Months after NBC announced its first renewals for the 2025-2026 TV schedule, the network finally has good news for its three biggest dramas. Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med will all be back in the fall 2025 TV schedule, and it's a safe bet that the hit One Chicago Wednesday lineup with remain intact rather than split up over NBC's primetime lineup.
It's not a huge shock that One Chicago received renewals across the board despite some FBI cancellations elsewhere in the Dick Wolf TV universe, but those cast changes that were announced for Fire reportedly won't be the only shifts for the shows to come back once again. But let's start with what has the One Chicago glass half full!
Renewed For The 2025-2026 TV Season
The renewal news means that Chicago Fire will be back for Season 14, Chicago P.D. returns for Season 13, and Chicago Med comes back for Season 11. The individual shows are still a ways off from catching up to Mariska Hargitay's Law & Order: SVU elsewhere on NBC, but there's a lot to celebrate.
In fact, in addition to the guarantee that the upcoming season finales won't be the end of the line for any of these characters, a renewal means that P.D. will reach the 250-episode milestone and Med will reach that 200-episode milestone that I've been waiting for. Depending on episode count, Chicago Fire will be getting close to hitting 300 episodes.
The Chicago Fire cast members are the ones who came together to announce the renewals:
Hopefully Jocelyn Hudon's role in the announcement means that she'll be back as Novak for Chicago Fire Season 14! Only time will tell on that front, but I imagine that it's possible that we've already heard about all the cast cuts for the original One Chicago series at this point. Two series regulars won't be brought back for the 2025-2026 TV season: Daniel Kyrie and Jake Lockett.
Changes On The Way
In case anybody was hoping that Kyrie and Lockett being cut from Fire would be the only big One Chicago changes for the new seasons, there's some bad news coming out of a report from Deadline. Despite the three shows ranking as NBC's top linear scripted series in the ratings and doing well among fans with a Peacock subscription, budget cuts had to be worked into the deals for new seasons.
One isn't particularly surprising. The new approach to featuring series regulars in fewer episodes starting back in 2023 is reportedly continuing, although the usual two episodes missed per cast member could be bumped to 2-4 episodes. Some cast members of the three series will also have to pass on the usual 5% raise.
One change that I didn't see coming was that cast members have been requested to officially make the move to Chicago to establish an Illinois residency, and doing so could prevent those actors' from losing more episodes from their totals. Like the Law & Order shows filming on location in New York City, the One Chicago shows have filmed in the Windy City going back to the earliest days of Fire.
The seasons may also be shorter for the 2025-2026 TV season, although likely not by too many episodes. Contracts will need to be renegotiated with longtime cast members, one of whom is reportedly top-billed Chicago Fire star Taylor Kinney. With talks said to be underway, I for one am going to keep a close eye on the last few episodes of One Chicago's current season to see if anybody could be set up for a cliffhanger to potentially write them off in the fall.
Daniel Kyrie and Jake Lockett may not be the only cast departures confirmed this spring, which makes me more concerned for P.D. than Med. While there are certainly characters on the medical drama that I absolutely would not want to lose, P.D. has the smallest cast of familiar faces, to the point that I at least find it's almost always obvious when one of the actors is missing vs. easier to overlook with Fire and Med. Plus, with the exceptions of Benjamin Levy Aguilar and Toya Turner, all the main cast members have been on board the police procedural from the first season.
Now, is the sky falling just because some changes are going to happen with the One Chicago renewals? Of course not, and the three shows have survived big shifts in the past. All in all, I think fans have plenty to be happy about for the time being, and any significant worries can wait until closer to the end of the current season. For now, new episodes of Chicago Med air at 8 p.m. ET, Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET, and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesdays, all on NBC. The finales for all three will debut on May 21, and stream next day on Peacock.
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