Reno 911! Season 7 - What We Know So Far
Reno's dysfunctional finest are gearing up to walk a new beat.
Reno 911! is next on the revival series cycle a full decade after it left the air on Comedy Central in 2009, but in a slightly different pair of cabaret go-go boots. In the mid-to-late 2000s, Reno 911! was the edgier, more rambunctious forebear of Brooklyn Nine-Nine: a mockumentary-style, largely unscripted cop comedy focused on the incompetent officers of a fictitious county trooper department stationed in and around Reno, Nevada.
The show ended in July 2009 after 88 episodes across six seasons. Rather than return to Comedy Central for season 7, Reno 911! will re-emerge on the nascent short-format streaming service Quibi, per their December 2019 press release announcement. (You may not have heard of this new streaming service, but don't worry, we'll get to that.)
Though we live in an era of seemingly endless TV reboots and revivals, at least in Reno's case, there's a significant benefit in the fact that quite a bit of time has gone by to generate nostalgia — and also to let the mockumentary sitcom style that so pervaded the 2000s and early 2010s (The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock, to name a standout few) wane as the go-to narrative format. Let's take a look at what to expect of the Reno Sheriff's Department's return to patrol for Reno 911! season 7.
Reno 911! season 7 will air on the new streaming service Quibi
Quibi is a brand-spankin'-new streaming platform that seeks to cater most specifically to millennials and those younger with a unique approach: it's on mobile platforms only, and delivers content in a micro-episodic format. All serial content produced for the streamer will be 10 minutes or less — think Vine or TikTok or the in-beta-app Byte, but by and for corporate television studios. It's meant to be pick-up-and-go entertainment akin to Snapchat and Instagram Stories; much of Quibi's executive development strategy has included scooping up people from both companies. The time limitation and the stated intent to film all its content optimized for watching on a phone (meaning it's watchable in vertical and horizontal position) is a risky venture, but at least Reno 911!'s concept seems perfectly fit for this idea. It's a sketch comedy, and shorter is typically better in that genre to keep the humor tight and to-the-point. This media format has been tried before, most notably by Verizon's doomed Go90 effort, but not at this level of spending to acquire triple-A talent.
Quibi will have two pay structures: one version with a single pre-episode ad, which costs $4.99 a month; and another without any ads at all, which costs $7.99 a month. Ad length depends on the length of the content video, too: 10-second ads roll if the video is five minutes or less, and 15-second ones stream if the content runs longer than that, up to the 10 minutes permitted by the content format. Quibi is scheduled to launch on April 6, 2020.
What's the release date for Reno 911! season 7?
As of December 2019, Reno 911! season 7 doesn't have a specific release date, though we do know it's been greenlit for production.
Quibi itself is set to roll out on April 6, 2020 — and the only for-sure thing that will be available on launch day is the Daily Essentials sports and news program. Given the massive amount of pressure to perform in the ever-expanding streaming market, however, Quibi probably won't wait very long to begin airing Reno 911! season 7. It's the only pre-existing IP with name recognition that the streamer has to draw attention to itself (though quite a bit of household-name talent will be producing brand-new original content for the service). Reno's revival is also one of the first big efforts by Comedy Central's new division meant to create and shop around scripted and unscripted series for streaming services and traditional TV (as opposed to producing solely for the cable channel itself), so Quibi has a lot it's eager to prove, too.
Given Reno 911! season 7's format, production time will also be a lot shorter than any traditional television production, so Quibi can likely crank out episodes at a speedy pace once everything is in place. It wouldn't be out of place to expect a release date announcement mere weeks ahead of the intended premiere — most likely in mid-2020, shortly after Quibi launches in April.
Who's in the cast of Reno 911! season 7?
The only actors officially attached to Reno 911! season 7 as of this writing are its producers who first created the concept and appeared on the show: Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Thomas Lennon, who played Deputy Travis Junior, Deputy Trudy Weigel, and the flamboyant Lieutenant Jim Dangle, respectively. Sketch comedy often has the happy accident of its creators also starring on screen, so it's encouraging to know the Reno's beating heart has been revived in good working order.
In the press release announcing the revival of Reno 911!, it's hinted that Nick Swardson, who portrayed a recurring citizen in Reno named Terry Bernadino, will be back in action for the new season: "Hopefully [he] can still rollerskate," the release reads. It's safe to assume that the minds behind Reno 911! season 7 are at least talking to Swardson about reprising his role.
Wendi McLendon-Covey, who portrayed Deputy Clementine Johnson on Reno 911!, has wrapped on a few film projects that will release in 2020 but appears otherwise unoccupied. Perhaps she'll soon join the cast as well.
Though the press release quotes Lennon saying it's "a delight to get the original cast back together," further official casting is yet to come — and the rest of the OG stars could have some barriers to overcome if they are to return. Cedric Yarbrough, who played Deputy S. Jones on Reno 911!, currently has a recurring (though not crucial) role on CBS' medical comedy Carol's Second Act. Though Niecy Nash's time on TNT's Claws is done since the series' finale, she's currently working on the historical drama miniseries Mrs. America, which documents the organized religious pushback led by Phyllis Schlafly against The Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Carlos Alazraqui, who portrayed Deputy James Garcia on Reno 911!, has mostly been taking voice work in recent years (he's the voice of Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life), but he's now attached to a pilot for a comedy series on which the last living descendant of Jesus Christ acquires publishing rights to the Bible. That pilot doesn't appear to have been picked up for series yet, and the fickle nature of pitching television pilots may mean it all comes to nothing in the end.
Still, it's worth noting that the unique video format Quibi presents — coupled with the bulk style in which Reno 911! has been filmed in the past (for example, a full season's worth of morning briefing scenes was often filmed in a single day) — might help ease any scheduling conflicts.
There's little doubt that producers want to reunite as much of the original cast as possible for more raunchy nonsense — nonsense that can now be both raunchier and uncensored thanks to Quibi's paid format that couldn't be done with Comedy Central being on cable — and we're hoping for all that and more.
Check back with Looper for continued updates on Reno 911! season 7.