BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.–Whoa, Canada. Relax! ABC loves Rookie Blue. Honest!
ABC officials back peddled Tuesday afternoon on earlier reports the U.S. broadcaster was not ordering future episodes of the five-year-old series.
Credit Canadian colleague Amber Dowling (read her now at The TV Junkies) with getting to ABC entertainment president Paul Lee Tuesday morning with the Rookie Blue question. Lee suggested in the scrum that the “conversation” about Blue‘s future at ABC “is more about finishing it.”
The Toronto-based cop show is currently airing its fifth season. Global went solo this summer, jumping ahead of ABC’s simulcast for the first time. The good news is thst the ratings are as strong as ever. Rookie Blue was the third most-watched show in Canada the week of June 23 – 29, drawing 1,592,000 total viewers according to Numeris (formerly BBM Canada). That beat the highest-rated FIFA World Cup broadcasst that week.
Rookie Blue is consistently competitive as a summer series on ABC. It drew 4.9M in overnights July 10 on ABC, building on its lead against originals and finishing a strong second to CBS’s Big Brother that night.
“We love Rookie Blue,” Paul Lee told me when I chased him down later. “We’d like to do more, it’s really up to the production company whether they can.”
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Shaw says they love the show too. Love, love, love! But these shows can get pricey in later years. Plus, really, are they still rookies in year six?
For more to this story, follow this link to the report I filed Tuesday to The Canadian Press. Rookie Blue airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Global and Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.
2 Comments
The show is extremely popular online. Articles for Rookie Blue on all the various tv websites get a lot of traffic. However, many Canadian dramas these days seem to be capping off at 5 seasons so Rookie Blue’s total episode count thus far is completely honourable. I think after 5 seasons, fans can be satisfied that they get a completed story, so long as a show gets enough notice to give a finale with a decent ending with most loose strings tied up. I’d hate to see the show film seasons 5A and 5B with an unfinished ending and then get cancelled. I’d rather the show, if it is ending, go out with an organized final season.
who cares if they are ROOKIE, the chemistry of the cast, the plots, the scripts, are superior in every way. I just recently found this show, and watch it whenever it is on telly