ABC ANNOUNCES EARLY RENEWAL OF POPULAR SUMMER DRAMA SERIES "ROOKIE BLUE"

ABC and Global Television jointly announced today the renewal of the summer's popular drama series, "Rookie Blue," for a fifth season. The fifth season of the series will start development in the fall and will move into production in January 2014.

In Thursday's 10 o'clock hour, ABC's "Rookie Blue" is the No. 1 series in Total Viewers this summer to date. The ABC drama is growing over its prior summer average by 15% in Total Viewers to deliver its most-watched season in 3 years - since Summer 2010.

The one-hour, dramatic series provides a candid look at the personal and professional lives of five rookie cops. Now in their fourth year on the job, these officers continue to face new challenges every week, trying to roll with the punches without looking like the rookies they still feel they are. Andy McNally and Nick Collins were gone six months for their undercover operation. While they were gone, everything seems to have changed at 15 Division. Last season our officers all got what they thought they wanted -- and then had to deal with the repercussions. This season they have to look change in the eye and learn to adapt -- leaving them all with some big, bold choices to make. Learning to adapt is part of life; these five new officers are putting that life lesson into practice on every single shift.

"Rookie Blue" stars Missy Peregrym as Andy McNally, Gregory Smith as Dov Epstein, Charlotte Sullivan as Gail Peck, Enuka Okuma as Traci Nash, Travis Milne as Chris Diaz, Peter Mooney as Nick Collins, Ben Bass as Sam Swarek, Priscilla Faia as Chloe Price and Rachael Ancheril as Marlo Cruz. Also starring in the series is Matt Gordon as Oliver Shaw, and Lyriq Bent as Frank Best.

In tomorrow's episode (Thursday, July 18, 10:01-11:00 p.m., ET), "Poison Pill," a chaotic drug arrest by Andy and Marlo triggers an all-out crisis when it's discovered that the drugs are contaminated with deadly bacteria. Swarek leads the squad in the scramble to get the tainted drugs off the streets before an outbreak sweeps the city. Meanwhile, Andy and Marlo are plunged into an intimate decontamination process, forcing Marlo to expose a shocking secret while under quarantine. And Dov and Chloe see their budding romance threatened when Dov suspects Chloe is hiding secrets.

"Rookie Blue" is executive-produced by Tassie Cameron ("Flashpoint"), Ilana Frank ("The Eleventh Hour," "Would Be Kings"), David Wellington ("The Eleventh Hour," "Would Be Kings"), Russ Cochrane and John Morayniss ("Klondike," "Rogue") and produced by ICF Films and Entertainment One.

For more information on "Rookie Blue," please visit ABC.com.