ABC Renews ‘The Rookie’ & ‘Fresh Off the Boat’
As usual, the Friday evening before Upfronts next week is providing a rollercoaster of emotion with renewal and cancellations coming at a pace. This one is some great news for Nathan Fillion fans, as ABC has picked up freshman cop drama ‘The Rookie‘ for a 2nd Season. They have also renewed comedy series ‘Fresh Off the Boat‘ for Season 6.
Written by ‘Castle’ and ‘The Following’ producer/writer Alexi Hawley, ‘The Rookie’ sees Fillion plays John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. Based on a true story, it sees the middle-aged Nolan uproot himself from his provincial, small-town life, and move to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming a cop. Joining the other rookie cops, most of which are 20 years younger than himself, he must navigate his way through the often dangerous, and sometimes humorous, new career choice, to make his second shot at life count.
The cast also includes ‘Dark Matter’ star Melissa O’Neil as Lucy, another rookie in the LAPD who is struggling with a domineering training officer and seems to be developing a budding romance with Nolan; Eric Winter (‘Rosewood’, ‘Secrets & Lies’) as Tim Bradford, the aforementioned domineering training officer; And Afton Williamson (‘The Night Of’, ‘Banshee’) as the newly promoted Talia Bishop, who is given the job of training Nolan.
Renewal had not been guaranteed here, as ‘The Rookie’ was sat right in the middle of ABC’s dramas live ratings-wise. However, it does do well on DVR catch up viewing, pulling in a larger crowd, and it seems that is a big enough audience to let the network renew it for Season 2.
Created by Nahnatchka Khan, and based on Chef Eddie Huang’s memoir of the same name, ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ is set in the mid-’90s and follows the story of 12-year-old, hip-hop loving Eddie (Hudson Yang) who has just moved to suburban Orlando from DC’s Chinatown with his parents. It’s a culture shock for his immigrant family as they set about pursuing the American Dream.
Rating for ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ are not all that strong ranking 11th out of the 12 ABC sitcoms. However, the rating are stable, and the show is in its 5th Season meaning it has enough episodes to be sold into cable syndication (basically, where ABC make money off it by selling all the episodes as boxset reruns to other networks), so there is still life in it yet.
In addition to these two shows, ABC also renewed freshman comedies ‘Bless This Mess’, which stars Dax Shepard and Lake Bell as a couple who move from the city to the country, and ‘Single Parents’, which follows a group of parents who lean on each other to help raise their kids while maintaining some semblance of personal lives. The also renewed Katy Mixon-led comedy ‘American Housewife’ for Season 4, but none of these yet have UK broadcasters. If you’d like to know more about ‘Bless This Mess’, go listen to this week’s Geektown Radio podcast where we interviewed Production Designer Melanie Jones about the series.
‘The Rookie‘ Season 1 is currently airing on Sky Witness in the UK. ‘Fresh Off the Boat‘ is a different matter… Seasons 1 to 3 aired on 5Star, although they took the 3rd Season on and off air so much it was hard to keep track! The 4th Season has now popped up on Amazon Prime, so it seems like they are now premiering the comedy. As to whether that means it will no longer turn up on 5Star is anyone’s guess. We’ll update you if we hear more!
