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5 reasons to renew Chicago Fire

By Brittany Frederick

CHICAGO FIRE -- Season: 6 -- Pictured: (l-r) Monica Raymund as Gabriela Dawson, Yuri Sardarov as Brian Zvonecek ?Otis?, Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey, Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide, Eamonn Walker as Wallace Boden, David Eigenberg as Christopher Herrmann, Christian Stolte as Mouch, Kara Kilmer as Sylvie Brett, Joe Minoso as Joe Cruz, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd -- (Photo by: John Tsiavis/NBC)
CHICAGO FIRE -- Season: 6 -- Pictured: (l-r) Monica Raymund as Gabriela Dawson, Yuri Sardarov as Brian Zvonecek ?Otis?, Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey, Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide, Eamonn Walker as Wallace Boden, David Eigenberg as Christopher Herrmann, Christian Stolte as Mouch, Kara Kilmer as Sylvie Brett, Joe Minoso as Joe Cruz, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd -- (Photo by: John Tsiavis/NBC) /
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Chicago Fire
CHICAGO FIRE — “The Unrivaled Standard” Episode 621 — Pictured: Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC) /

4) Its ratings problem isn’t all its fault

Time to be brutally honest: Chicago Fire‘s ratings have not been great this season. The show is normally the lowest rated of the three One Chicago shows, and many episodes this season have brought in less viewers than the least-watched episode from Chicago Fire season 5. From a TV business perspective, it’s been a struggle and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

But we also have to look at why those numbers are the way they are. NBC made the decision to move Chicago Fire from its successful Tuesday night slot over to Thursday nights to benefit This Is Us. That had a number of negative effects on our favorite firefighters. It essentially cut this season up into three chunks, as the show was off the air for Thursday Night Football and then off again for NBC’s coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Even though the writers planned for those breaks, that still created huge gaps in momentum.

It also threw Fire onto a night where there’s literally no support for it. The show has to start itself, because all of its lead-ins are comedies. The rest of NBC’s Thursday night lineup is all half-hours that are in no way compatible with the One Chicago franchise. Not only that, but its lead-in now are two freshman shows: A.P. Bio and Champions. Those shows don’t have an audience to bring to Fire; in fact, they’re struggling to find an audience at all. The network should also take that into account.

This season’s numbers aren’t great, and the show will probably have to do some things to try and improve them next season. But there should be some consideration for the fact that the schedule is a major reason why those figures have fallen. Especially with Thursday Night Football now on FOX, if Fire gets a seventh season, there’s room to climb back up.

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