‘The Rookie’ Gets FBI Spinoff Starring Niecy Nash w ABC Backdoor Pilot

EXCLUSIVE: ABC is looking to recruit another Rookie. The network is exploring a spinoff of its popular police procedural starring Nathan Fillon with another bonafide TV star, Niecy Nash, and a new setting, the FBI. The potential new series for next season will be introduced in a two-episode arc of the current fourth season of The Rookie. It will serve as a backdoor pilot for the yet-untitled project, which comes from The Rookie creator/executive producer Alexi Hawley, executive producers Terence Paul Winter and Mark Gordon and studios eOne and ABC Signature.

Nathan Fillion Jenna Dewan — “The Rookie” Raymond Liu/ABC

The planted spinoff, co-created and written by Hawley and Winter, follows the premise of The Rookie, which stars Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. Nash will guest star as Simone Clark, a force of nature, the living embodiment of a dream deferred – and the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. Simone has never shied away from a challenge or a fight. She is a single mother of two who put her dreams on hold to make sure her kids pursued their own.

In the two embedded pilot episodes, Officer John Nolan (Fillion) and the LA division of the FBI enlist the help of FBI trainee Simone Clark (Nash) when one of her former students is suspected of terrorism following an explosion at a local power station.

2022 ABC Pilots & Series Orders

Much like the Chicago, Law & Order, FBI, 9-1-1 and the Grey’s Anatomy franchises which thrive on crossovers, The Rookie and the spinoff will exist in the same universe, allowing characters to move back and forth.

The planted spinoff route ABC is taking with The Rookie offshoot involves new characters getting incorporated into the mothership series before anchoring their own show. I hear Nash is one of four actors who will guest star in the two-episode arc on The Rookie with an option to become series regulars on the proposed new series if it gets picked up for next season.

ABC used a similar strategy for the black-ish spinoff, grown-ish, and a modified version for Grey’s Anatomy offshoot Station 19 whose lead was introduced in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy after the project had received a straight-to-series order.

“I’m so excited to guest star on The Rookie and bring Simone Clark to life! She is a spirited and spicy fish out of water,” said Nash. “The cast is amazing and I can’t wait to play!”

A series pickup for the offshoot would expand The Rookie to a two-show franchise, with the original also expected to return for a fifth season. Four seasons in, The Rookie remains one of ABC’s most watched drama series, just behind Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19 and The Good Doctor, drawing solid linear viewership in addition to strong delayed/streaming lifts. Season to date, The Rookie builds to 9.3 million total viewers after 35 days of multi-platform viewing, up +236% over its Live+Same Day average; its adults 18-49 jump is +519%.

Beyond its comedic premise, The Rookie has tackled serious issues like police brutality, and Hawley became the first showrunner to ban “live” weapons on set in the wake of the tragic Rust accident that claimed the life of Director of Photography Halyna Hutchins.

Nash rose to prominence as one of the stars of Comedy Central’s satire Reno 9-1-1!. Nash also reprised her role as no-nonsense Officer Raineesha Williams in the 2017 feature film, Reno 911: Miami, and the recent series revival for Quibi. The in-demand actress also starred in TV Land’s The Soul Man opposite Cedric the Entertainer, HBO’s Getting On and Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens for Fox.

She most recently headlined Claws, which wrapped its four-season run on TNT this past weekend. Nash has earned three Emmy nominations to date, two for Getting On and one for Ava DuVernay’s limited series When They See Us, which also landed her an NAACP Image Award. The Rookie reunites her with eOne President of Global Television Michael Lombardo who ran HBO programming during Getting On’s three-season run.

Nash, whose recent credits also include major recurring roles on the FX limited series Mrs. America and Netflix’s Never Have I Ever as well as the Netflix film Uncorked, is repped by WME, Artists First and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

UPDATE: Niecy Nash reacted to the news on Twitter: