Major ABC Show Canceled as Actors Strike Ends

The Rookie after the SAG-AFTRA strike ended, but The Rookie: Feds will not. According to Variety, the freshman spinoff has officially been canceled by ABC. It was the last veteran series at the network still awaiting news, along with sitcom Home Economics, which was canceled at the end of September. The series was an FBI spinoff of the cop procedural starring Niecy Nash-Betts as the oldest rookie at the FBI. There was a backdoor pilot during Season 4 of The Rookie and a few crossovers during last season.

Co-created by Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, The Rookie: Feds also starred Frankie Faison, James Lesure, Britt Robertson, Felix Solis, and Kevin Zegers. Hawley and Winter also served as co-showrunners and executive producers. Mark Gordon, Nash-Betts, Nathan Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Bill Norcross, Corey Miller, Michael Goi, and Bibby Dunn were also executive producers. While there was hope that a second season could happen, especially with The Rookie getting picked up for another one, it seems that ABC didn’t like Feds as much.

While ratings for the first few episodes of The Rookie: Feds were on the low side, not even getting to 2 million, they did pick up later in the season and remained steady throughout. However, fans weren’t so fond of the crossovers between The Rookie and The Rookie: Feds, as many had pointed out that they weren’t so much as a crossover rather than just a continuation of a story or a few seconds of one character, mainly either Nathan Fillion’s John Nolan and Nash-Betts’ Simone Clark.

As always, there is always the possibility that The Rookie: Feds could be picked up elsewhere. Since it is a spinoff, it could prove to be a bit harder, even though there isn’t a direct connection to the parent series aside from crossovers and references here and there. If ABC can pick up while 9-1-1: Lone Star stays on Fox, you never know what could happen. Since both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are officially over, that does make shopping the show around a little bit easier. But for now, Feds is done for. The good thing is that there wasn’t any huge cliffhanger, so fans won’t have to worry about a plot line not being solved.

There is also the possibility that any character from Feds could still show up on The Rookie. It would be a great way to still include the spinoff even though it is canceled. While it is a major disappointment that The Rookie: Feds is canceled, there’s always a chance it could come back in some way, shape, or form. Fans can also watch all 22 episodes on Hulu, which will hopefully stick around for the time being.