Ambitious young cops try to prove themselves in their high-stakes careers, in which the smallest mistake can have deadly consequences. At the core of the close-knit group is perfectionist Andy McNally, whose father was a homicide detective before he burned out on the job. The series follows Andy and her four colleagues -- Dov Epstein, Gail Peck, Traci Nash and Chris Diaz -- as they experience the trials, triumphs and tribulations of police work, as well as its effect on their personal lives.
Latest episode: S6 E11 74 Epiphanies (Jul 29, 2015)
The first season of the Canadian police drama Rookie Blue began airing on 24 June 2010 with a simultaneous premiere on Global in Canada and ABC in the U.S. On 12 July 2010, four days after the third episode was broadcast, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a second season. The first season completed its run on 9 September 2010 with a double episode airing.
The second season of the Canadian police drama Rookie Blue starring Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith began airing on 23 June 2011 on Global in Canada.
The third season of the Canadian police drama Rookie Blue starring Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith premiered on 24 May 2012 on Global in Canada. In June 2012, it was announced that Rookie Blue has been renewed for a fourth season which premiered on May 23, 2013 on Global in Canada.
With three years under their belt, the rookies of 15 Division know that rolling with the punches is more than just a life lesson, it's an essential part of the job. Change is the only constant, and if you don't adapt, you're left behind. Now, for these five officers, the time has come to look change right in the eye and make some big, bold choices.
Season five returns with two lives hanging in the balance. Officers Sam Swarek and Chloe Price have been shot in the line of duty and both are in critical care, but life at 15 Division must go on. But as the shell-shocked officers struggle to pull the pieces of their lives back together, they can't help but wonder -- will things ever work out the way they're supposed to? It's a season of life-altering decisions, and with Andy torn between Sam & Nick, she welcomes the professional distraction of training a challenging new rookie and will learn that sometimes even making the right choice can have serious consequences.
Last season the officers at 15 Division unearthed their sins of the past – dug through it, aired it out, and paved the way to move forward. They have all grown and are more resilient than ever. This season, they will have to learn to embrace living in the gray areas, because life is complicated and the best laid plans are just that. But sometimes it’s the unpredictable things life throws our way that turn out to be exactly what we need.
When the camera stopped rolling and the cruisers pulled off set, Rookie Blue’s world didn’t just go dark — it got messy, sparkly, and occasionally peroxide-damaged. From engagement whispers to a literal hair meltdown that turned into canon, here’s the juiciest real-world gossip hiding behind your favorite Canadian cop soap.
Detective Jerry Barber’s shocking Season 3 death wasn’t just a gut punch on-screen; it set off a mini fan revolt. Viewers were so furious about losing Noam Jenkins that they launched an online petition begging producers to “bring back Jerry Barber,” accusing the show of killing him off purely for drama, not story 
. Some Canadian coverage noted that the actors — including Jenkins — bore the brunt of the backlash, with one piece mentioning how hard the fan anger hit after that twist . Officially, it was a creative choice. Unofficially? Fans still side-eye that writers’ room.
In 2015, after six seasons, Rookie Blue was abruptly cancelled — and not by some gentle, gold-watch goodbye. Trade outlets framed it as ABC simply closing the precinct after 74 episodes . Missy Peregrym later wrote an emotional farewell post calling the show “messy” in all the best ways and hinting that cast and crew had “fought for the best in each other” right to the end . Translation: there were real discussions and battles about how these characters’ stories wrapped.
Long before Andy had to choose between Sam and Nick, Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith were already playing up a different dynamic. In early interviews, they described themselves as like “brother and sister,” gleefully undercutting any real-life love-triangle fantasies fans might have had . They joked, they teased — but behind the scenes the vibe was camaraderie, not enemies-to-lovers.
In a legendary Reddit AMA, Ben Bass fielded an avalanche of thirsty McSwarek questions. He admitted he was a “HUGEEEE believer in the McSwarek relationship” and talked about hanging out with castmates off set 
. No feuds spilled, but you could feel how intensely fans policed every Sam decision; even Ben warned viewers might be “frustrated” with Sam’s choices in some seasons in separate interviews . When the actor has to manage fan expectations like a crisis negotiator, you know the ship wars were real.
