ABC is giving its summer hit drama "Rookie Blue" some additional exposure by airing repeat episodes of the Thursday night show on three consecutive Saturdays beginning July 24.
The show will replace a repeat episode of drama "Castle" and two repeats of reality competition show "Wipeout."
On July 24, "Rookie Blue" will simply replace "Castle" at 10 p.m.
But on July 31, ABC will remove "Wipeout" at 8 and move the movie scheduled to air from 9-11 that night, "Flightplan," into the 8-10 slot, and air "Rookie Blue" at 10 p.m.
The network will do the same on Aug. 7, when it takes off "Wipeout" at 8, and moves the movie "Red Eye" into the 8-10 slot, with "Rookie Blue" airing at 10 p.m.
In addition to producing generally solid numbers for a summer show, "Rookie Blue" in first-run has continually scored big year-to-year increases for ABC in its time period. Last week, "Rookie Blue" averaged 6.4 million viewers compared with the 2.7 million viewers that "Grey's Anatomy" repeats averaged in the same timeslot last summer. And its adults 18-49 rating, a 1.7, was 113 percent better than "Grey's" average of 0.8 for last summer.
Saturday is the least-watched television night of the week for the broadcast networks, but any added exposure to the show would be considered to be a plus by ABC.
