After The Rookie Was Renewed For Season 8, Nathan Fillion Shared A Heartfelt Reaction
Awwww!

It may seem that working on a television show is an immediate ticket to success, but it’s hardly any kind of long-term guarantee, particularly at this time of year. The 2025 TV schedule is still delivering fresh episodes on a weekly basis, but there are already some series for which the future is uncertain. However, such is luckily not the case for a slate of ABC shows, including cop drama The Rookie, which was recently renewed for Season 8, and star Nathan Fillion gave his sweet reaction to fans.
What Did The Rookie’s Nathan Fillion Say About The Season 8 Renewal?
As you can probably imagine, the entire cast and crew of The Rookie are celebrating right now as filming continues on the currently airing Season 7 of the popular show. This is especially true, considering that even though they’ve enjoyed a blissfully long run, being renewed every season has not been an automatic given for the police procedural. As such, star Nathan Fillion took to Instagram to relay his heartfelt reaction to the announcement, and said:
I’ve been around long enough to know how truly challenging and rare it is to have a long running show. Thank you all for sticking around for these 7 seasons- it’s because of you that we are announcing season 8!! Congratulations to @alexihawley and the wonderful team that puts this show together. I am so very proud to work alongside all of you. Let’s do this! #therookie
Fans have now been tuning in to The Rookie for well over 100 episodes, which is still a rare feat for a show to achieve. Even though Fillion certainly knows what it’s like to lead a long-running show (with Castle lasting for eight seasons before being shockingly canceled right after many of the stars signed new contracts), he’s also experienced the lows of having a beloved series be cut short (We are all still mad about Firefly, OK?), so it’s good to see just how grateful he is for all the viewer support and hard work from his partners in front of and behind the scenes.
One of Fillion’s best movies and TV shows has joined the list of current ABC renewals, which include High Potential, the Tim Allen/Kat Dennings comedy Shifting Gears, Emmy-winner Abbott Elementary, Will Trent, Grey’s Anatomy and the Angela Bassett-starring 9-1-1. You can take a look at Fillion’s full post, below:
A post shared by Nathan Fillion (@nathanfillion)
A photo posted by on
It’s cool to see everyone so happy, isn’t it? Along with the renewal pumping everyone up, the ratings are another reason for them to be excited. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the March 25 episode (which saw John and Celina face a hostage situation) nabbed the show’s biggest audience since halfway into Season 5, which came in January 2023. All in all, the series is riding high right now, and it’s fabulous to see.
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Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.
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