One Chicago franchise renewed for 2019-2020 season

The One Chicago franchise will return for another season, with Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD renewed by NBC for the 2019-2020 season.

One Chicago fans got the news they’d been waiting for on Tuesday, as NBC renewed the entire One Chicago franchise for another season.

That means Chicago Med season 4, Chicago Fire season 8 and Chicago PD season 7 are officially happening, and will start this fall; a specific premiere date wasn’t announced, but will likely be in mid to late September.

The news really wasn’t a surprise to anyone who’s been keeping an eye on the TV ratings; since NBC moved the Chicago shows onto the same night, they’ve routinely dominated Wednesdays.

Last week’s crossover ratings saw all three shows reach over 9 million live viewers, which is big for any broadcast TV show. A Chicago series has been the most-watched program on the night for almost all of the fall TV season.

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With those facts in mind, it’s really a no-brainer for NBC to renew the whole franchise, but it’s still good to have the officially confirmation that there will be more new episodes.

How many more? Well, the network didn’t say that either, but the broadcast season usually runs around 18 to 24 episodes, with the final number depending on how the shows perform.

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For example, this season was originally 20 episodes long but the ratings success prompted NBC to order extra episodes and bring the total to 22.

It’d be a safe bet to see at least 20 episodes out of Chicago PD, Chicago Fire and Chicago Med next season, since NBC will definitely want to keep them together as one block in the fall—and want to get as much out of them as possible.

What does the renewal news mean for fans right now? Other than celebrating, it means we can look at the storylines for this season differently. Remember that the episodes we’re watching now were written before the shows were renewed, so they were crafting stories not sure if they’d be back or not.

Are there going to be cliffhangers? Things that the writers put in because they were hoping to set up plot for the future (see: how Dr. Ava Bekker was introduced in the Chicago Med season 2 finale before becoming a regular in season 3)?

Plus, this development guarantees a Chicago Med milestone. The show will hit its 100th episode in season 5; this season’s finale is episode 83. Having Chicago Med renewed earns it a spot in the TV history books.

Chicago Fire, meanwhile, will be on its way toward 200; it’s ending on episode 159, so it’s about two seasons away from that even bigger number and maybe it’ll finally get a syndication deal with that many episodes in the bank. This is good business, but it’s also important creatively, and it’s only a few months away!

For the latest Chicago PD season 6 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.