The Rookie Season 7 Episode 1: Release date and time, what to expect and more

The Rookie Season 7 episode one will premiere on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, on ABC at 10 PM ET. The premiere of The Rookie Season 7 comes after more than a six-month hiatus that followed the finale of the sixth season. The first episode of The Rookie Season 7 is titled The Shot and finds the pivotal character of John Nolan recuperating from a gunshot wound and slowly finding his way back to active service.

The Rookie is a beloved police procedural show on ABC that made its debut back in 2018. Over the years, the show has garnered positive ratings and has made a place of its own at ABC's programming. Although the seventh season of The Rookie was expected to drop much earlier, it is comforting that the latest installment is finally here, never mind if it's a little late following the Hollywood strikes.

According to a report by One Chicago Center, the premiere episode of The Rookie season seven will seek to refer back to the pilot episode of the show from its debut season. Showrunner and executive Alexi Hawley was reported to be saying that he and the others in his team treated the episode as a sort of 're-pilot' with significantly elevated production value and high dramatic stakes. Here's everything we know.

When will The Rookie Season 7 Episode 1 release?

As stated earlier, the premiere episode of Season 7, titled The Shot, will drop on ABC on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 10 PM ET. The episode will also be available for streaming on Hulu the following day. ABC will subsequently air new episodes of the police procedural show every Tuesday.

Where to watch The Rookie Season 7?

Viewers can easily watch Season 7 by tuning into ABC at the abovementioned timeslot. For those viewers who do not have access to cable television, several direct-to-TV platforms, such as FuboTV and Sling, now offer subscription packages to access exclusive cable content without having a cable connection.

On the other hand, the episodes from the latest season will be made available on Hulu a day after their initial airing on ABC. Hulu offers new users a starting subscription package at $9.99.

What to expect from the ABC show's Season 7 Episode 1?

The premiere episode of Season 7 will find John Nolan recovering from a gunshot wound. While bearing the pressure of his middle age, Nolan will probably eventually realize that his age is catching up to him quickly.

However, with the responsibility of training and probably riding with one of the two new rookies, Seth and Miles, Nolan may not get much time to hang up his boots. On the other hand, another unfinished narrative thread from the last season has Oscar and Jason, the two dangerous inmates who have broken out from prison, now on the lookout for vengeance.

Alexi Hawley teases the antagonists of Season 7

Speaking in an exclusive interview with TVLine, showrunner Alexi Hawley hinted at the characters that will come to play a significant negative role in the narrative of the latest season. He stated:

"Jason will ultimately pose the biggest threat in the first half of the season; he is sort of the existential threat because he is a threat to the family, Bailey especially. But we’ll also lean into some of the trauma of Bailey’s relationship with Jason that maybe she hasn’t processed yet, the abusive relationship she was in with this guy."

She further added,

"That percolates up in the fear of the reunion, because part of the drama of the first half of the season is, “When is he going to show up?” And that sense of always being afraid is not healthy, obviously."