David Boreanaz’s ‘Rockford Files’ Reboot Officially Sets Release Date

Jim Rockford is back. The iconic TV detective from the classic crime caper series The Rockford Files will return in the New Year, thanks to NBC and star David Boreanaz. Now, we finally know when the new series will premiere—and how you can get inside information on the series by calling up Jim Rockford himself.

A reboot of the classic detective series, The Rockford Files will star Boreanaz (Bones) as Rockford, stepping into the shoes of the late James Garner. He’s a private eye who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit; now, he’s back on the street and ready to make a name for himself—even if that means stepping on the toes of both cops and criminals. The series also stars Michaela McManus (Redux Redux), Ilfenesh Hadera (Godfather of Harlem), and Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook); it is showrun by Mike Daniels (Sons of Anarchy), who also executive produces with Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman, and David Hudgins.

Now, we finally know when Rockford will be cracking his first case. The Rockford Files is set to premiere on Saturday, January 2, 2027, immediately after NBC’s NFL broadcast at approximately 8 p.m. ET as a special preview; it will then debut at its normal day and time on Thursday, January 7, at 8 p.m. ET. All episodes will also stream the next day on Peacock. Want to know more? You can call Rockford himself at (760) JIM-ROCK for a special message from David Boreanaz, and sign up for text updates on the series.

A great detective is really just a personality with a method attached,
which is why we keep remaking the same four of them. Here is yours, what it says about you, and the
case for them being the best in the business.

You let people think you are not a threat and then you simply
never go away. Columbo is the only major detective show that tells you who did it in the
first ten minutes, because the pleasure was never the puzzle, it was watching a rich man
slowly realise he is in trouble.

• You are underestimated constantly, and you have stopped minding because it keeps
  working.
• The show invented the inverted detective format for television and nobody has bettered
  it since.
• Peter Falk won four Emmys for the part and played him across five decades.
• Your flaw is that one more question is rarely one more question.

You are the most interesting person in the room and you know
exactly how to use it. Rian Johnson built Blanc as a gentleman detective who is also an
outsider everywhere he goes, which lets him be charming at people who would never otherwise
talk to him.

• You read a room in seconds and you are not above performing a little to speed things up.
• Rian Johnson was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Knives Out in
  2020.
• Wake Up Dead Man arrived on Netflix in December, making three Blanc films in six years.
• Your risk is enjoying the performance so much that people stop taking the point
  seriously.

Everybody tells you everything, and you have never once asked
them to. Jessica Fletcher is a crime novelist from a small town in Maine who is so warm and
so obviously trustworthy that suspects confess to her essentially as a social courtesy.

• You are the person friends call first, and you have a frankly alarming amount of
  information about everybody.
• Angela Lansbury was nominated for the Emmy twelve times for this role and never won
  once.
• The show ran twelve seasons, and Jamie Lee Curtis is now bringing the character back.
• Your flaw is that being told everything is only a gift if you know what to do with it.

You expect to be lied to and you are almost never disappointed.
Chandler wrote Marlowe as a man with a rigid private code in a city that has none, which is
why he takes the case, solves it, gets nothing out of it and takes the next one.

• You are the most cynical person your friends know and the one they would call at four in
  the morning.
• Bogart played him in The Big Sleep in 1946 and the plot is famously impossible to
  follow, which matters not at all.
• Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum and Liam Neeson have all taken the part, and every version
  says something about its decade.
• Your weakness is a code so strict that it mostly punishes the person holding it.

What’s With Jim Rockford’s Answering Machine?

Jim Rockford’s answering machine was an important part of the original series, which ran from 1974 to 1980. Answering machines weren’t yet common in American homes; in fact, Rockford rented his. It was another way that Rockford, with his stylish suits, sports car, and fake business cards, distinguished himself from the detectives of the past. They were also a trademark of the series; before the opening credits, every episode opened with a new, humorous message on Rockford’s machine, akin to the “couch gags” on The Simpsons; they were typically unrelated to the content of the episode, and eventually the writers had to take suggestions from the cast and crew to keep coming up with new ones.

The Rockford Files will premiere on NBC on Saturday, January 2, 2027; it will then debut in its regular timeslot on Thursday, January 7. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

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    Image via NBC</figure>