And also, how do you choose the rums that are going to go into the blend?

So the choosing was just a long, grueling process of trying rums from all over, just getting different tastes and feels of what.

my partner and I liked and what we thought could jump out.

Not fully knowing what would blend the best together, but we had a fantastic master distiller who put together a recipe that I think truly stands out.

Just like rum was for me, I'm this white guy from California, you know, dating a Puerto Rican from Puerto Rico.

It was like bringing cultures and people together, right? So I was like, if we take these elements and we blend them together we're bringing cultures together in a bottle we're going to bring the community together and help you experience something new and now it's kind of our process how do we take some of that jamaican funk balance it out with some of the smooth notes in our aged with our panamanian and also some of the sweetness that came from our u.s virgin island rum and that balance really what rounded it out so like i can show you our silver is jamaica usvi And our age is Panama, Jamaica, USVI.

And that was part of the thought process of putting those things together.

We launched with a bottle

Is that due to binge-watching?

Due to TikTok, social media.

It's due to social media.

We are a true case study of how the right use of social media can actually impact viewership, and we've grabbed an extremely young demographic.

We're a cop show.

We're on at 10 o'clock at night, but when they put us onto streaming, and it comes back to that, to that part of it, we're on Hulu, then they added us to Disney+, so now you've opened up to a younger group of people.

Um, we were in the LA Times for the, uh, grabbing the largest young demographic of any network show on television And it's a demographic that everybody would love to find.

Every style, every home.

I think we're trying to get to the, the idea that this is the f- of, of a first for Eric to be playing this sort of a role.

Yeah, and I, and I would say to the point that I had everything stacked against me funny enough.

I, um, you know, I've talked about this audition journey a bit and it...

I've had two...

Nathan, we've shared a lot of stories, like, in the industry as we've gone through our journeys, whether starting out or whatever.

I've had two moments in my career where I felt the air sort of come out of the room or a lightning in a bottle type moment, and the first moment was my very first pilot I ever got, which was called Viva Laughlin for CBS years ago, and Hugh Jackman was in it, Melanie Griffith was in it, and it was first time a big movie star had ever done TV.

I mean, this was Hugh Jackman agreeing to eight episodes of CBS network television before streamers, all that stuff.

Wow.

Do you almost have to look at sport as an entertainment program in, in that respect?

At the top end.

You know, I don't think Little League Baseball doesn't have to be entertainment.

That's about education.

You know, that can be a bit slower and things.

And for sure, on the build-up levels to this can be about education, and, and they have to do certain things to get to that level.

You know, at four star long, I think they have to jump into water and land in water because when they get to five star, they have to do those things.

If you could sum up this year's cross-country track in one or two lines, what would you say about it?

How cool is it playing the role of Bradford? Like do you, when you're about to film, how much do you get into the role? Do you need to like get into your costume at home? Have you got like a police officer outfit just to like get in the role to get in the headspace?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I will say this, like of a lot of the jobs I've done, getting into the police uniform is definitely a huge component of the character.

A lot of them, Even when they switched out, you know, Angela and Harper being detectives, as soon as you lose the uniform, it's a huge piece of your character.

It's very weird to explain.

But, you know, now eight seasons in, it's become very easy to slip in and out of the character when I go to work.

I kind of know how Tim would behave and how he'd act, how he'll be, and they write so well for him now.

So for people who haven't seen The Rookie or maybe they've watched up to season six or seven, give us like a tagline on why season eight is the best so far.

So if you could sit someone down who has never seen The Rookie before and say, I want you to watch this scene, this scene of mine, this work I did, it's the one scene that you have a chance to show them, what would you show them?

That's a really tough question for one scene.

I would have to pick maybe if I had to pick one, maybe the – The scene with my dad, when I finally tell him, you don't decide who I am and how I made it.

I'm who I am despite of you.

I've made it without you.

Probably that would be one of the most touching scenes for his development.

If I had to pick a few other just impactful scenes, I always go back to the pilot, the way Tim treated Lucy.

Yeah, you know what I