Nathan Fillion has been known to say that all of his TV series get cancelled, but the last one to meet that fate, Castle, ran for eight seasons on ABC before its awkward cancellation. Now Firefly‘s Cap’n Tightpants is back in a whole new uniform, in The Rookie TV show. Can the first season pass the muster that is the Nielsen ratings? Will The Rookie be cancelled or renewed for season two? Stay tuned. *Status update below.
An ABC comedy-drama, The Rookie stars Nathan Fillion, Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Titus Makin, Mercedes Mason, Melissa O’Neil, Afton Williamson, and Eric Winter. The story centers on John Nolan (Fillion), a small-town guy who, after a life-changing experience, decides to pursue his dream of being an LAPD officer. Now he’s the oldest rookie on the force, and the brass thinks he’s just having a midlife crisis. He’s got to keep up with his younger co-workers (not to mention young criminals) or he’ll risk lives. Maybe though, he can use the experience he’s gained with age, and the determination he has developed over the years, to make a real go of it. Either way, he’s got a secret weapon — his sense of humor.
The ratings are typically the best indication of a show’s likelihood of staying on the air. The higher the ratings (particularly in the 18-49 demo), the better the chances for survival. This chart will be updated as new ratings data becomes available — typically around 11:30am EST/8:30am PST. Refresh to see the latest.
4/17 update: You can see the latest night’s ratings in context.
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Note: These are the Live + Same Day Ratings which include “live” viewing plus delayed DVR viewing, up until 3am local time that same night. Ratings marked with an “*” are the fast affiliate ratings and will be updated with the Live+SD numbers when they are made available. Typically, networks get paid for C+3 ratings which includes DVR viewing within three days of the original airing when commercials are watched. Those numbers are rarely released to the press.
What do you think? Do you like The Rookie TV series? Should this ABC TV show be cancelled or renewed for a second season?
*5/10/19 update: ABC has renewed The Rookie TV show for a second season.
Love this show, shows the human side of police work. Please continue this series!
“Cute” show. But unrealistic in the way police treat people and of course politically correct all the way. Main character is chasing a gun toting store robber, robber runs into a house, holds a hostage and cop at bay, then runs upstairs turns and pulls a gun on the cop, and the cop shoots him once and kills him. Never happens that way. Never. Cop would have unloaded his magazine on the robber. It’s what they’re trained to do. Keep shooting until threat is definitely neutralized. Big investigation into the shooting…wouldn’t happen under those circumstances. Also Hollywood cleans up deaths… Read more »
love the show. Please don’t cancel
I love this show. Give it a chance. It’s worth it! Do not even think about canceling it…please!
The Rookie is quite a strange character driven TV series! Not exactly a hard hitting police drama but more of soap opera type show. Each main character has some sort of problem either with other officers and/or other persons that they are involved with. It is very hard to not change the channel or not stop watching it There are no clear cut black and white police work because everything is complicated by feelings and such! The sargeant does not like the 40 year old rookie and is mean to him because he the same age as the rookie. etc…… Read more »
I love it, it just gets better every episode. I am enjoying the interaction between the rookies and the cops who are training !! Keep it !!
I love it !!! Its getting better each episode, love the interaction between all the rookies and the cops who are training.
Fun show to watch. Love my nathan
I love The Rookie.
Would love them to renew the show.
Hopefully the writers, show how the fully fledged cops handle really difficult situations, so the new recruits know how to handle certain circumstances.
Regards some comment about how Nathan Fillion ‘destroyed’ Castle with his off screen antics etc.
He had every reason to think it was ‘his’ show, it was called Castle which was his last name.
IMO: When Richard & Kate got together, that was the start of the downhill spiral of the show.
It was rumoured that he didn’t read much of the Castle synopsis before accepting the role, if true, it might explain why he didn’t realise the intentions of the creator, Andrew Marlowe, that although the show was called “Castle” it wasn’t going to be all about him. I’ve also read that he apparently accepted the role in The Rookie without seeing a script, but lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice in the same place, is it.
I love the cast. Good writing. Great directing. Story lines are up to date. It would be cool to see a guest star here and there.
I get demographics (women and families) but the show is just too PC. A solid cop show was Southland on TnT.
Absolutely keep The Rookie. Excellent show with an excellent cast. Nathan Fillion is a standout and brings a depth of character to the show that many actors in prime time dramas fail to do.
The Rookie seems very unput together. Keep losing interest. A lot of nothing going on. Very disappointing. Nathan Fillion deserves better writing and cast.
I’m actually glad to hear this, since I won’t even tune in to the show because of the way Nathan Fillion’s role in effecting the cancellation of my beloved Castle. Although he was pretty to look at, it was the interaction with Kate that gave the show its grit. In expecting the show was all about him, he misjudged that his audience shared his own high self-regard. We were rather THEIR audience-=i.e.THEM!–, and he should have realized that as the reason for the series’ successful run–especially since he himself plays the “Poor-me-all-of-my-TV-shows-get-cancelled” card. Also, the dip in ratings conincided with… Read more »
The show is refreshing, I returned to law enforcement as an older rookie so I can relate, however, if writers continue going on the current premise of being idealist this show will fail. I hope they (writers) can get the rookie to balance how to process critical situations by not being the center of them. I hope the show can show police striving to be their best, while being empathetic. Hopefully the rookie can exceed. We need hero’s we can trust and look up to.
Hey, Joseph,
Although I am the author of the response to Mary Ann above, I must say that yours is a good piece of constructively critical advice that the network should pay attention to. As for myself, I cannot bring myself to watch it.
How can you envision a ‘hero’ on screen who you know in real life is not a good person?
The “being the center of them” seems to be the modus operandi of anything Fillion….more of the same “me” that was guilty of the loss of the Castle series. Alas! all the best…Michael
Well put. Thank you for your service as a police officer.
The ratings for this show are going to be awful, and it needs to be cancelled. The ratings for the last season of CASTLE were better than this.
I agree….and at least the last Castle ratings were trending upwards again with the reconciliation.
It needs to be cancelled as vindication for Stana Katic! (as well as Pamela Jones!)
I would be interested to hear what other Castle fans think/feel about whether this Rookie venue should even have a chance to live?
I assume you mean TAMALA Jones, aka Lividity Lanie.
I love the show but it would’ve been great to see Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic work together again.