The Rookie Season 5 finale certainly kept us on the edges of our seats. We are ready for The Rookie Season 6, but we won’t get it just yet.
Eyes are on the return of Nathan Fillion’s John Nolan. The previous episode was a big one, but that wasn’t surprising when you consider that it was the Season 5 finale.
With that in mind, it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that The Rookie Season 6 will not premiere in May 2023. We don’t see big shows premiere this time of year. ABC is likely holding this show until the fall.
However, there is a lot of uncertainty right now. We know Season 6 will happen, but there are factors that could work against a fall return.
When will The Rookie Season 6 premiere on ABC?
Usually, we would be pretty confident in saying that The Rookie Season 6 would premiere in the fall. We’d even say within the last couple of weeks of September 2023. That’s the usual time frame for a fall show.
It’s not that we think ABC will move this top drama from its fall slate. It’s actually linked to the potential writer’s strike. At the time of writing this, the writer’s strike could still happen. No decisions have been made. If the strike does happen, it’s going to put everything on hold. There is even talk that post-production work will stop in support of the writers.
This was why early renewals were so important this year. It would allow some scripts to be written, meaning that filming could get started. If production and post-production come to a halt in support of the writers, having the scripts ready won’t matter too much except for getting straight on with filming as soon as the strike is over.
The problem is we have no idea what sort of knock-on effect this could have. It would depend on how long the strike goes on for and just how much is affected. We could see The Rookie Season 6 delayed due to this potential strike.
The Rookie is available to stream on Hulu.