‘The Rookie’: Eric Winter Teases Chenford’s Tense Valentine’s Day

Stop in the name of love! After four seasons of flirting, the LAPD’s most arresting new couple has finally paired up in The Rookie. And they’re commemorating their first Valentine’s Day in the Tuesday, February 21 episode (airing at 8/7c on ABC).

“They’re quite a force to be reckoned with,” Eric Winter (above right) says of the #Chenford fandom that has championed the love match of his stern Sgt. Tim Bradford and Melissa O’Neil’s (above left) more emotional cop Lucy Chen since he was assigned to be her training officer.

Still, it’s not “all cotton candy and rainbows” now that the two are together, Winter says. Case in point: Their first Valentine’s Day.

“It’s not an easy one,” he previews of the episode, postponed from February 14 by the State of the Union.

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Any hope of a perfect romantic day is put on hold when Tim discovers early on that Lucy did something behind his back, which, for rule stickler Tim, “ruffles his feathers quite a bit” — so much so that the tension between them threatens to derail their plans.

Things are just as tricky for the precinct’s other lovebirds. Expect issues to arise for seasoned officer Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and firefighter Bailey (Jenna Dewan) as well, though Winter hints things will resolve in the classic comedy-infused Rookie way.

“It’s not what you’d expect,” he teases of the outcome. Hey, no one ever said love was easy!

On the less romantic side of things to come in Season 5 Episode 16, “Exposed,” the team must stop a militia from detonating a highly combustible truck in their possession, and Nolan, Thorson, Juarez, and Detective Harper search for three men who may have been exposed to Ebola and detain them for quarantine.

The Rookie is sitting pretty in its new Tuesday timeslot. After switching from Sundays at 10/9c on ABC in January, the series raked in its highest viewership in two years. Let’s hope the positive ratings and #Chenford both stick around for a while.

The Rookie, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC