Heroes haven’t been hard to find on NBC thanks to scripted shows like Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med, and now a brand new crew of heroes is on the way with LA Fire & Rescue. Like One Chicago, LA Fire & Rescue hails from Dick Wolf’s Wolf Entertainment production company, but this will be a docuseries focusing on real first responders, with sky-high stakes courtesy of unprecedented access to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. But was any of the new show scripted? Executive producer Rasha Drachkovitch spoke with CinemaBlend to answer that very question and previewed the “next level heroism” coming to Wednesday nights!
LA Fire & Rescue will shine a spotlight on first responders from across Los Angeles County, including firefighters, professional lifeguards, paramedics, and the “Angels in the Sky” who respond to emergencies in hard-to-reach spots. With as many crises as were hyped in the trailer, there’s going to be a lot going on. When I asked the executive producer about the importance of the human element as well as the action of the emergencies, Rasha Drachkovitch shared:
It's really important! Obviously what differentiates ourselves from scripted is that LA Fire & Rescue is 100% real. There's no second takes, there's no scripted scenes. We are following real-life action, real-life characters. There's a saying where they say someone's worst day is met by a firefighter's best day saving lives.
While Chicago Fire has been raising the stakes on NBC with first responder action for over a decade (and ended Season 11 with some finale cliffhangers), the new Wolf Entertainment show is “100% real” and unscripted, according to Rasha Drachkovitch. Fire star David Eigenberg – who has played Christopher Herrmann on the hit show since 2012 – even paid a visit to LA Fire & Rescue’s Station 16 heroes ahead of the upcoming premiere!
The executive producer, who came to LA Fire & Rescue with experience on other shows like Nightwatch on A&E and First Responders Live on Fox, went on to preview what exactly viewers will see when the docuseries debuts on June 21 in the 2023 TV schedule:
When you see that firsthand, and you see – whether it's running into a burning building without questioning their own safety, [or] saving a family, or responding to a tragic car accident and seeing a patient who's flatlining with no pulse, and then the firefighters conducting CPR and bringing a patient back to life – this is next level heroism. Without questioning, they go into harm's way for protecting the rest of us, so it's really inspiring to see that.
EP Rasha Drachkovitch previously shared that the LA Fire & Rescue team was looking for “Dick Wolf characters” when casting the series with real-life heroes, and they received thousands of applicants from across the LA County Fire Department. He shared that fans can expect storylines that are as engaging as what Chicago Fire and other first responder scripted shows deliver, but “for real” with “real-life bonds” forming. According to the producer, the new series can be an even more powerful experience for viewers.
Luckily, the wait for LA Fire & Rescue is nearly over, which may be especially good news for fans of One Chicago who have been missing the action on NBC since the finales of Fire, P.D., and Med aired back in May (and are currently available streaming via Peacock Premium subscription). Even though the docuseries will be set apart from those three scripted shows, all signs point toward some very high stakes in the summer TV lineup.
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, June 21 at 8 p.m. ET for the series premiere of the unscripted LA Fire & Rescue, and episodes will be available streaming next day on Peacock. It seems that the network has found the perfect series to fill the summer break between seasons of One Chicago, so be sure to keep tuning in!
