Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med just returned to the NBC schedule after a midseason break. And all three delivered on the cliffhangers, with Chicago Med revealing the fate of Sharon Goodwin, Chicago Fire delving into Joe Cruz’s issues and Chicago P.D. giving us some backstory on Kiana Cook. But despite new episodes of the three shows being slated to air this week, One Chicago will now be preempted on January 15, with new episodes not airing until the following week. But why are the shows not on tonight — what does this mean for the upcoming crossover?
Why Are Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. & Chicago Med Not on Tonight?
The answer to this question doesn’t actually have to do with the Los Angeles wildfires, which may have been many viewers’ first guess and was the reason NBC decided not to air a promo for the Chicago Fire episode that was slated to air this week. The real reason the shows aren’t new on January 15 is because One Chicago is taking a one-week break because of President Joe Biden’s farewell speech.
Ahead of the inauguration of incoming President Donald Trump, President Biden announced a farewell speech set to be broadcast at the top of the primetime schedule at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, January 15, which is exactly when One Chicago’s lineup would start. The speech is set to air until 8:15 p.m., but rather than delay the three-hour block by fifteen minutes, NBC will air a rerun of Chicago Med’s Season 10, Episode 3. Then, the network will air the third episode of Chicago Fire Season 13, followed by the third episode of Chicago P.D. Season 12. All three One Chicago shows will return with new episodes on Wednesday, January 22.
It was initially unclear what the schedule change would mean for One Chicago’s upcoming three-show crossover set for January 29. However, NBC has since confirmed that, despite the change, the One Chicago crossover event is still slated to take place on the same date as originally planned. This seems to imply that the shows were going to take a break next week, in preparation for the crossover, but will now take a break this week instead for President Biden’s speech.
The episodes slated to air this week were Episode 10 for all three shows’ current seasons: Chicago Med’s “Broken Hearts,” Chicago Fire’s “Chaos Theory” and Chicago P.D.’s “Zoe.” The crossover episodes are titled “In the Trenches: Part 1, 2 & 3.” There will also be a scheduling change for the week of the crossover, with Chicago Fire airing first, followed by Chicago Med, with the crossover ending with Chicago P.D. (One Chicago Wednesdays usually start with Chicago Med followed by Chicago Fire.)
NBC’s official logline for the crossover reads: “When a gas explosion rocks a high-rise, Chicago’s first responders come out in force to rescue hundreds of civilians. It’s the calamity beneath the surface, however, that sends our heroes on a race to save 40 people trapped deep underground, including two of their own.” There’s still no indication regarding what characters will be in danger or from what shows they will be from, though considering Chicago Fire is set to air first, we might be looking at some firefighters in peril.
