Chimney Star Reveals 9-1-1 Season 8 Filming Start Date After Record-Breaking Season 7 Premiere
9-1-1 star Kenneth Choi, who plays Howard Han on the first responder drama, shares an exciting update on filming for season 8. Moving from Fox to ABC to shorten 9-1-1 season 7, the long-running show has quickly become a hit. The premiere drew nearly 9 million viewers across three days and multiple platforms and scored a 1.84 in the coveted 18-49 demographic. This is the highest number the show has reached by that metric since May 2022, prompting a quick renewal for 9-1-1 season 8. In an interview with Screen Rant at the Tribeca Film Festival while talking about his film All That We Love, Choi gave an update on the confirmed filming of 9-1-1 season 8. While the actor couldn’t provide any specifics about the plot for the upcoming episodes, other than to mention that they could include “probably a lot of chaos, a lot of trauma and disaster,” the actor did confirm that filming will begin in July. Read his full quote below: I don’t know! They just started the writers room, so we don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s probably going to be a lot of chaos, a lot of trauma and disaster. We really don’t know. They just started the writers room, I think, last Monday. We’re starting in July.
While 9-1-1 season 7 has been moving forward with its storylines, some viewers have criticized it as being rushed and lacking the team dynamic that makes the show shine.
9-1-1 season 7 is shorter than usual, running ten episodes, because of the impact the writers’ and actors’ strike had on the schedule. But in that shorter time, the cast of 9-1-1 has gone through a lot of story. Howard and Maddie got married, despite Howard going through a life-threatening crisis beforehand. And the ten episodes have been eventful for the rest of the cast, too.
Buck realized his romantic attraction to Tommy, coming out to his friends in 118. Bobby and Athena reaffirmed their relationship after a disaster on a cruise ship in the three-part premiere, although Bobby was no longer the leader of 118 at the end of 9-1-1 season 7. Hen and Karen had a troubled adoption, with Hen making enemies of an authority figure. Eddie’s relationship with his son Christopher also changed, with Christopher upset with his father and choosing to live with his grandparents in Texas.
Although 9-1-1 season 7 ramped up the plot development, some viewers criticized it as being too rushed and lacking the team dynamic that helped the show shine. Hopefully, with a more consistent episode count, the July start date will provide an opportunity to build on the existing stories already established for the core characters.
