ABC Saves The Rookie Season 8 From Its Extended Winter Break

The Rookie season 8 is taking a longer while to arrive, but the delay effectively saves it from a dreaded ABC tradition. As fall comes, the new TV cycle starts with the staggered return of broadcast channels’ scripted shows. Currently, NBC has released several new episodes of its ongoing shows while the majority of CBS’ comebacks haven’t happened yet.

ABC’s fall 2025 schedule has also started rolling out, starting with the returns of High Potential, Abbott Elementary, and Shifting Gears. That said, it still has several shows in the pipeline waiting to come back, such as the much-anticipated Grey’s Anatomy season 22 and 9-1-1 season 9, not to mention the debut of Ryan Murphy’s latest network TV offering, 9-1-1: Nashville.

That said, while all the aforementioned ABC shows are slated to come back sooner rather than later, there are other projects that will take a little while longer to come back with brand-new episodes. That includes The Rookie season 8, which is a shame, considering where season 7 left things off. In the grand scheme of things, however, delaying the procedural is a better move in the grand scheme of things.

The Rookie Season 8 Has A Mid-Season Premiere Despite Already Filming

Instead of premiering with the rest of ABC’s premier shows, The Rookie season 8 is being held for a mid-season premiere in January 2026. Alex Winter’s hit procedural is joining Will Trent season 4 for a winter comeback. For what it’s worth, this isn’t a new thing. The Rookie‘s return has been pushed to later in the TV cycle for a few years now.

It’s difficult to blame ABC for wanting to delay The Rookie (and Will Trent) to a winter premiere, considering how well it has done in ratings with that set-up. So, unless there’s a major shake-up in its scheduling or the show is somehow canceled, it’s safe to say that it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

However, while The Rookie coming back in mid-season is not new, what makes season 8 more interesting in terms of production timeline is that it has already been filming for a while now. In fact, it was one of the first few shows that restarted work ahead of the 2025-2026 TV cycle.

The Rookie season 8 was spotted filming in Prague, Czech Republic — an impressive feat, considering that network shows, especially police procedurals, very rarely film overseas. Somehow, however, ABC was willing to spend the money to fly the cast and crew of Winter’s primetime series.

The Rookie’s Season 8 Delayed Premiere Saves It From ABC’s Extended Winter Hiatus

ABC via MovieStillsDB

It’s re-assuring that ABC delaying The Rookie season 8 to January isn’t because the show is struggling. Instead, it is keeping it in its winning schedule to maintain the show’s popularity while also making sure that it benefits the network to the fullest. While it sounds like only ABC and The Rookie are winning in this set-up, the viewers also have something to gain through it.

By pushing The Rookie season 8 to a January 2026 release date and a finale sometime in May of the same year, the procedural won’t be subjected to the frustrating long break that its ABC peers usually go through. The 2024-2025 TV cycle is such a good example of this, as there were a number of series that had left people waiting for new episodes throughout the whole winter season.

Shows like Grey’s Anatomy season 21, 9-1-1 season 8, and the short-lived Doctor Odyssey debuted their respective seasons during the fall but had to go through a lengthy hiatus. For context, they all had their winter finales around November 2024, and they didn’t release new episodes until March 2025.

Admittedly, there will still be some weeks when The Rookie season 8’s programming will still be distracted. It will either be because ABC will have to pre-empt it or it could be because for sweeps weeks. This is a period of broadcast where ratings determine the ad rates for the rest of the year. However, at least the hiatus won’t be longer than a week or two.

Why The Rookie Season 8 Started Filming Early Despite Not Airing Until 2026

There’s nothing inherently wrong with The Rookie season 8 starting filming early. If the story is already done and the actors are all available, it makes sense for a network series to begin production ahead of its premiere, especially since it produces more episodes compared to streaming shows. However, there may be a different reason for The Rookie season 8’s already ongoing production.

Winter is also working on launching a new spinoff in the franchise, with The Rookie: North supposedly filming in late winter or spring. By then, the flagship would have already been on the air, and since it started shooting early, ABC would have enough episodes to run while its showrunner shifts its focus on his new venture.

Assuming that The Rookie North gets picked up by ABC, it’s curious if it will have an effect on its parent series’ current schedule. For now, however, The Rookie is firmly a mid-season show for the network.

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Release Date

October 16, 2018

Showrunner

Alexi Hawley

Directors

Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro

Writers

Corey Miller, Bill Rinier, Zoe Cheng, Mary Trahan, Ally Seibert, Liz Alper, Nick Hurwitz, Racheal Seymour, Madeleine Coghlan, David Radcliff