Chicago Fire, P.D. & Med All Renewed
NBC has renewed 3 of the 4 Chicago series the network announced this evening. Chicago Fire returns for a 6th season, Chicago PD gets a 5th season, and Chicago Med will get a 3rd season.
The juggernaut franchise from Dick Wolf has been doing well for NBC, and proving popular in the UK, despite being scatters over multiple channels, much to the annoyance of British fans. Whilst PD and Med have been bringing in respectable ratings for the US network, it’s the mothership show Chicago Fire out in the lead, sitting 2nd in their ratings, just behind This Is Us.
Conspicuous by it’s absence is freshman series Chicago Justice from the list. Whilst it is also doing okay in the ratings, there have been rumours that 4 Chicago shows may have been a step too far of the network. The problem seems to be with the resale value of the shows, as none of the Chicago series’ have been sold into syndication yet, which is where NBC starts to see a bigger return on their investment. The one bright light is that NBC did recently renew Shades of Blue, which is actually rating lower than all the Chicago shows. However it’s not clear on what the financial agreement is between Wolf and the network, should they go into syndication, so that may be a factor which is holding them back. At the moment it’s a waiting game to see which way the scales tip for Justice.
In case you missed it, we recently interviewed Chicago Justice & Strike Back’s Philip Winchester on Geektown Radio, which you can listen to right here.
Chicago Fire is due sometime in the Spring on Sky Living. Chicago PD is due to land on 5USA in June. Chicago Med airs on Universal in the UK along with Chicago Justice.
