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Everything to Know About The Rookie Season 7

Especially: What's up with Chenford?!?!?

Max Gao
The Rookie

The Rookie

 Disney

The Rookie is finally reporting for duty again. More than seven months after airing its last episode, the beloved ABC police procedural will return in the new year for a jam-packed seventh season consisting of 18 episodes — and creator and showrunner Alexi Hawley promises that the show will return to its roots.

Read on for everything you need to know about the next season of The Rookie, including its release date, plot, cast — and a quick tease from TV Guide's upcoming interview with Hawley, which will be released after the second episode. For a refresher about what happened in the Season 6 finale, click here.

Winter TV schedules:

The Rookie Season 7 release date

The Rookie will make its long-awaited return on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and the premiere will consist of two parts. The show will serve as the nightcap for a night of excellent ABC procedurals this winter, following in the footsteps of High Potential (which is set to air its final six episodes) and Will Trent (whose new season will also consist of 18 episodes). All those shows will continue to stream the next day on Hulu.

The Rookie Season 7 trailer

While the network has yet to release a formal, 60-second trailer (as is customary for its returning drama series), ABC has released a couple teasers for the new season of The Rookie ahead of the holidays. The first 30-second teaser finds Lucy Chen (Melissa O'Neil), in the role of training officer, telling her new rookie about the everyday stress of being a cop. "Because if we lose control, bad things happen," she cautions.

A new 15-second TV spot showed Harper (Mekia Cox) warning officers about the dangers posed by Jason Wyler (Steve Kazee) — the ex-husband of Bailey Nunes (Jenna Dewan) — and Oscar Hutchinson (Matthew Glave), criminals who escaped from prison in the final moments of the Season 6 finale. John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) has plenty of reason to fear for his new wife's safety, as a car is seen rushing toward Bailey in the teaser.

What will happen in The Rookie Season 7?

ABC's official synopsis for Season 7 reads: "John Nolan, once the oldest rookie in the LAPD, has used his life experience, determination and sense of humor to keep up with rookies 20 years his junior. Now recovering from a gunshot wound and feeling the effects of his age, John and the team welcome two new rookies and continue the hunt for two dangerous escaped prisoners who have very personal vendettas."

"We've been lucky enough to grow as a series with our audience over the last couple of seasons, which is rare, so we wanted to have some fun, and we wanted to introduce two great, fun new rookies," Hawley told TV Guide ahead of the new season. "The challenge always is, well, what characters don't we have? What characters would be great to bring in? And what characters can we invent that also serve their training officers? That relationship is primal to the show."

Hawley promises that the new season will feel like a return to The Rookie of old — there will be a plain clothes day, roundups with the new rookies, and food truck hangs — and will also follow more of the characters home.

"Normally, the problem with going home with characters on a true procedural — where there's a murderer and you got to solve it — is a lot of times there's a pressure that if characters are talking about stuff that's not the case, it feels like they're not carrying the torch for the victim for good or for bad," Hawley said. "But because we do so many different cases in an episode, it does allow us to go home with characters because their personal storylines are what we're doing every episode [with the help of the calls they respond to]."

Hawley teased that some family members of the main characters will pop up again, including Tim's (Eric Winter) sister, as well as some new family members we have yet to meet. There will also be a Valentine's Day episode and an April Fools episode, but there won't be an undercover story in the same way as past seasons. "We have some dark serial killer-type episodes, which are also really, I won't say fun because you called me on that word, but dynamic," he said with a laugh. "And then we have a few really emotional episodes, which are very powerful."

What's up with Chenford?

The status of the relationship between Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford seems to be the question on everyone's lips at the start of Season 7. Ever since Bradford decided to break things off suddenly with Chen midway through Season 6, devoted fans have been vocal about their discontentment, pleading with the writers to change course. While the break-up may have come as a surprise to fans, Hawley, O'Neil, and Winter had actually been building up to that shocking twist for the first half of the season. (You can read Hawley's reasoning for splitting them up here.)

In a joint interview at the end of Season 6, O'Neil and Winter discussed what it would take for Chen and Bradford to give their relationship another shot.

"I think time heals wounds a bit, and [it's important to show] him being able to reflect on what he's lost and how he's trying to improve and change," Winter said. "And whether that comes with guidance or help, once he feels he's confident in himself again, then I could see him start trying to approach Lucy potentially in that way [about restarting their relationship]. How he gets her back, I don't know. I'm not exactly sure how he wins her trust back, but I hope it's like a fun baby step kind of way, in a way that we're not just jumping right back into something. I hope it really takes a lot of work. I think it'll be very fun to see Tim try to earn that trust in little gestures."

