One Chicago franchise will have six more episodes this season

More Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med is coming this season, as NBC has ordered six more episodes of the One Chicago franchise.

One Chicago fans will be getting even more of their favorite franchise this season, because NBC has placed an order for six additional One Chicago episodes.

The order means two extra episodes each for Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago PD, which translates to making the season two weeks longer.

Chicago PD producer-director Eriq La Salle broke the news Friday on social media, though it’s no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to the season so far.

Since moving the entire franchise to Wednesday nights NBC has been nearly dominant in the live TV ratings, re-energizing what had been a weaker night for the network.

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The three series are normally within the three to four most-watched shows among live viewers, unless there’s some kind of special event (such as ABC‘s telecast of the Country Music Association Awards in November).

That’s a big difference from past years, when Chicago PD had to anchor the night after lower-rated performances from other shows like Blindspot, The Blacklist, and Dick Wolf‘s Law & Order: SVU.

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In comparison, both Chicago Fire and Chicago Med have experienced significant ratings gains in the new season. Their numbers have bumped up into the 7-8 million live viewer range.

While Chicago PD hasn’t seen that same lift, it’s still delivering live audiences in the 6 million area, which is on par with what the show was doing last year. So with numbers like those, it makes all the sense in the world that NBC would want extra episodes, and the opportunity to extend their ratings victories for another two weeks.

The more interesting question for fans, is how the shows are going to handle this pre-Christmas gift. The One Chicago shows have ongoing storylines and undoubtedly planned their seasons out with the original 20-episode order.

Did the writers have a “Plan B” in case they got these extra episodes, and so they’re prepared to draw storylines out another two weeks? Or will these two episodes be more standalone, “story of the week” type episodes that will just get inserted in between what’s already been planned?

We’ll find out, because there’s a little extra One Chicago coming fans’ way. In a sense, it’s almost like a thank-you from NBC for how viewers have made Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD even more successful this fall.