‘Rookie Blue’ renewed by ABC, Global for season 5

“Rookie Blue” is hardly a rookie anymore. After four seasons on the air, the Canadian series from Global has been picked up both in its home country and also on ABC for more episodes, which will air over the course of next summer.

So does this renewal come as much of a surprise? If it were a first-run series on ABC, we would say that it was one of the bigger shockers out there. The show is hardly much of a ratings monster anymore on the network, and has declined for much of the past several years in the 18-49 demographic. At the same time, there are also some benefits to keeping the show around. ABC hardly puts a lot of cash into this show compared to other properties to keep “Rookie Blue” on the air, and it allows them to have some original content during the summer of the scripted variety.

While American networks have tried to replicated the “Rookie Blue” success by bringing over a number of other shows from north of the border, the vast majority of them have not worked nearly this well. This show has become more in the vein of many cable dramas that are actually Canadian shows, which are able to last a long time because the ratings expectations are not necessarily large compared to their broadcast counterparts.

Now, it will be interesting to see just how long this series will really last. Season 6 is around the time when shows really start to near the end, and it will be interesting to see if “Rookie Blue” lasts that long.

What did you think about the “Rookie Blue” renewal, and are you excited to see more on the show moving forward? As always, we want to read some of your thoughts below!

Photo: ABC