Don't worry, Burgess didn't leave Chicago PD (but here's why she was MIA in the season 12 premiere)

Warning, the following post contains minor spoilers from the Chicago PD season 12 premiere. 

A new season of Chicago PD kicked off on Sept. 25 as NBC’s hit crime drama returned with its first new episode of season 12. The episode marked the show’s first episode without Tracy Spiridakos, who stepped away from the show at the end of season 11 after eight seasons of the show. Surprisingly, though, Upton wasn’t the only character missing in the season 12 premiere as it was explained early in the episode that Burgess was out of town. 

During a quick one-off line, Ruzek reveals that Burgess is in New Orleans for a conference, a line used to help explain why Marina Squerciati’s character was not in the episode. While an explanation was provided, her exclusion from the episode right out of the gate understandably created a fear among fans over whether she had quietly left the show as well. 

Fortunately, we can confirm that Squerciati has not exited the show and remains a part of the Chicago PD cast. While it was an interesting and unexpected choice for her not to appear in the season premiere, she remains a series regular on the series and should be back soon.

Why wasn't Burgess in the Chicago PD season 12 premiere?

Although NBC has not released an official statement regarding the decision to exclude Marina Squerciati from the Chicago PD season 12 premiere, her absence in the episode seems to be connected to recent budget cuts. 

When the series were renewed for the 2023 season, reports circulated that the renewals of Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD would come with some changes behind the scenes. Deadline reported that the series regulars on the shows would appear in a reduced number of episodes, noting that the decision was made so that the "actors are not taking per-episode pay cuts; their overall compensation still will go down as they will appear in fewer episodes, something the writers have to be mindful of as they craft next season’s scripts."

Due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes of 2023, fans didn’t immediately feel the result of this change as the previous seasons only consisted of 13 episodes. With the shows expected to have more standard season lengths this year, it’s been expected that the series regulars on the shows will miss a few episodes across the season due to the budgetary cuts previously reported. This is likely why Squeriati did not appear in the season opener and the show wrote her character as being at a conference out of the city in the episode. 

The good news is that with Burgess missing the premiere, she shouldn’t miss too many other episodes this season but fans should expect other cast members to miss an episode here and there as well in the season ahead.

Marina Squerciati has been on set filming season 12

Although Marina Squerciati was missing in the premiere episode of the season, she has been hard at work filming on Chicago PD and has shared a number of behind-the-scenes photos from the set in the weeks leading up to the show's return including a post on premiere day celebrating the show's return.

"We don't normally smile on CPD, but when we do it's PREMIER DAY!" Squerciati wrote in the caption of a photo from the set with costar Benjamin Levy Aguilar and producer Brian Luce.

Weeks earlier, Squerciati celebrated the start of production as she took to Instagram to share a series of behind the scenes photos with her costars celebrating the start of the new season. "And just like that...we back! Missed you loads," she celebrated as cameras began rolling on the season.

Given Squerciati did not appear in the premiere, it's unclear when her first official episode will be but we know she's still a part of the cast and we'd be shocked if Burgess wasn't back on the job by episode 2!

Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC and streaming on Peacock.