EXCLUSIVE: After only two early 2025-26 renewals for freshman comedies St. Denis Medical and Happy’s Place, NBC is kicking off its pickups today with three of its strongest series, the formidable One Chicago franchise.
Ahead of the network’s 2025-26 schedule reveal next Monday, NBC has renewed Chicago Fire for a 14th season, Chicago P.D. for a 13th season and Chicago Med for an 11th season. The pickup is being announced on social media with a video featuring several Chicago Fire cast members, which you can watch below.
As Deadline reported last month, the renewal of the three Chicago series — and the rest of Wolf Entertainment NBC dramas — was never in doubt. Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med as well as Law & Order: SVU lead NBC’s linear scripted ratings and Peacock’s viewership list. According to NBCUniversal, the current seasons of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. have reached nearly 46 million total viewers season to-date across NBC and Peacock, with all three’s streaming viewership rising year-over-year.
Like every year, there were budget conversations between the network and sister studio Universal Television, the studio behind the Wolf Entertainment series, ahead of the renewal. They resulted in some trims for One Chicago, considered standard practice for veteran shows of that caliber as series get more expensive with age.
As Deadline reported exclusively two years ago, heading into the 2022-23 season, Wolf Entertainment and Universal TV reduced the “minimum guarantees” for most cast members across the Chicago and Law & Order series. The cost-saving measure, used widely on long-running ensemble dramas, involves series regulars not appearing in every produced episode. Back then, the reduction was a couple of episodes, two for most cast members.
That still is believed to be the case now, with the range of episodes next season that some actors won’t be in said to be about 2-4. In another wrinkle, I hear the casts of the Chicago dramas, which film in the Windy City, have been asked to take on Illinois residency, with the episode count for those who don’t become residents expected to slide further.
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The overall 2025-26 orders for the three Chicago shows are still in flux but I hear they will likely be a tad shorter than this season, also an ongoing trend in broadcast TV that saves the networks money. In another budget increase-curbing move, some One Chicago cast members will have to forego their annual 5% raise, sources said.
With the renewals in the bag, One Chicago still needs to secure a handful of veteran cast members whose contracts are up this season, including Chicago Fire star Taylor Kinney. Talks are underway with them, I hear.
Two Chicago Fire cast members, Daniel Kyri and Jake Lockett, will not be returning next season in a cost-reduction measure, Deadline reported exclusively last month. According to sources, other One Chicago departures are possible.
One Chicago, called by NBC the most-watched drama franchise on broadcast TV in Live+7, has helped the network dominate Wednesday nights. The three shows, which pioneered the integrated franchise universe, also work well together, with the Jan. 29 crossover setting Live+7 season high marks for each show.
In its 10th season, Chicago Med, which airs at 8 PM. Wednesdays, is executive produced by Dick Wolf, Allen MacDonald, Stephen Hootstein and Peter Jankowski.
In its 13th season, Chicago Fire, which airs at 9 PM Wednesdays, is executive produced by Dick Wolf, Andrea Newman, Reza Tabrizi, Matt Whitney and Peter Jankowski.
In its 12th season, Chicago P.D. airs at 10 PM Wednesdays and is executive produced by Dick Wolf, Gwen Sigan, Chad Saxton, Gavin Harris, Jason Beghe, and Peter Jankowski.
All three series are produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
Rosy Cordero contributed to this report.
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