Why is One Chicago off NBC until January?

Why isn’t One Chicago airing new episodes until next year?

One Chicago fans were shocked on Wednesday night when NBC announced that Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med were going on hiatus after this week’s episodes.

After all, it’s only been two weeks since the three shows started their seasons—and that’s after the season was delayed for almost two months. But just as quickly as the hit franchise returned, it’s going off the air for an extended period of time.

So what’s the reason for the break, and when can fans expect to see their favorite shows again?

Why is One Chicago not on NBC?

While Wednesday’s reveal came as a surprise to many fans, this is actually standard operating procedure.

The Chicago series, like many network TV shows, always take a break between Thanksgiving and New Year’s for the winter holidays. That’s because this period is a bad time to run new episodes; viewership and ad revenue plummet as people are busy with things other than watching TV.

Fire, PD and Med have always had these winter pauses in the schedule. Last season, they aired midseason finales on Nov. 20, 2019 and didn’t return with new episodes until Jan. 8, 2020.

There was some initial speculation that NBC would skip the holiday hiatus because of this season starting so late, but the network has obviously opted to stick with its usual schedule. So the answer to “Why is One Chicago not on NBC?” is because it’s normally not on during this time of the year anyway.

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When will One Chicago return to NBC?

“When will One Chicago return to NBC?” is the burning question for fans now, because they want to know when they can expect to see new episodes, if it’s not going to be next Wednesday. That’s actually much easier to figure out.

The franchise traditionally returns in the first week of January. The first Wednesday in January will be Jan. 6 and indeed, NBC ran a promotional spot following last night’s episodes confirming that Chicago PD, Chicago Med and Chicago Fire will all return on Jan. 6, 2021 in their usual time slots.

In the meanwhile, if you’ve missed either of the episodes this season for any of the shows, you can catch up on Hulu (with a subscription) or by using NBC on Demand through your TV provider.

For the latest Chicago Fire season 9 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.