Big changes are being made to NBC's lucrative One Chicago franchise. As a whole, all three series that comprise NBC's Wednesday nights are getting a reduced episode count, a controversial decision that may very well be a harbinger of things to come.
Chicago Fire is entering the new season with the loss of Carver (Jake Lockett) and Ritter (Daniel Kyri), as well as the likely exit of Steven Strait's Flynn Calhoun, and possibly Violet (Hanako Greensmith). Chicago Med has lost Dr. Washington (John Earl Jelks) and will likely lose Dr. Lenox (Sarah Ramos) at some point to her GSS diagnosis, and Dr. Asher (Jessy Schram), for an extended period at the very least, thanks to her pregnancy.
Chicago P.D. was the only one of the three to enter the fall with a full roster. Chicago Fire's Firehoruse 51 has lived under the threat of cuts to the Chicago Fire Department for months, so the release of some characters isn't unexpected. Budget cuts will also affect Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, the Med of Chicago Med, so characters being released from that series isn't unrealistic either. The Intelligence Unit of Chicago P.D. hasn't had that same budgetary concern, and no one seemed to be on the radar to leave. The only one whose absence in the new season may have made sense is Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar), but Reid's death and subsequent reveal of corruption cut short his jail time. This makes the recent announcement that Toya Turner, who plays Officer Kiana Cook, is not returning for Season 13 of Chicago P.D. especially surprising, and puts the NBC crime series at a big disadvantage.
Officer Kiana Cook's 'Chicago P.D.' Exit Wasn't Teased
In the case of both Chicago Med and Chicago Fire, characters have had their exit lanes paved, for the most part, and even characters that aren't leaving have a natural explanation for an exit if it comes to that. If Luke Mitchell were to decide tomorrow that he isn't returning to Chicago Med, for example, it's easy to explain Dr. Ripley's absence as a budgetary cut. It may require a pivot in Asher's baby daddy storyline if it did happen, but since that's the big mystery of the summer anyway, no harm no foul.
But there isn't a contingency plan in place for Chicago P.D.'s host of characters. No budget cuts, no whiffs of something developing personally or professionally that would explain an absence, no season finale cliffhanger that leaves the fate of a member of the Intelligence Unit hanging over the summer break. In fact, Cook's backstory was really only beginning to be explored, and her partnership with Burgess (Marina Squerciati) was heading into something deeper, with Squerciati explaining, “I really love Toya [Turner], and she’s a fresh voice on the show. I also feel like [Kim is] a bit of a mentor to Cook, and I’d love to see that grow as well.”
Now Chicago P.D. has to craft a storyline that explains Cook's exit, without the advantage of having a pre-existing element on which to build on. When Jon Seda, who played Antonio Dawson, left the series after Season 6, his character's absence was explained by Voight (Jason Beghe) as him being taken to an off-book rehab center, building on the pre-existing knowledge that Dawson had an addiction. There is nothing even remotely close to that for Cook. Complicating that is the fact NBC is already looking for a replacement, a "loose cannon" with a military background, meaning not only do they have to explain Cook's exit, but how her replacement enters the series.
Officer Kiana Cook's 'Chicago P.D.' Exit Comes at the Worst Possible Time
But actors leave shows for a myriad of reasons. While Turner hasn't disclosed her reasoning for leaving (her statement simply says, "I’m grateful for the time I had bringing Kiana to life. Thank you to everyone who welcomed me so warmly"), it doesn't change the fact that she's out (Turner's not even the first to exit Chicago P.D. under mysterious circumstances). What's unfortunate is the timing of her exit.
Season 12 of Chicago P.D. was a rollercoaster, to put it mildly. Torres experienced an uncharacteristic downfall. Voight was on the losing end for the larger part of the season, only coming out the other side by giving up on his half-hearted attempt at doing things "by the book" and going back to his old and morally decrepit ways, placing him in the crosshairs of Nina Chapman (Sara Bues). Burgess and Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) just got married, one of a handful of happy moments.
If ever there was a time that the Intelligence Unit needed stability, with all hands on deck to navigate the aftermath of Reid's death, it's now. Turner leaving the series and taking the character of Kiana Cook with her comes at the worst possible moment. Cook proved herself to be a person of integrity, someone who didn't get sucked into the moral decay that hangs over the unit at the best of times, and is someone who could have led the charge towards a better tomorrow. With her exit, the series doesn't have the advantage of utilizing her integrity in making that change, meaning that if it happens — and even that is questionable — it has to be fabricated elsewhere.
Ultimately, Cook's exit from the show feeds into an issue that plagues the franchise, where newer characters rotate in and out of the series with regularity. It makes it hard for viewers to engage with new characters, having been trained to believe that there's little point since they'll be shipped out anyway. Cook could have been a character that bucked the trend. Instead, she's just another character no one got to know.
