# Brooklyn Nine-Nine
**Brooklyn Nine-Nine** is an American police procedural sitcom about the detectives of the 99th Precinct of the New York Police Department in Brooklyn, created by Dan Goor and [Michael Schur](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-schur). It premiered on Fox on September 17, 2013, was canceled by Fox after five seasons in May 2018, was picked up by NBC about a day later, and ended after eight seasons in 2021.[1](https://theninenine.com/about/) • [2](https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/pdf/22629) • [3](https://www.tvline.com/news/brooklyn-nine-nine-cancelled-no-season-6-fox-826369/) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-brooklyn-nine-nine-nbc-20190104-story.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Run | Fox, September 17, 2013 to May 2018 (five seasons, 112 episodes); NBC, seasons 6 to 8, ending in 2021[1](https://theninenine.com/about/) • [3](https://www.tvline.com/news/brooklyn-nine-nine-cancelled-no-season-6-fox-826369/) |
| Creators | Dan Goor and Michael Schur, both previously of Parks and Recreation[5](https://www.channel4.com/press/news/interview-brooklyn-nine-nines-main-men) |
| Setting | The 99th Precinct of the New York Police Department, in Brooklyn[2](https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/pdf/22629) |
| Central pairing | Childish detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and deadpan Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), a gay Black captain who spent his career obstructed by discrimination[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/brooklyn-nine-nines-dan-goor-on-cop-comedy-community-policing-and-nypd-history/) |
| Major awards | Two Golden Globes in 2014 (best comedy series; Andy Samberg, best actor); GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2018; Emmy for stunt coordination in season 1[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/tvandradioblog/2014/jan/13/brooklyn-nine-nine-golden-globes) • [8](https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/academic-affairs/graduate-studies-and-research/ourca/_files/Laridae-2019-Fall.pdf?v=20251115013010) • [9](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1404-fall-2014/brooklyn-nine-nine) |
| 2018 cancellation | Fox canceled it on May 10, 2018; NBC picked it up within roughly 31 hours[3](https://www.tvline.com/news/brooklyn-nine-nine-cancelled-no-season-6-fox-826369/) • [10](https://brooklyn99.fandom.com/wiki/The_Story_Behind_How_Brooklyn_Nine-Nine_Was_Canceled_and_Rescued_in_31_Hours) |
| Critical standing | 88% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 180 reviews; streaming on Netflix and Peacock[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/brooklyn_nine_nine) • [12](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/brooklyn-nine-nine) |
## Premise and format
The series is a workplace ensemble comedy built on the frame of a police procedural. Goor and Schur, who had made [Parks and Recreation](https://www.edgepedia.org/parks-and-recreation) together, said the precinct gave them what small-town government had not: exposition that was immediate and obvious, because "somebody's been murdered, we have to solve the murder."[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/brooklyn-nine-nines-dan-goor-on-cop-comedy-community-policing-and-nypd-history/) Schur noted that there had not been a half-hour cop comedy in a while, which made the setting an appealing challenge.[5](https://www.channel4.com/press/news/interview-brooklyn-nine-nines-main-men) Commentators placed the show in the lineage of [The Office](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-office) and Parks and Recreation, but observed that it found its own voice faster than either, and it borrowed the case-of-the-week structure of procedurals as a built-in story generator for the sitcom.[13](https://thesundae.net/2017/08/06/the-rise-and-fall-of-brooklyn-nine-nine/)
__The ensemble and joke rate__ are the show's defining features. One retrospective describes a workplace ensemble with an unusually high joke density and a central pairing of a childish detective and a rigidly formal captain, and credits the show with elaborate comic mechanisms executed precisely across a cast the audience knows well enough to predict.[14](https://manyangles.news/screen/brooklyn-nine-nine) Unlike traditional multi-strand sitcoms, each episode opens with a [cold open](https://www.edgepedia.org/cold-open) that is often self-contained and unrelated to the main story; the suspect-lineup rendition of the [Backstreet Boys](https://www.edgepedia.org/backstreet-boys)' "I Want It That Way" in the season 5 episode "DFW" remains the most-watched video on the show's official YouTube page, with about 44 million views.[15](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/brooklyn-nine-nine-writer-reflects-iconic-backstreet-boys-cold-open-going-viral)
Goor described a deliberate calibration rule for a comedy about crime: the characters had to be good at their jobs from the start, so that the audience could laugh at the hijinks without feeling that a bad guy was escaping because of them, and the show very rarely deals with crime victims, because "there's a lot less comedy in the plight of the victim."[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/brooklyn-nine-nines-dan-goor-on-cop-comedy-community-policing-and-nypd-history/) The series also drew on dramatic cop shows such as [The Shield](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-shield) and [Law & Order](https://www.edgepedia.org/law-and-order), the comic cop tradition of [Barney Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/barney-miller), which Goor called truer to life than his own show, and films such as Beverly Hills Cop and Die Hard.[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/brooklyn-nine-nines-dan-goor-on-cop-comedy-community-policing-and-nypd-history/)
