Okay, technically, The Rookie didn’t premiere in the fall for Season 6, but we’re not counting that. The new year was pretty much the fall as everything came back from the strike action throughout the summer. The Season 7 premiere will be the first purposely held until the midseason.
When ABC announced its fall 2024 lineup, there were a few shows missing. One of those was the cop dramedy The Rookie. We’ll have to wait until at least January 2025.
There’s no word on when exactly in the new year we’ll get the show. ABC says that we’ll have a straight run of episodes, so the exact premiere date will depend on the episode count. In some good news, production is still set to start in June, which does suggest more than 10 episodes, which is what we got in Season 6.
Why holding The Rookie Season 7 for the midseason could be a good thing
When ABC announced the decision to hold the season for the midseason, it was promoted as a good thing. And when we look at the reason why, we’re inclined to agree,
Look, we would love our favorite shows to return in the fall. The downside of a fall start is the breaks that come with it. We’re guaranteed one break at least at the end of the year as we get into the new year. Then there are usually other breaks when the new episodes return. We can end up with an on-off schedule, making it hard to track when episodes will air.
With a midseason start and a decent amount of episodes, it means no break in the schedule. Look at how Alert: Missing Persons Unit fans loved the second season. There were no breaks in the schedule, allowing for fans to just enjoy each Tuesday until the finales aired.
That’s what we get for The Rookie. We won’t tune in one week and find that the show isn’t on—making us wonder if there’s a problem with our TV. There’s no need to go to Hulu the next day and wonder why the episode hasn’t been uploaded yet because we didn’t realize it didn’t air the night before. Consistency is important for a successful TV series, and that’s what we’ll get without breaks in the schedule.
Plus, the midseason shows get away with having slightly lower ratings. As a show gets to its seventh season, the linear ratings do take a dip. ABC wants to keep the Nathan Fillion drama going, so a move to the midseason could help it.