5 reasons we’re still missing Chicago Justice

4. Better ratings than it was given credit for

Chicago Justice faced many challenges when it came to its bottom line. It was marketed as the fourth leg of the Chicago universe – a natural extension of a dramatic world created from law enforcement, fire and medical stories. However, it was structured in a way that was dramatically different from the other three shows. Justice was a pure procedural drama in the manner of Law & Order. The crime and its legal outcome took the focus, whereas the other three series are action and relationship-driven.

It also had to find an audience in the most challenging timeslot on the schedule, 9 p.m. Sundays, where it was up against perennial ratings winner The Walking Dead as well as hit premium cable shows like Homeland. It had an odd midseason start date of March 1, and saw its first few episodes shuffled around on different nights, making it harder for potential viewers to connect.

But even with those three things against it, Chicago Justice held its own with respectable ratings. It drew in a larger, consistent audience than most of NBC’s other shows that were ultimately renewed including Blindspot, Taken, Shades of Blue and Timeless. Both Blindspot and Taken have seen their ratings decline further this season, while Shades of Blue and Timeless are still waiting – the latter taking over Justice’s old time slot on March 11.

With the challenges it overcame, the fact that it still found a decent audience, and the shows that were renewed not only having a smaller audience then but some of them still having less viewers now, it’s difficult not to feel a twinge of bitterness that Chicago Justice was allowed to slip away.