## Characters and cast
The cast centers on [Andy Samberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-samberg) as Detective Jake Peralta, Andre Braugher as Captain Raymond Holt, Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz, Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords, Melissa Fumero as Amy Santiago, and [Joe Lo Truglio](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-lo-truglio) as Charles Boyle, with [Dirk Blocker](https://www.edgepedia.org/dirk-blocker) and Joel McKinnon Miller as Hitchcock and Scully.[16](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/brooklyn-nine-nine/season-1/) Within the show's world, Holt is the NYPD's first openly gay police captain and a Black captain who recalls discrimination he faced in the 1980s; Goor said police departments gain from welcoming officers from communities historically excluded from police service.[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/brooklyn-nine-nines-dan-goor-on-cop-comedy-community-policing-and-nypd-history/) • [28](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2014/03/11/foxs-newest-cop-comedy-brooklyn-nine-nine-quietly-breaking) A study of the show's Latina characters found they were written as competent, assertive professionals who diverge from sexualized stereotypes, a counter-narrative the producers claimed deliberately.[17](https://journal.ugm.ac.id/rubikon/article/view/83768)
The production favored improvisation within a tight structure. Scenes generally ran under two pages, actors delivered alternate lines in series, and the show used three locked handheld cameras shooting from one side of the axis, a method the first assistant directors credited with keeping the humor fresh and the days short.[9](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1404-fall-2014/brooklyn-nine-nine)
## The 2018 cancellation and rescue
Fox canceled the series on May 10, 2018, after five seasons, ending the run at 112 episodes; the last episodes had returned to about 1.9 million viewers and a 0.9 demo rating.[3](https://www.tvline.com/news/brooklyn-nine-nine-cancelled-no-season-6-fox-826369/) Co-creator Dan Goor received the call in a bathroom. Within about 31 hours, following a Twitter outcry from fans including [Guillermo del Toro](https://www.edgepedia.org/guillermo-del-toro), Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sean Astin, and [Mark Hamill](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-hamill), NBC announced it would pick up the show for a sixth season.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-brooklyn-nine-nine-nbc-20190104-story.html) • [10](https://brooklyn99.fandom.com/wiki/The_Story_Behind_How_Brooklyn_Nine-Nine_Was_Canceled_and_Rescued_in_31_Hours) NBC had originally passed on the comedy in 2012; Vanity Fair reported that Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, had always regretted letting Fox distribute a show starring Andy Samberg, an NBC homegrown talent from [Saturday Night Live](https://www.edgepedia.org/saturday-night-live), and that the company that produced the show turned out to be its rescuer.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-brooklyn-nine-nine-nbc-20190104-story.html) • [18](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/brooklyn-nine-nine-unreal-and-the-creeping-phenomenon-of-uncanceled-tv) Axios noted that Fox's expensive Thursday Night Football and baseball rights blocked primetime opportunities for shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Last Man on Earth.[19](https://www.axios.com/2018/05/12/nbc-picks-up-brooklyn-nine-nine-fox-canceled-andy-samberg) The episode became a standard example in coverage of how a cancellation verdict is no longer necessarily final.[20](https://time.com/6240853/hbo-max-shows-leaving/)
NBC renewed the show for a seventh season in February 2019 and for an eighth in November 2019; production of the final season was delayed by the pandemic.[1](https://theninenine.com/about/)
## Reception and awards
The show won two Golden Globes in January 2014, for best television comedy series and for Andy Samberg as best actor in a comedy, beating more celebrated nominees; the Guardian suggested the wins may have helped save the young show from cancellation.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/tvandradioblog/2014/jan/13/brooklyn-nine-nine-golden-globes) Time's review called the sweep a head-scratcher but noted the show needed the ratings help.[21](https://time.com/655/golden-globes-review-toastesses-to-the-hostesses-with-the-mostesses/) Over its run the series accumulated 19 wins and 129 nominations, including Critics' Choice and Primetime Emmy nominations for [Andre Braugher](https://www.edgepedia.org/andre-braugher) as Captain Holt and an Emmy win for Norman Howell's stunt coordination in the first season.[22](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2467372/awards/) • [9](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1404-fall-2014/brooklyn-nine-nine) For its portrayal of LGBTQ characters, it was nominated for the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series every consecutive year beginning in 2014 and won in 2018.[8](https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/academic-affairs/graduate-studies-and-research/ourca/_files/Laridae-2019-Fall.pdf?v=20251115013010) The series holds an 88% Tomatometer score from 180 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/brooklyn_nine_nine)
