What better way to celebrate The Rookie finally returning, with its seventh season premiere just over a month away (January 7, 2025), than with the cast having fun? To promote the upcoming return, ABC has put together some of the show’s best blooper reels, and TV Insider can exclusively unveil the latest one. (The first one was on Nathan Fillion’s Instagram, and the next will be on Eric Winter’s.)
Watch the cast getting musical behind the scenes in the full video above.
“Our cast is such a joy – and they have such a good time on set – it just felt fun to show that side to everyone. And we happened to have a backlog of bloopers from several of our past seasons,” executive producer Alexi Hawley tells us. “It’s also the first time we haven’t aired in the fall and we’re all feeling that absence. So this was a way we could bring the show back into people’s lives while they wait for the first episode to air in January.”
Season 6 left off with three well-known enemies, Monica (Bridget Regan), Oscar (Matthew Glave), and Jason (Steve Kazee), on the run—and therefore threats to our characters. A few weeks will have passed between seasons in-show for The Rookie when Season 7 premieres. That’s “time for Nolan’s [Nathan Fillion] injury to heal enough for him to come back to work — although whether he’s fully ready is part of the storytelling in Episode 1,” teases Hawley. “Our fugitives are still at large when we come back, and we won’t find resolution right away (although there will be some false alarms along the way).”
The executive producer likens the premiere to “a bit of a purposeful re-pilot. We’re introducing two new rookies [played by Deric Augustine and Patrick Keleher] — which means our front row in roll call will now be full for the first time since Season 3. We definitely came into this season determined to keep moving forward, telling new stories, shaking things up where we could, while keeping the show as fun to watch as ever.”
Also a mix of the old and new? What’s to come for exes Tim (Eric Winter) and Lucy (Melissa O’Neil). “By the end of last season, Tim and Lucy had worked through a lot of the emotional damage Tim caused by blowing up their relationship. It was important to us to come into Season 7 with a sense of positivity, of them having gotten to a place where the old dynamics could start to kick back in — while they try and navigate whether there’s a way back to what they had,” previews Hawley.
What are you hoping to see in Season 7? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Rookie, Season 7 Premiere, Tuesday, January 7, 2025, 10/9c, ABC