‘The Rookie: Feds’ Gets Full-Season Order From ABC

Niecy Nash-Betts in 'The Rookie: Feds'
ABC/Scott Everett White

Niecy Nash-BettsThe Rookie: Feds will stay for a full season. ABC has ordered nine more episodes of The Rookie spinoff, bringing its Season 1 episode count to 22.

Nash-Betts plays Special Agent Simone Clark, the FBI’s oldest rookie, in the crime procedural. Clark is a force of nature, the living embodiment of a dream deferred. She works together with her new colleagues at the Bureau to bring down the country’s toughest criminals. Clark and her fellow Rookie: Feds players were introduced in a backdoor pilot in The Rookie Season 4. Nathan Fillion helped usher in the new series by appearing as John Nolan in The Rookie: Feds series premiere on September 27.

The full-season pickup comes after just four episodes of the freshman series have aired. After its network debut, the drama jumped nearly five times in adults 18-49 after delayed multi-platform viewing with a delayed-viewing lift of +394% (1.53 rating vs. 0.31 rating), per ABC. After just one week of viewing across linear and digital platforms, the series premiere picked up more than +4.0 million viewers over its Live+Same Day average (+4.2 million – 6.4 million vs. 2.2 million). It’s also one of only three broadcast programs this season to more than double its Live+Same Day audience after seven days of delayed linear playback (+101%).

The Rookie: Feds also stars Frankie R. Faison as Simone’s father, Christopher “Cutty” Clark. Her colleagues at the bureau are James Lesure as Carter Hope, Britt Robertson as Laura Stensen, Felix Solis as Matthew Garza, and Kevin Zegers as Brendon Acres. Nash-Betts teased an exciting love interest for Simone at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, promising the lover reveal would come in The Rookie: Feds Season 1 Episode 3. As promised, the meet-cute went down outside Simone’s father’s house when Simone met DJ (whose real name is Dina) — played by Nash-Betts’ IRL wife, Jessica Betts!

In Episode 5, “Felicia” (airing October 25 at 10/9c), Simone and Carter get trapped in the tropics while hunting down a suspect on the run. Simone’s unexpected meet-cute with DJ throws a wrench into Cutty’s love life, and Elena’s high-end fashion splurge cracks open an unsolved murder mystery.

The Rookie: Feds was created by The Rookie bosses Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, who also serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Mark Gordon, Nash-Betts, Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Bill Norcross, Corey Miller, Michael Goi and Bibby Dunn are executive producers.

Other Fall 2022 shows with recent season orders are the Quantum Leap reboot at NBC and  Fire CountryEast New York, and So Help Me Todd at CBS. All four of the shows are some of network TV’s biggest premieres of the year.

The Rookie: Feds, Tuesdays, 10/9c, ABC