Fan blogs lit up in 2013 when Missy Peregrym appeared at Shaw Media upfronts wearing what looked suspiciously like an engagement ring. One blogger flat-out said “rumors have been going around that the two were engaged” after that photo hit the internet . The post coyly connected the dots between Missy and her then-relationship speculation without naming a partner — fans, of course, immediately dragged in Ben Bass and other suspects. Nothing was ever confirmed, and the “mystery fiancé” remains… well, a mystery.
Before 15 Division, Missy dated Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger around 2007–2008; images of them together at the Watchmen premiere in 2009 live on in photo archives . His later sexual assault accusations and off-field scandals added retroactive tabloid spice to Missy’s dating history — not related to Rookie Blue itself, but fans absolutely folded that drama into their discourse about her “type” and her much more wholesome on-screen pairing with Sam.
Peter Mooney (Nick) didn’t end up with Andy or Gail, but he did snag a Hallmark-movie-worthy romance. He started seeing actress Sarah Power in 2014; entertainment pieces now proudly note that the two married in 2017 and share a daughter . Fan pages love to point out that while Nick was getting his heart stomped in Toronto, Peter was quietly getting his rom-com ending off-screen.
This is the kind of chaos we live for. According to TV Tropes’ behind-the-scenes trivia, Charlotte Sullivan’s hair was “ruined from bleaching by the time Season 4 wrapped, and she had to cut it short” . For the Season 5 premiere, she was reportedly in a wig — and then the writers did the only sensible thing: they wrote a scene where Gail drunk-cuts her hair, turning a real-life hair emergency into in-universe character trauma [12]. In a separate interview, Sullivan laughed that her very blonde look was “simply a matter of peroxide gone on too long, and my hair fell out” . The gayest cop on TV brought down by the straightest villain of all: bad bleach.
LGBTQ fans were vocal about Gail’s late-in-the-game coming out and romance with Holly. One queer TV site joked that a viewer saw Gail on-screen and immediately announced, “So that’s the token lesbian?” only for the show to actually make her queer four seasons later . Interviews with Sullivan and coverage on queer outlets framed Gail’s sexuality as organic to her arc, not stunt writing [13], but the fandom never stopped debating whether the show waited too long — or did too little.
McSwarek wasn’t just a pairing; it was a cottage industry. FanFic archives and LiveJournal communities dedicated entire collections to Sam/Andy angst and domestic fluff . Ben Bass himself acknowledged in that AMA that he loved the pairing and appreciated the fan passion [6]. Missy Peregrym did a video interview where she was told there was a lot of fan fiction about Andy and Sam; she grinned and called it “hilarious,” clearly amused that people were scripting her love life between shifts [17].
Fans on message boards and fan forums have long mourned the lack of an extended, properly indulgent Andy/Sam wedding sequence. Global’s own highlight reels tease the big day , and fans have swapped descriptions of “longer” or “more emotional” footage that was shot but never aired in full — though these remain unverified fan claims, not officially released deleted scenes.
A fun bit of history buried in trivia: Gregory Smith and Charlotte Sullivan had already worked together as kids on Harriet the Spy (1996) 
. By the time they reunited on Rookie Blue, they’d gone from child side-characters to emotionally damaged officers trading barbs at 15 Division.
When FBI cast Charlotte Sullivan opposite Missy Peregrym in 2024, trades billed it outright as a Rookie Blue reunion . Fans on Reddit and TikTok treated the episode like a stealth mini-reboot, joking that this was basically Gail and Andy in witness protection with new badges.
In her “Farewell Rookie Blue” blog, Missy Peregrym wrote, “We are messy,” and praised the cast’s uniqueness, saying they “cared enough to fight for the best in each other” [4]. It’s not a lawsuit or a screaming match, but it does sound like a polite Canadian way of confirming there were passionate arguments behind the scenes over storylines, endings, and who these characters got to be.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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