One Chicago midseason finales dominate TV ratings

Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med’s midseason finales delivered a ratings win for NBC. Check out the latest One Chicago ratings.

The One Chicago midseason finales generated huge broadcast TV ratings, making NBC the most-watched network on Wednesday night—and it wasn’t even close.

One week after getting dinged by the CMA Awards, the night’s biggst audience went to Chicago Med, which had 8.39 million people watching live.

That’s a gain of more than a million people from last week (+1.02, or 1,020,000) and up about 30,000 from what the show normally does (+0.36, or 360,000).

With figures like that, it’s not going to shock One Chicago fans when we say Chicago Med was the most-viewed show on broadcast TV for the evening. That’s up one spot week-to-week.

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The finale “I Can’t See The Future” was a clear winner in the 8 p.m. time slot, with FOX‘s The Masked Singer and CBS‘s Survivor both coming in around 6.6 million.

Among adults 18-49, the medical drama picked up one-tenth for a 1.2 share. That was good enough for second place in the key demographic.

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It’s a bit surprising that Med was in the top spot, since Chicago Fire featured the much-advertised return of Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) at 9 p.m. But that series was up, too, and by an even bigger margin.

“Best Friend Magic” pulled in 8.31 million live viewers, which was also an increase of greater than a million new eyeballs (+1.16, or 1,160,000).

Compared to the show’s regular viewership, it lifted by more than a half million (+0.64, or an extra 640,000).

Chicago Fire had an even greater advantage in its time slot, which had weaker competition; CBS’s SEAL Team came in second that hour with just 4.66 million (two million less than the runners-up in the previous hour).

One Chicago viewers know that Chicago PD ratings have consistently been behind the other series, and the midseason finale didn’t change that. But it, too, picked up some extra viewers, although not quite as many.

The finale “Absolution” hauled in 6.96 million, which was still an impressive gain over the prior week (+0.52, or 520,000), but about half of what the other two series picked up. Still, it was good enough for third place in total viewers, giving NBC a clean sweep of Wednesday’s ratings podium.

With Chicago PD finishing fifth among adults 18-49, all three shows were within the Top 3 in total viewers and Top 5 in adults 18-49. NBC averaged 7.89 million viewers between the One Chicago trio, whereas second-place CBS had 5.02 million—that’s approaching a 3 million difference!

Now, all of these numbers come with the caveat that TV show’s premieres and finales are always the biggest episodes of their seasons, so the ratings are expected to be bigger. But here’s a really fun fact: this week’s One Chicago ratings are also a clear cut above this season’s premiere figures, too. The highest premiere rating was Chicago Med at 7.41 million; this week makes that look like an off week!

For the latest Chicago Med season 5 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Med category at One Chicago Center.