With 9-1-1 moving to ABC in 2023, talks immediately turned to the crossover potential it had with the network's other primetime procedurals.
The Rookie is filmed and based in Los Angeles and so fans immediately saw the potential to see Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) of the 118 working alongside Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and his team – and it's potential Eric Winter, who stars as Sergeant Tim Bradford, can also see.
As he shared his hopes for season seven of The Rookie, Eric said of the fan chatter: "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," he said.
Regardless of if Tim would ever get to work with Buck (Oliver Stark) or Chim (Kenneth Choi), however, Eric does have some hopes for cool cameos in season seven, admitting he once tried to get Shaquille O'Neal, the American former basketball player and sports analyst, on the show in season two.
"He almost did it and it didn't work out," he said. "But the basketball player Chris Paul was at the upfronts for ABC and I'm friends with him because our daughters are in school together, and I told showrunner Alexi Hawley, 'We could do something fun with Chris Paul,' so I'm going to be pushing that one and we'll see what other ABC talent we can throw in."
As for the characters already on the show, Eric says that he loves seeing Tim and Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) get more screen time together, and that in season seven "there could be some great scenes this season with Tim and Grey (Richard Jones); Gray giving him life experience and trying to help him navigate where he's at right now".
"I always have a great time working with Richard so that's like a no-brainer for me,' he added.
Season seven of The Rookie will go back into production in a few weeks, but won't return to screens until January 2025.
"I was very nervous at first I'll be honest, I was bummed," Eric said of hearing the news; The Rookie is normally a fall premiere.
"But then, I talked to a lot of people at the upfronts and it made perfect sense. I know how much of a priority The Rookie is to ABC and with this being an election year and a lot of time being devoted to those sorts of things, they're trying to protect the show. There would be too many gaps, and the fans don't love that. So they're really trying to put us in a lineup where we can give eight episodes in a row with no interruption and so I appreciate it for that reason."