Summary The Rookie will return with season 7, and even though fans must wait until 2025 for the next batch of episodes, I think the elongated hiatus will be worth it, thanks to an update regarding the upcoming season's story. The ABC police procedural series, created by Alexi Hawley, premiered in 2018, and since then has produced six seasons and 108 episodes, an impressive feat for any network show nowadays. The Rookie's high ratings and dedicated fanbase have contributed to its success.
Since ABC gave the seventh season of the police procedural a larger episode order than season 6, the writers of The Rookie have more wiggle room to let stories breathe and formulate ones that begin and end within one episode. The series is set to return to the basics of any procedural series, and I couldn't be happier. Of course, fans will have to wait until The Rookie season 7 premieres in early 2025 to see if the good ol' episodic strategy works.
The Rookie has been able to accomplish the above when it has more episodes. Seasons 1 and 2 are arguably the ABC show's best, and they both had 20 episodes featuring an episodic format. Since The Rookie season 7 will contain 18 episodes, straying away from serialized stories is the best decision the writers and producers could make. Instead, the upcoming season will return to the series' glory days by featuring numerous cases that begin and end in one hour.