“I was very nervous at first I’ll be honest, I was bummed,” Eric Winter, who stars as Tim Bradford in the hit series, tells HELLO! “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 us, 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.”

Eric has been on the show since the beginning, and has become a fan favorite, mostly thanks to his chemistry with colleague Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neill). Coined Chenford by fans, the romantic pairing finally took off in season five but came to an abrupt end in season six after Tim realized he was not in a healthy mindset to give Lucy what she needed.

In the short break between filming, Eric has been preparing to launch Palm Republic, a new rum venture which he says was inspired by his first meeting with his wife’s parents, while production for season seven will begin in a few weeks, and Eric said that although he has yet to see a script, he does know that fans can expect to see Tim back in the field training rookies.

As for Chenford? “I think we’re going to see Tim and Lucy continue to learn how to navigate their feelings while being on the job. We’ll see them pick up in a place where they’ve shown that they care about each other and now they have to figure out, ‘can we give each other space to do our job and allow our feelings to stay in a safe place but not rush anything and hope one person doesn’t go astray?’”

What were your thoughts on this finale?

Eric Winter: It was action packed and crazy, there is so much going on as always with The Rookie, it never stops! Then I saw this massive fight sequence I had to do in a moving truck and I was like, ‘Wow, they’re putting me through the ringer this season after fighting a giant in the 100th episode and now I’m fighting in a pickup truck again!”

But I love the great storytelling. Alexi [Hawley, the showrunner] does such an awesome job running the show and I feel like we hit these home runs every year with the finale; this one is full of emotion and action, it’s fast-paced, there’s romance, there’s danger, it’s high stakes – and then there was a glimmer of hope for Tim and Lucy that was interesting at the end.