Why There’s No New One Chicago Tonight (When Are Fire, PD, and Med Coming Back?)
NBC is taking a break from airing the new One Chicago in favor of airing reruns of each show’s season premiere. This will allow anyone who missed the season premiere to catch up on the show. While this may be helpful for viewers who started watching late in the season, it’s also frustrating because it means there are no new episodes just a few weeks after the new season begins. Of course, part of that frustration is due to the cliffhangers in the final episodes, which are intentionally designed to keep viewers hooked while the hiatus is over.
NBC didn’t give any specific reasons for the hiatus. However, TV shows often take breaks from airing new episodes at various times throughout the year. The schedule is typically planned in a way that ensures NBC has enough new episodes to air through May, when TV seasons typically end. Additionally, breaks are taken for sporting or political events, although that doesn’t appear to be the case this time.
The most likely explanation is that NBC needed to stretch out the episodes further and take a short break to ensure that the season’s episodes are spread out evenly throughout 2024 and 2025. ABC and CBS are airing original programming tonight, making it all the more mysterious why NBC chose not to. It’s possible that NBC didn’t think One Chicago could compete with ABC’s plans to air the season finale of The Golden Bachelorette, but NBC hasn’t made it clear that that’s the case. The most likely explanation is that NBC needed to stretch out the episodes even more and take a short break to ensure the season’s episodes are evenly distributed throughout 2024 and 2025. The good news is that this is only a short break. New episodes from all three One Chicago shows will air on November 6. This is just a one-week delay in airing new episodes, whereas later in the season there are breaks that last several weeks or more. Most shows take mid-season breaks in mid-December, sometimes not airing new episodes until late January or early February. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened yet; the schedule should be back on track next week.
The one-week delay could be good news for viewers who haven’t watched all the episodes yet, as it gives them a chance to catch up. NBC will air the first episodes, while all episodes that have aired so far from Chicago Fire season 13, Chicago PD season 12, and Chicago Med season 10 are available to stream on Peacock. So, viewers aren’t completely without One Chicago; there are simply no new episodes airing this week.
All three One Chicago series promise to have more drama when they return from their hiatus. Chicago Med will quickly become a danger to Sharon in her story about being stalked and receiving death threats, but the more exciting news is that this story will feature a crossover appearance from Chicago PD’s Kevin Atwater. There have been very few One Chicago crossovers in the post-COVID era, so Atwater’s appearance is welcome and refreshing news. Trudy Platt also made a brief appearance in Chicago Fire season 13, episode 5, suggesting that these brief crossover events will be returning to the series for good.
[T]he relationship drama [on Chicago Fire] will be interspersed with exciting new calls and attempts to rescue people from life-threatening situations.
Chicago Fire is focusing on the Carver/Tori relationship. Carver made the questionable decision to forgive Tori for looking through his phone and trying to control whether or not he sees Violet, and there will be more problems for Carver when Chicago Fire returns. It remains to be seen whether Violet’s relationship with a cute new guy will go anywhere. Of course, as is the tradition of One Chicago, all this relationship drama will be interspersed with exciting new calls and attempts to rescue people from life-threatening situations.
Finally, now that the Chicago Police Department has promoted Kiana Cook to Intelligence Officer, it’s time to find out how she fits into the team. The next new episode of the series will focus on Burgess, and there may be some drama about who will replace Hailey Upton after she leaves the unit. All three One Chicago shows will pick up where they left off, retracing the relationships and storylines that have made them popular for more than a decade.
