As ABC continues to make decisions for next season, The Rookie recently got some very good news. The procedural is indeed coming back for Season 9, and Season 8 is still airing on the 2026 TV schedule. While the intense storylines involving action, romance, and drama had something to do with the renewal, as well as the beloved characters, that’s not all. Audience is, of course, a big chunk of the decision, and I just found out that teens are actually the target audience, and my mind is blown.

Deadline reports that the show’s Season 8 premiere in January was The Rookie’s biggest debut on streaming, and was also among the Top 5 ABC premieres of all time. It was up from last season’s premiere in MP+3 viewership, but that’s not where the surprising part comes in. Evidently, as The Rookie continues to have its most-watched season on streaming, it closed out 2025 as the top broadcast show among teens.

As someone in their late 20s, I would have assumed that the target audience would be people around my age or a little older. You don’t really hear of high schoolers watching procedurals; that’s why they call a lot of procedurals and crime dramas “dad shows.” However, those who watch The Rookie have also probably seen the insane amounts of TikToks that the cast puts out. They’re usually taken on set, whether just a funny video, part of a trend, etc., and they usually do pretty well, too. So it wouldn’t be surprising if those TikToks account for bringing in a chunk of the teens.

And the teens and everyone else will have to prepare themselves for what’s to come. When the Season 8 finale airs next month, it will surely bring some talk to the high school cafeteria, no matter what happens. Creator, showrunner, and executive producer Alexi Hawley told Deadline that there “might be a cliffhanger” at the end of the season, so who knows what’s going to go down.

Additionally, if ABC really wants the spinoff, The Rookie: North to do well if it moves forward, they should definitely require the cast to sign up for TikTok. It may seem like a silly idea, but if TikTok really is part of the reason why The Rookie is bringing in so many teens and helping the ratings, it may not be such a bad idea. Plus, it’s clearly working.

It can be assumed that, knowing their target audience is teens, the cast will continue making TikToks well into Season 9, and I will enjoy every single one. It does make me curious as to who the target audience was when The Rookie first premiered, because it wouldn’t be surprising if that changed over the course of the show. For now, though, new episodes air on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC, streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription.

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