From a media release:
#BLUEISBACK! GLOBAL ANNOUNCES EARLY RENEWAL OF HOMEGROWN HIT ROOKIE BLUE
- New Season to Premiere on Global and ABC in 2014
Global Television, alongside broadcast partner ABC, jointly announced today the renewal of the summer’s popular drama series, Rookie Blue, for a fifth season.
Currently, Rookie Blue is the *most watched program in its timeslot since its return on May 23 – with over 1.5 million loyal fans tuning in for the Season 4 debut episode. South of the border on ABC, Rookie Blue ranks #1 Thursday nights in the 10pm hour in Total Viewers this summer to date. Rookie Blue is also broadcast internationally on Universal Networks International’s pay-TV channels. The drama is growing over its prior summer average by 15% in Total Viewers to deliver its most-watched season in 3 years – since Summer 2010.
The fifth season of the series will start development in the fall and will move into production in January 2014.
Rookie Blue is executive-produced by award-winning Tassie Cameron (Flashpoint), Ilana Frank (The Eleventh Hour, Would Be Kings), David Wellington (The Eleventh Hour, Would Be Kings), Russ Cochrane and John Morayniss (Klondike, Rogue). Rookie Blue is a production of ICF Films and Entertainment One.
A one-hour, original dramatic series that provides a candid look at the personal and professional lives of five rookie cops as they navigate their first years on the beat. Now in their fourth year on the job, these officers continue to face brand-new challenges every week — and they’re trying to roll with the punches without looking like the rookies they still feel themselves to be. Andy McNally and Nick Collins were gone six months for their undercover operation. But while they were gone, everything seems to have changed at 15 Division. Last season, our officers all got what they thought they wanted — and then had to deal with the repercussions. This year, they all have to look change right in the eye and learn to adapt to life’s curveballs — leaving them all with some big, bold choices to make. Learning to adapt to change is a huge part of growing up. And these five new officers are putting that life lesson into practice, every single shift of season four.
Shot entirely on location in Toronto, Rookie Blue stars Missy Peregrym (Heroes, Reaper) as Andy McNally, Gregory Smith (Everwood) as Dov Epstein, Charlotte Sullivan (The Kennedys) as Gail Peck, Enuka Okuma (24) as Traci Nash, Travis Milne (Leslie, My Name is Evil) as Chris Diaz, Peter Mooney (Camelot, Falcon Beach) as Nick Collins, Ben Bass (The Eleventh Hour) as Sam Swarek, and introducing this season Priscilla Faia (Eleventh Victim, Psych) as Chloe Price and Rachael Ancheril (The Listener) as Marlo Cruz. Also starring in the series is Matt Gordon as Oliver Shaw and Lyriq Bent as Frank Best.
Rookie Blue airs Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT on Global. In Thursday’s July 18 episode, “Poison Pill,†a chaotic drug arrest by Andy and Marlo triggers an all-out crisis when it’s discovered that the drugs are contaminated with deadly bacteria. Swarek leads the squad in the scramble to get the tainted drugs off the streets before an outbreak sweeps the city. Meanwhile, Andy and Marlo are plunged into an intimate decontamination process, forcing Marlo to expose a shocking secret while under quarantine. And Dov and Chloe see their budding romance threatened when Dov suspects Chloe is hiding secrets.
Source: BBM Canada PPM Data, Total Canada, Ind 2+ AMA(000), Thursday 10p-11p, May 20 – July 14th 2013
Diane, did you get an email from E1 about their press release regarding Rookie Blue? It seems to have been timed according to the London stock market opening today. Rookie Blue is actually an American show according to the Canadian studio that makes it.
http://otp.investis.com/generic/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=52&newsid=352493
That press release also totally down-plays the fact that Rogue was cancelled in Canada or that it was ever shown here or commissioned by Corus and the late Astral at all.
The fifth season development in the autumn and production in January is much later than what past years were, Previously filming would be from about the last week of August through early January. Now it won’t even start until January. It does appear to be somewhat of a shift in approach from the Canadian of having the show almost or totally finished before the season premiere to the US of being only a few episodes ahead of broadcast.
I hadn’t seen it – the broadcasters sent the media releases here. That might have been specifically for investors, or at least for the UK market. Maybe they’re afraid Brits don’t know Canada exists? Yeah, I got nothing for why they downplayed the Canadian angle.
Be interesting to see if the time shift affects the look of the show ie more winter exteriors, or fewer exteriors. I don’t think I’ve seen the number of episodes ordered so hard to say how far they’ll get from January to a presumably summer premiere.
One day i went looking through the collection of randomness that was E1’s internet presence and i think i subscribed to something in the corporate/investors corner thinking it was something else. They have since consolidated their websites but i still get the emails.
With a 4-year trend and renewal somewhat about the same as past years i would say it is a safe bet it will be another 13.
CBS moved Flashpoint all over their schedule. ABC seems quite happy with Rookie Blue as a decent summer show. I doubt they would try for a September premiere. Then again i did not expect Haven to move from summer to autumn (or winter in Canada [thanks Shaw for the 12 week delay]). Less exteriors would really change the show. I wouldn’t mind a winter setting and if you ask certain Americans you can be told that Canada is basically permanently wintery.