## Policing and the later seasons
The show's last three seasons coincided with a national debate over policing, and commentators describe the series as working out what to do about being a police comedy. One retrospective argues that its sincere attempts to confront the issue do not fully work, because a warm ensemble comedy in which the audience loves the officers cannot accommodate the conclusion the material points toward.[14](https://manyangles.news/screen/brooklyn-nine-nine) Academic readings reach related conclusions from both directions: a Claremont thesis found that the show, like Blue Bloods, advances discursive frames that legitimize policing, presenting misconduct as a problem of the past,[23](https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1419) while a Vienna thesis argues that its humor simultaneously functions as progressive critique of policing and as a means of obscuring police violence.[24](https://utheses.univie.ac.at/detail/80156) A City Journal retrospective described the final season as a study in how TV writers respond to outside political pressures, noting that the series portrayed cops negatively only occasionally and bore no resemblance to a gritty drama like The Shield.[25](https://www.city-journal.org/article/this-is-no-time-for-goofy-cop-jokes) In response to criticism that its light-hearted, multiracial precinct did not reflect the NYPD, the fourth season included an episode in which a lead character is racially profiled.[26](https://core.ac.uk/download/586152288.pdf) The series finale aired in 2021, as NBC moved Thursday nights to Law & Order spinoffs and broadcast comedy receded across the networks.[27](https://time.com/6094071/fall-tv-network-comedies-canceled/)
The show has remained widely available and rewatched since ending: it streams on Netflix and Peacock in the United States.[12](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/brooklyn-nine-nine)
## References
1. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine About the Show, TheNineNine.com](https://theninenine.com/about/)
2. [European Journal of American Studies (2024)](https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/pdf/22629)
3. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine Cancelled At Fox, TVLine (May 10, 2018)](https://www.tvline.com/news/brooklyn-nine-nine-cancelled-no-season-6-fox-826369/)
4. [After getting canceled by Fox, 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' looks to silver linings and second chances on NBC, Los Angeles Times (2019)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-brooklyn-nine-nine-nbc-20190104-story.html)
5. [An interview with Brooklyn Nine-Nine's main men, Channel 4](https://www.channel4.com/press/news/interview-brooklyn-nine-nines-main-men)
6. ['Brooklyn Nine-Nine's' Dan Goor on cop comedy, community policing and NYPD history, The Washington Post (2016)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/24/brooklyn-nine-nines-dan-goor-on-cop-comedy-community-policing-and-nypd-history/)
7. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine: why did it do so well at the Golden Globes?, The Guardian (2014)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/tvandradioblog/2014/jan/13/brooklyn-nine-nine-golden-globes)
8. [Laridae Undergraduate Academic Journal, Salisbury University (2019)](https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/academic-affairs/graduate-studies-and-research/ourca/_files/Laridae-2019-Fall.pdf?v=20251115013010)
9. [Cop Comedy, DGA Quarterly (Fall 2014)](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1404-fall-2014/brooklyn-nine-nine)
10. [The Story Behind How Brooklyn Nine-Nine Was Canceled and Rescued in 31 Hours, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Wiki](https://brooklyn99.fandom.com/wiki/The_Story_Behind_How_Brooklyn_Nine-Nine_Was_Canceled_and_Rescued_in_31_Hours)
11. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/brooklyn_nine_nine)
12. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/brooklyn-nine-nine)
13. [The Rise and Fall of Brooklyn Nine Nine, The Sundae (2017)](https://thesundae.net/2017/08/06/the-rise-and-fall-of-brooklyn-nine-nine/)
14. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021) Explained, Many Angles](https://manyangles.news/screen/brooklyn-nine-nine)
15. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine Writer Reflects On The 'Really Classic' Backstreet Boys Cold Open, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/brooklyn-nine-nine-writer-reflects-iconic-backstreet-boys-cold-open-going-viral)
16. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 1 Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/brooklyn-nine-nine/season-1/)
17. [The Counter-Stereotypical Representation of Latinas in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rubikon (2023)](https://journal.ugm.ac.id/rubikon/article/view/83768)
18. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Expanse, and the Creeping Phenomenon of Uncanceled TV, Vanity Fair (2018)](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/brooklyn-nine-nine-unreal-and-the-creeping-phenomenon-of-uncanceled-tv)
19. [NBC saves "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" after Fox drops the show, Axios (2018)](https://www.axios.com/2018/05/12/nbc-picks-up-brooklyn-nine-nine-fox-canceled-andy-samberg)
20. [Why Your Favorite Show Is Leaving HBO Max, Time (2022)](https://time.com/6240853/hbo-max-shows-leaving/)
21. [Golden Globes Review, Time (2014)](https://time.com/655/golden-globes-review-toastesses-to-the-hostesses-with-the-mostesses/)
22. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2467372/awards/)
23. [Blue and Bloody: Examining the discursive role of the police procedural on television, Indigo Olson, Scripps Senior Theses (2020)](https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1419)
24. ["That's how we do it in the Nine-Nine, sir", University of Vienna thesis](https://utheses.univie.ac.at/detail/80156)
25. [Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Final Season, City Journal](https://www.city-journal.org/article/this-is-no-time-for-goofy-cop-jokes)
26. [Southern Methodist University thesis (2024)](https://core.ac.uk/download/586152288.pdf)
27. [Pour One Out For the Network Comedy, Time (2021)](https://time.com/6094071/fall-tv-network-comedies-canceled/)
28. [Fox's Newest Cop Comedy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Is Quietly Breaking Ground](https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2014/03/11/foxs-newest-cop-comedy-brooklyn-nine-nine-quietly-breaking)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › American sitcoms and comedy series › 2010s and later network sitcoms*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license