Now that 9-1-1 has officially made its home at ABC, will the disaster procedural cross over with its network brethren The Rookie? It’s not far-fetched to imagine it might.
After all, both 9-1-1 and The Rookie are set in the greater Los Angeles, California, area, so the locational mash-up aspect would be zero trouble. Then, there’s the fact that ABC has very recently shown a willingness to bring other unrelated programs into the 9-1-1 fold — for its 100th episode, the show crossed over with The Bachelor. (This season, ABC even crossed over Will Trent with some Real Housewives of Atlanta stars Phaedra Parks and Shamea Morton for another world collision).
9-1-1 star Oliver Stark floated the idea of seeing the series cross over with The Rookie when talking about the series’ move to ABC and how it might foreclose another event episode with 9-1-1: Lone Star. Speaking to Variety, he explained, “I don’t know know if that would ever be a possibility or not. I don’t really quite understand the legalities of that. If it is an option, I think we’re always game for it. It’s a lovely thing to see those universes, those worlds collide. I don’t know, maybe it even opens us up to possible other crossover with ABC procedurals. Maybe we end up on The Rookie.”
Meanwhile, The Rookie star Eric Winter told Hello Magazine of the prospect of a crossover, “I’ve been hearing people talk about that. Wouldn’t that be funny?… I love all those actors on that show, that would be amazing, that would be super fun. But I don’t know if it will happen.”
Perhaps most importantly, 9-1-1‘s showrunner Tim Minear, when teasing the eventual Bachelor crossover, teased to Entertainment Weekly, saying, “Is it The Rookie?… Probably not, since I just said The Rookie.” So at least we know the idea is already in his head.
Some fans on Reddit found a common thread that might be able to draw the two shows together: The fire department truck featured in The Rookie is numbered 118, just like the station number in 9-1-1.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see what’s in store for both shows when they return to ABC, starting with 9-1-1 this fall.
