ABC has just announced renewals for both The Rookie and The Good Doctor for their 2022-2023 lineup. The news is not all that surprising considering that the two series rank as some of their most viewed shows. Next year The Rookie will begin its fifth season and The Good Doctor will begin its sixth season. A spinoff of The Rookie is also currently in the works and is set to star Reno 911 alum, Niecy Nash.
The Good Doctor follows the life and career of Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome. The series explores the progress of his career, his various cases, and his own personal life including his budding relationships and conflicts with his coworkers. The series is based on a Korean drama of the same name. Freddie Highmore takes the lead as Dr. Shaun Murphy. He is joined by Hill Harper, Richard Schiff, Christina Chang, Fiona Gubelmann, Will Yun Lee, Paige Spara, Noah Galvin, and Bria Samone Henderson. The series consistently brings in large audience sizes, averaging over 10 million viewers per episode.
The Rookie tells the story of an unconventional new hire as an LAPD police officer. Nathan Fillion, who previously starred in the fan-favorite series Castle, which ran from 2009 to 2016, stars as John Nolan goes through a life-altering experience and decides to join the police force. The series also features Mekia Cox, Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Melissa O’Neil, Eric Winter, Jenna Dewan, and Shawn Ashmore in the cast. The series averages just under 10 million viewers per episode. Alexi Hawley is the creator of the series. He previously worked with Fillion on Castle, where he served as a producer on the series. Hawley also serves as executive producer on the series alongside Mark Gordon, Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Bill Norcross, and Terence Paul Winter.
Both series have been hits for the network, filling in the current trend for medical and law enforcement-based series that feature overarching season-long plots paired with episodic plot points that tie into the lead characters' profession. Such series are the core of ABC's primetime lineup, which also features the long-running series Grey's Anatomy, a series that has proven to be a template for many other series on the network. The series has also gone so far as to do frequent gross over episodes with the fire-station-based series Station 19, which is also one of ABC's core primetime programs.