By the time most TV series hit season seven or eight, the hype has died down. But for The Rookie – a police procedural which initially follows a 40-year-old newbie cop – that couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite season one premiering in 2018, The Rookie is a hot commodity thanks to a big, viral resurgence online with a whole new audience of new-found fans.
For Eric Winter, who stars as Sergeant Tim Bradford, the show’s boost of popularity has come as a pretty huge surprise.
“It’s incredible. We’re a bit of a unicorn,” Eric admits to TV WEEK.
“We’re a real testament to what social media can do for a show. Typically getting new viewers doesn’t happen when you’re going into season nine.”
For Eric, who admits he used to be very “anti-TikTok”, the online resurgence gave him and the cast an opportunity to lean into messing around on set.
“A lot of our cast are goofballs and we’re always clowning around,” Eric shares.
“I ended up getting this very large TikTok following out of nowhere. Now I do pranks to people on set and it just gives you a glimpse into what it’s like to be on our show.”
A big chunk of the show’s more recent viral success is due to a particularly catchy tune called “Cop Cuties”, featured in an episode in The Rookie season five. All of a sudden, the catchy tune exploded on social media. But according to Eric, the virality of the moment was completely unexpected.
“When you have a catchy, viral song like that, it definitely drives more eyeballs because so many people have caught on to just listening to that song, hearing it, seeing it on TikTok.
“And Zander [Hawley] who plays [the singer] Rodge on the show, did an incredible job with that. It’s just so catchy and so, so good. Our show is very clippable, as our creator Alexi [Hawley] likes to say.”
Aside from the new-found virality, another big reason for the show’s resurgence is the slow-burn relationship between new sergeant Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and Eric’s character sergeant Tim Bradford. While the romance was certainly a surprise at first, Eric says it was a twist built on the fan’s reaction to their characters.
“The audience has really gotten behind this idea of two people that just never seem to fit together, seemingly being perfect for one another. That’s been the shock that no one saw coming and the fans really hyped it up,” Eric explains, noting that the writers are attuned to the chit-chat online about the show.
“That’s why we’re so successful.”
One of the reasons why Chenford – the couple name given to Tim and Lucy – has been such a hit is that the relationship allowed audiences to see a new side to the stickler police officer. According to Eric, it’s only now, after eight seasons, that audiences truly understand why his character is the way he is.
“He is such a complicated character and every year I’ve been given these new layers to peel back that I didn’t expect,” he says, recalling when his character was hated by fans in the pilot episode.
“Then fans were like, oh there’s something more to him. He’s carrying heavy baggage and started to realise that this is a man who will go to all lengths to protect the people he cares about. And that’s a redeeming quality I’ve loved playing.”
You can watch The Rookie season eight on 7Plus from June 8.
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