THE ROOKIE’s Eric Winter on the Show’s ‘Unbelievable’ Success and ‘Great’ Season 6 Finale

Days before THE ROOKIE officially got its order for season 7, series star Eric Winter was optimistic about its future.

“I’m never a person in this business that just says, ‘Oh, I’m totally confident, one hundred percent,’ because this business is very unpredictable,” Winter, who plays Tim Bradford, told Give Me My Remote at the time. “But I do feel probably—[for] one of the first times, even—with all the success the show has had over the years, I do feel really good. There’s a lot of stories to tell. I know ABC loves our show. I feel very confident that season 7 should be announced.”

“We’re in a very unique place where ABC has a show that just continues to find new audience members daily,” he continued. “And that’s just it’s unheard of, I think, at this stage. So I feel good. I’m excited for what the future holds with the show. In a weird way, I feel like we’re just getting started. There’s so much story to tell.”

The ABC drama has been doing notoriously well: In addition to its on-air success at ABC, the series serves as the network’s #2 drama on Hulu. (According to ABC, as of early 2024, over 500 million hours of viewing of the show have occurred on Hulu since its series premiere, with nearly half of the streams coming in the past year.) 

Winter is an acting vet, appearing in shows like THE MENTALIST, WITCHES OF EAST END, SECRETS AND LIES, and DAYS OF OUR LIVES, but even he’s been blown away by THE ROOKIE fanbase.

“It’s unbelievable, I’ll be honest,” he marveled. “Our show’s a bit of an anomaly. To be ending season 6 and hotter than ever? Most shows start their downfall around now, and it’s still an amazing run! And it feels like our show just keeps getting stronger and stronger. I’ve never been a part of a fandom like this, to this degree, especially not in a relationship on air like Chenford. I’ve never experienced anything like this.” 

“Fans are of all ages, which blows my mind, blows my wife’s mind,” he continued. “I’m talking little kids dressing up as Bradford for Halloween. Kids at my kids’ school—that are [in] third, fourth grade—[are] obsessed with the show. Obviously [the fandom ranges] all the way to adults. And I get stopped constantly. I was at Knott’s Berry Farm with my family over the break and I got stopped probably every five minutes by all ages. And not just male-skewing or female-skewing. It’s the wildest thing.”

The series is on a mini-hiatus (until Tuesday, April 30), but Winter is excited about what’s ahead. “There’s just a lot of great episodes still left before we wrap for the season.”

One of the things to look forward to? The season finale, which Winter teased on his Instagram. “Working with our stunt coordinator for this huge fight sequence on the Disney Infinity stage!” he wrote, accompanied by a behind-the-scenes video of production. “This is going to look awesome in the final cut. What a way to wrap up season 6.” 

“There’s a lot of action as always,” Winter teased of the hour. “That stunt was wild. Bradford [is] in a full fight [on] a moving pickup truck. Lucy coming to help; Angela coming to help. Obviously, forcing Tim and Lucy to work together again, as a team [after their breakup].”

And it’s not all stunts to look forward to. “There are going to be some major things flipped upside down that are big reveals,” Winter previewed. “And the Big Bad being exposed is…I think some people might have an idea, but they don’t really know how deep it really runs. So I think that’s going to be fun to uncover. It’s a great finale. Directed really well, and that stunt is epic. And we shot the Infinity stage at Disney, which is a phenomenal LED screen stage. Very expensive stage—we’ve never shot on it before—to make that look as real as possible. So I can’t wait to see how it comes together.”

THE ROOKIE, Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC

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