino is no longer part of the series regular cast.
There are no immediate plans to bring in a new rookie to replace Seth Ridley (Patrick Keleher), the chronic liar whose leg was amputated after being caught in a shootout last season. “I think at least at the top half of the season, Miles [played by Deric Augustine] is our rookie. The reality is that recruit classes only graduate every six months, so it’s organic that you don’t immediately get a new rookie if you need one.”
There will be another Valentine’s Day episode this season, but no other holiday-themed episodes are planned at this time. Unfortunately, that means there will be no April Fool’s hijinks this year. “It’s weird to do holiday or event episodes after the fact, to me,” Hawley said. “So April Fool’s, we just happened to land on it last season, which is why we embraced it. We didn’t this season.”
More on Hulu:
So… is Tim going to ask Lucy to move in with him?
The question on everyone’s lips every season is, what is happening with “Chenford”? After a season of casual hook-ups complicated by the continued heartache of a messy (and controversial) break-up, the former lovebirds were seemingly on track to get back together after Lucy passed the sergeant’s exam with flying colors in the penultimate episode of Season 7.
After beginning the show as rookie and training officer, respectively, Chen and Bradford are now both equals at the LAPD. But wanting to put Lucy’s promotion into action almost immediately, Lt. Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones) assigned Lucy to the dreaded night shift, where she was forced to oversee the so-called “Dream Team,” a group of officers who would spend most shifts sleeping in their parked cruisers.
Working opposite shifts was admittedly a change of pace for both Lucy and Tim, who would often see each other at the station like ships passing in the night. But after his close friend, Det. Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz), urged him to remind Lucy that he still envisions a future with her, Tim decided to take matters into his own hands, surprising Lucy one morning in her own kitchen with a spread of her favorite comfort foods. He then proceeded to ask her to move in with him — only to discover that she had fallen asleep on the couch.
“She’s a sergeant now, there’s no line of command [issue], and I think Tim has realized over the season what he gave up and that he’s trying to be a better person, and feels like they lost out on and missed a lot of time together,” Winter explained to TV Guide at the Disney upfront blue carpet in May. “So I think this is his way of trying to speed things [up], move things along in a faster way, to get to know each other like that and see how compatible they really are.”
Speaking with TV Guide after the finale, Hawley confirmed that Lucy and Tim have “definitely turned a corner.” But “I think they still need to have the talk, the conversation. I don’t want to rob them of that, but I think we’re almost there,” he said at the time.
TV Guide cannot confirm when that conversation will happen in Season 8, but needless to say, Tim is now much more aware of what he stands to lose when he and Lucy are working together in the field. “I think Tim as a person and as a police officer would always have his fellow officers’ back. He would go above and beyond. He would do whatever. But, of course, there’s a depth of feeling there [with Lucy],” Hawley said recently. “There’s a vulnerability to having Lucy running around in danger. And there’s a moment midway through the season where that gets challenged again in a really powerful way. So I think his heart’s more on the sleeve, for sure.”
The Rookie Season 8 cast
In addition to Deric Augustine, who was promoted between seasons, all of the series regulars from last season will be returning this season:
The Rookie Season 8 creator and crew
The Rookie was created by Alexi Hawley, who continues to serve as executive producer and showrunner (and is currently working on a pilot for a new Rookie spin-off starring Jay Ellis). Series lead Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Mark Gordon, Bill Norcross, Brynn Malone, Moira Kirland, Bill Roe, and Jon Steinberg also serve as executive producers.
Past coverage of The Rookie
Ahead of the new season, catch up on all of TV Guide’s coverage of The Rookie during Seasons 6 and 7:
Where to watch The Rookie
The Rookie is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ with a subscription. New episodes are typically available the day after they air on ABC.