Hannah Leef knows she should be studying for midterms this week. But she has to also make time to watch her all-time favorite episode of The Rookie, an ABC procedural drama about Los Angeles cops. (That would be season two, episode eight.) The 15 year old, who lives in New England, calls the show her \u201chyperfixation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Leef first watched the entire series, which is currently in its eighth season, in three weeks. \u201cWhich is, like, not healthy,\u201d she admits. She keeps up with new episodes while constantly rewatching the series \u2013 which she\u2019s done 10 times now. She\u2019s hooked \u201cabout 12 or 13\u201d of her friends on The Rookie, and one of them ploughed through the entire series in a week: \u201cShe did not sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leef is not alone in her adoration. As the Los Angeles Times reported<\/a> last week, the network procedural has an unlikely fan base in young people. According to Nielsen data, it was the most-streamed<\/a> show among young people under 18 for all broadcast television series last year, beating out Abbott Elementary and High Potential (but not streaming only shows like Stranger Things). Dwayne Johnson recently took his preteen daughter, another superfan, on a tour of the show\u2019s set. Creator Alexi Hawley, who declined a request to comment for this article, told The Times that he\u2019s used to parents telling him how much their kids love the series.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an unlikely success story. In an era of TikTok and YouTube, teens have never watched old-school television less. According to Nielson data, 90% of kids\u2019 TV time comes from \u201cnon-traditional\u201d options (mostly streaming services). The Rookie is the type of police procedural that\u2019s been a network stalwart for generations \u2013 and yet zoomers love it.<\/p>\n But the Rookie\u2019s official TikTok page has over 2.9m followers (for comparison the official accounts for The White Lotus and The Last Of Us both have less than 150,000, Stranger Things has 8.1m). Many teens discover the show on social media first. Jade Amirah Lewis, a 16-year-old from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, first encountered the show on YouTube, where she watched a few clipped scenes. \u201cI noticed it actually has a vibe sort of like The Office,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt\u2019s very comical in some situations, but it also pans to more serious tones. You have time for every emotion in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis, who wants to be an FBI agent when she grows up, finds its procedural format comforting. Most of the drama gets wrapped up in a tight hour. \u201cThen you get to see it all over again next week,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n Fronted by gen X actor Nathan Fillion \u2013 who starred in Firefly, an early-aughts space drama that aired before these Rookie fans were born \u2013 the show centers around John Nolan, a divorced, middle-aged dad who uproots his life to become a LAPD officer. The oldest in his class, Nolan navigates generational divides with his fellow rookies while they serve on the force. There\u2019s a long, slow-burn romance between a rookie and her training officer but it\u2019s far from a rom com: in season two a killer kidnaps a cop, counting down the days until he murders her while the rest of the crew races to the rescue.<\/p>\n Superfan Jada Amirah Lewis. Photograph: Jada Amirah Lewis<\/p>\n Katie Campione, a senior television and labor reporter at Deadline, says that the show\u2019s popularity fits into a larger trend of younger audiences gravitating toward long running shows, many of which are decades old: Gilmore Girls, New Girl, Grey\u2019s Anatomy, Criminal Minds.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get to spend hundreds of hours with the same characters and get to know them,\u201d Campione said. \u201cYou just don\u2019t see that a lot nowadays on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n Mariah Smith, another young fan, runs a Rookie fan account on TikTok that boasts over 60,000 followers. Now 22, the Memphis college student started watching the series when she was 19. For years, she has never made plans on Tuesday nights, when the show airs. Smith has season tickets to her beloved NBA team, the Grizzlies. But when they played on Tuesdays, she\u2019d sell the tickets, so she could watch the show. (The Rookie recently changed time slots from Tuesday nights to Mondays, creating more NBA conflicts, a nightmare for Smith.)<\/p>\n But even though it\u2019s an appointment-to-view show, it doesn\u2019t necessarily take up too much brainspace, \u201cIt\u2019s easy to pay attention to it and do something else at the same time, whether that be scrolling on your phone or something else,\u201d says Campione.<\/p>\n One of the most surprising things about the show\u2019s popularity among young people is the show\u2019s positive portrayal of the police. Younger Americans are the most likely to distrust law enforcement<\/a> and network police procedurals have long been criticised as \u201ccopaganda\u201d intended to subtly shape viewers\u2019 attitudes.<\/p>\n