O'Neil agreed that a romantic reconciliation "would require a lot of consistent, gentle courtship," but she also posited that "it would be interesting to see them falter and slip back" into old habits and navigate the potential complications of their old dynamic. "There's the wholesome route, and that's great. And I can see it being braided in with a lot of messiness too," she said. "Or maybe on the show, you're seeing them slowly do the courtship. But in private, there's a reveal that they've actually been hanging out for a minute anyways, and it's just all for show."

As for where the two exes stand at the start of the new season, Hawley told TV Guide that it was important for him to "embrace the positivity" of "Chenford," which meant leaning further into the playful banter that they had long before they became an item.

"We blew them up last season, but we also did a lot of work by the end of the season of trying to put them back together — even if it's not romantic, even if it's more just on a sort of personal level," Hawley said. "He did a lot of the work to try and figure out why he did what he did, and he did understand that she's going to drive whatever this relationship is going to become. Because he's the one who ruined it, he doesn't get to put it back together; he has to be respectful of her in that conversation. But it did feel like coming into this season that we really wanted to lean into what the next chapter was going to be and the fun of making her a training officer next to him, even temporarily, and the competition of who can train the better rookie — that's the best of 'Chenford,' really."

Is Tru Valentino leaving The Rookie?

In August, TVLine confirmed that Tru Valentino, who joined The Rookie as recurring in Season 4 and got promoted in Season 5, would not be returning as a series regular for Season 7. Valentino played Aaron Thorsen, a TikTok star who, after being acquitted of a murder charge, joined the Mid-Wilshire Division as a rookie cop. (Aaron's whereabouts will be revealed in the premiere.)

In a statement confirming his surprising exit a couple days later, Valentino seemingly left the door open for a return to his most notable role to date.

"I will always cherish my time on The Rookie but couldn't be more excited for what the future has in store. I adore the friends and relationships made while being there. It was such an amazing opportunity and [I] feel so lucky to have had the last 3 seasons," he wrote on his Instagram Stories. "Thank you to the best fans in the world. I know I don't talk much, but I appreciate you all so much. You never know who may pop back up in the Mid-Wilshire Precinct. Until then, 7 Adam 19, this is Officer Thorsen, over and out!"

In a recent chat with TV Guide, Hawley confirmed that the door is open for Aaron to return, reiterating that the character's arc was "a big part of our storytelling over the last several seasons."

"Coming into this season with this desire to re-pilot a little bit, to launch these two new rookies, to really lean into going creatively in some different directions — [writing off Aaron] is ultimately what we wanted to do," Hawley explains. "But he's still very much alive in our universe, so there's always the possibility that we'll see him again."  

The Rookie Season 7 cast

All of the other main cast members, with the exception of Valentino, will be returning for the seventh season:

The show has also recruited two new rookies in recurring roles. Deric Augustine (All American, Godfather of Harlem) will play Miles Penn, who, despite building up two years of experience on the job in Texas, is classified as a rookie of the LAPD after moving to Los Angeles. Winter's TikTok with Augustine confirms that their characters will be paired up as training officer and rookie.

TV newcomer Patrick Keleher will debut as Seth Ridley, one of the newest recruits at the LAPD. Within the first couple of episodes, viewers will learn about the personal baggage that makes it difficult for Ridley to take quick, decisive action — one of the most important parts of the job — and not trip over his own feet. Lucy will be Seth's training officer.

TVLine revealed on Friday that Ivan Hernandez, best known for being a potential love interest for Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw in And Just Like That…, has joined the cast this season as a recurring guest star. Hernandez will play Detective Graham, who will serve as a kind of personal and professional obstacle for Wesley in his marriage to Angela.

The Rookie Season 7 creator and crew

The Rookie was created by Alexi Hawley, who continues to serve as executive producer and showrunner (and is in the early stages of developing another Rookie spinoff at ABC). Series lead Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Brunn Malone, Bill Norcross and Jon Steinberg also serve as executive producers.

Previous coverage of The Rookie:

Ahead of the new season, check out TV Guide's coverage of The Rookie during Season 6:

Where to watch The Rookie

The Rookie is available to stream on Hulu with a subscription. New episodes are typically available the day after they air on ABC.

Watch on Hulu