As one of The Rookie’s original officers, the LAPD wouldn’t be the same without Bradford. But after six seasons, could Tim Bradford leaving The Rookie? Keep reading for the telling clue about the fan-favorite cop’s future.
The Rookie is ABC’s police procedural drama following John Nolan, a newly divorced man in his 40s who, after inadvertently helping the police stop a bank robbery, moves from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California, to pursue career as a police officer at the Los Angeles Police Department. The series, which was created by Alexi Hawley, is based on the true story of William Norcross, a real officer with the Los Angeles Police Department who moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and joined the department in his mid-40s.
Eric Winter plays Tim Bradford, a training officer at the Los Angeles Police Department who served as a Marine squad leader in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining the LAPD. In an interview with HollywoodLife in 2020, Winter, who also starred in Lifetime’s Witches of East End, explained why Bradford is one of the most difficult roles he’s ever played.
“It really is one of the more challenging characters I’ve had to play,” Winter said. “Alexi talked about this early on because in TV world every episode is such a slow build in real life for them. Everything is a slow pursuit and it’s very tempting for an actor to want to jump ahead with different emotions right away. So for him to really be able to play this balance of how little Bradford shows with emotion, how stoic he can be, and when he shows emotions and over what things, and what his triggers are, it’s been fun to dissect as an actor for this type of character.”
He continued, “It’s not as easy to be that stoic or that serious and tough and angry. He’s a very battered human. He’s got a lot of issues. He’s a broken guy. It’s been to see him shed off those layers little by little and show a softer side of who maybe he was the day he got into the academy. You can see how much the job has probably changed and shaped him. For those moments of bringing those out, it’s been really fun to peel back and show more and more and how he is with his training officers versus how he is with the other rookies. It’s been an incredible ride.”
But could Bradford’s time with the LAPD be over? Read on for what we know about if Tim Bradford is leaving The Rookie and what Eric Winter has said about his character’s future.
Is Tim Bradford leaving The Rookie?
Is Tim Bradford leaving The Rookie? The answer is no. Viewers speculated that Eric Winter, who has played Bradford since season 1 of The Rookie, was leaving the series after Season 6, Episode 6, “Secrets and Lies,” which saw Bradford and his girlfriend, Lucy Chen, break up after Chen learned some secrets that Bradford had been keeping from her.
During the episode, viewers (and Chen) learned that Bradford had falsified military documents about the death of his former military unit member, Ray Watkins, years ago. While in the military, Bradford learned that Watkins was double dealing with the enemy but before he could apprehend him, Ray called in an airstrike, which killed two men in their unit. Bradford and his friend, Mark Greer, thought Ray had died and reported him as dead. Turns out, Ray is still alive wants to kill Bradford as revenge.
While Bradford and his team are able to arrest Ray, the ordeal took a toll on Bradford’s relationship with Chen. Bradford broke up with Chen at the end of the episode, believing that he didn’t deserve love and feeling the need to punish himself for lying to everyone.
So is Tim Bradford leaving The Rookie? Winter confirmed that he isn’t leaving The Rookie and plans to return to the series for Season 7. “I’m hoping to get into a lot of that in Season 7 — assuming we get a Season 7!” Winter said of exploring Bradford’s backstory. “Nothing has been announced, but going into the next season I’m hoping to get into much of that, for Tim and for the Bradford fans that are out there.”
He also teased Bradford’s future after his split with Chen. “You’re going to get Tim that has been humbled, for sure. He still asserts himself when he needs to, and still steps up at the right moments, but he has been humbled both in his personal life and in the way he’s approaching things going forward,” he said.
He also told the site about what it could take for Bradford and Chen to get back together. “I think it’s going to take some time figuring out who he is. Accepting his failures. Therapy. It’s going to take Tim doing things that he has never been comfortable doing before in order to dig into his past and why he is the way he is. It’s very cliché, I know, but you really have to come to terms with who you are and love yourself before you can go out there and love somebody else and give them your very best,” he said.
Winter previously confirmed in a Cameo video in January 2023 that he plans to stay on The Rookie for as long as possible. “You are the best fans in the world. It’s unheard of that we are growing in ratings because of the support we get from you all, so thank you for that. Please keep doing that, please keep enjoying the show,” Winter said. “Our ratings are better than ever. I feel really confident about a season 6. Nothing is official yet, but I do feel very confident given the way things are going, so get ready for more Rookie.”
The Rookie also previously sparked theories Bradford was leaving on March 1, 2023, when the series’ official Instagram account posted a trailer for season 5, episode 18, “Double Trouble,” in which Lucy Chen says, “Tim just disappeared.” The trailer then cuts to Aaron Thorsen radios his team from outside a dumpster,” Seven Lincoln seven, I just found a body…it’s Tim Bradford.” “if tim is gone i am gone,” Instagram user @madison.cardillo commented on the post. Instagram user @destinee_the_best commented, “If he dies I’m not watching the show I’m sorry.” Instagram user @aug.eh added, “no way he’s dead lucy would be way more upset and they wouldn’t make a documentary.”
The episode, which aired on March 21, 2023, turned out to be a red herring. In “Double Trouble” the dead body isn’t Bradford but his look-alike, Dim, a criminal who is out of prison and goes on a crime spree with his girlfriend, Juicy, who is Chen’s look-alike. The episode starts with Thorsen finding Dim’s body in a dumpster after he went missing. Dim was missing for four hours and his time of death was about 30 hours before Thorsen found him.
In the end, the team discovers that Lisa Miller, Juicy’s best friend who Dim was cheating on her with while he was in prison, killed him. When Dim left prison, Lisa couldn’t handle that Dim was with Juicy instead of her, so she tried to run them off the road. When that didn’t work, Lisa met Dim, shot him dead and dumped his body in the dumpster. The episode ends with the team arresting Lisa after a shoot out between her and John Nolan.
In an interview with HollywoodLife in 2020, Winter explained how there was so much left to explore with Chen and Bradford’s relationship. “I couldn’t be happier to be part of it,” he said. “They picked this duo and turned them into Chenford and Tucy. It’s amazing, because going into the show, I don’t think anybody predicted that or thought that was even in the future.”
He continued, I think Alexi [Hawley] had a lot of things lined up structurally without these characters’ relationships, but as seasons go on and characters grow and the actors bring what they do, everybody evolves. Fans have a strong voice and fans really took to this tough love of Bradford just all over this girl and her taking it, pushing back, and delivering. It turned into this super powerful platonic love that everyone wants to see it be more than that. I say it to Melissa [O’Neill] all the time and I said it on Instagram Live, I give so much credit to the fans helping to build something because you really see the power of fans. They really helped build that story out. It’s great to see. I’m fully supportive, and I love where it’s going. I love the slow burn of at all. I think it’s not something you’d want to see happen anyways while they’re in the rookie phase of training.”
