The Rookie welcomes Watcher’s Ryan and Shane — Yes, the Ghoul Boys are in for a guest appearance!

The Rookie welcomes Watcher’s Ryan and Shane — Yes, the Ghoul Boys are in for a guest appearance!

When two American internet icons known for their funny and ghostly charm step into a network police procedural drama, the result that might be achieved from this crossover is bound to ignite curiosity among both fans of The Rookie & Watcher.

The Rookie, ABC’s long-running procedural drama, is set to guest-star Watcher creators Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej in an episode that is leaving fans wanting to know more.

Slated for a release on April 22, 2025, with episode 15 of season 7, the boys will take on the role of two documentary filmmakers caught up in an investigation for a missing person.

This episode offers a crossover moment that merges their wacky digital ghost catching persona with network television’s grounded grit.

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Ghost Hunters Turned Crime Watchers: Ryan and Shane Join The Rookie

From haunted castles, penitentiaries, hospitals, to now police stations, Ryan and Shane— affectionately known online as the “The Ghoul Boys”—have never shied away from looking for mysteries.

Their YouTube and streaming platform titled Watcher has fostered a fanatical fan following thanks to their previous works on BuzzFeed Unsolved and various other original BuzzFeed shows that delved into horror, travel, and food.

They follow a similar outline on the streaming and YouTube at Watcher which makes their fans always coming back and wanting for more. Shows like Mystery Files, Ghost Files, Are You Scared? Too Many Spirits, and so much more have only given them access to a fan following one can only imagine.

This time around though, their interest takes a fictitious turn.

In The Rookie, an episode titled “A Deadly Secret” presents the duo as documentary filmmakers trailing the LAPD for a project focused around a missing person’s case—one that links intently to that of John Nolan (played by Nathan Fillion).

The official synopsis for the episode reads,

"Documentary filmmakers interview the LAPD on a complicated missing person’s case connected to John."

As the investigation begins to unwrap, their cameras become spectators to more than what they signed up for.

What makes this casting eye-catching is how well Ryan and Shane’s internet identities lend themselves to a scripted crime setting.

The Rookie episode involving the Ghoul Boys arrives just as the show witnessed a dramatic end to the Malvado arc, a narrative arc that saw character Bailey having to face up against deeply suppressed trauma.

With that tension just barely simmered down, episode 15 turns to a case that’s immersed in mystery and emotional stakes.

Having Ryan and Shane being involved in an episode for The Rookie adds a documentary- seasoned lens to the storytelling, letting the viewers see the LAPD's world through the lens of unfamiliar eyes—ones used to find meaning in mystery.

Now, with two outsiders implanted within the department for a restricted time, audiences are summoned to question not just what transpired, but how it's captured—and by whom.

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By letting Ryan and Shane of Watcher jump into The Rookie’s team, the series plays with perception while pulling in a fandom that thrives on fascination of the eerie.

The Ghoul Boys’ being present on the ABC show doesn’t just distort the lines between fact and fiction—it magnifies the show’s storytelling prospects.

Episode 15, Season 7 vouches for more than just a guest appearance; it’s a spirited and layered meeting point between internet fame and network drama, where the Ghoul Boys meet procedural television with a lens of their own.