Bailey’s The Rookie Exit Scare Is Fantastic News For Its Future

Published Oct 3, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT

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Jenna Dewan's personal update cast doubts about Bailey Nune's future in The Rookie, and its resolution is great news for the show's future. ABC's fall 2026 lineup is already rolling, but the Disney-owned network is missing a few hits, including Alexi Hawley's fan-favorite procedural. Continuing its scheduling trend, The Rookie is being saved for the midseason, with season 9 expected to premiere after the mandatory holiday break.

Despite that, the procedural's production wasn't pushed back. In fact, The Rookie season 9's cast and crew have been on set since summer, ensuring that there are enough episodes to roll out once it's finally back in ABC's lineup. Despite the budget cuts and some narrative twists, the core cast of The Rookie is confirmed to return for the new cycle, but a more recent development involving Dewan raised concerns about Bailey's future, as the actress has officially joined Dancing with the Stars season 35.

Jenna Dewan's Dancing With The Stars Stint Caused Bailey Exit Concerns

Disney/Andrew Eccles

When it was announced that Dewan was one of the competitors for the fan-favorite ABC competition, questions about her stint with The Rookie quickly made the rounds online. As a network TV series, the production schedule for the police procedural is known to be rigorous, especially since procedurals tend to roll out 18+ episodes per season. It would be difficult to manage that workload with the training, rehearsals, and actual live performance that come with being a competitor for Dancing with the Stars — even for someone as talented at dancing as Dewan. As such, this raised concerns about Bailey's future in The Rookie.

Luckily, before any spiral happened, the matter was quickly addressed. No, Bailey is not leaving The Rookie even as Dewan competes in Dancing with the Stars. Since both shows are on ABC, it was easier to coordinate the actor's schedules for both the procedural and the reality show, hence why she was allowed to be involved in them. How they are planning to do that is currently unclear, but as The Rookie season 9 continues filming, Dewan is mostly focused on her stint with Dancing with the Stars. Additionally, her cast mates are so supportive of her new endeavor.

Why Dewan Being Allowed To Do Both Shows Is Great For The Rookie

ABC (via MoviesStillsDb)

Regardless of how The Rookie plans on handling Dewan's inevitable absence as she joins Dancing with the Stars, the fact that she's allowed to do this is great news for the show and its cast. As the TV landscape gradually changes, with streaming shows establishing shorter and fewer seasons, traditional broadcasting has mainly maintained its annual schedule. Great as this may be for viewers, this makes talents involved prone to burnout, resulting in some of the biggest cast exits in history. Some shows move forward even after a massive loss, but others eventually decide to wrap up, such as when Jim Parsons decided to leave The Big Bang Theory.

Dewan's situation is setting a good precedent for The Rookie that allows its cast to explore other opportunities moving forward. It's important that they can have a break from the procedural if they want to, and they aren't boxed throughout its run. Obviously, it will make things trickier for Hawley and the writing team as they have to come up with a justified reason for people's absences, but that is better than breaking up the ensemble, especially since The Rookie's backbone is the chemistry of its characters. This gives the project legs to continue for more years without making changes to its personnel.

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The Rookie

6/10