At the same time as giving Dick Wolf’s Law & Order: SVU a record setting three season renewal, the network also handed out a three season renewal order for his Chicago dramas which include Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. & Chicago Med. The renewal will bring Chicago Fire to season 11, Chicago P.D. to season season 10 & Chicago Med to season 8.
The massive pickup is a part of a new mega deal for creator Dick Wolf with Chicago studio Universal Television. The deal also include a similar renewal for SVU, which was posted in a previous story. The four Wolf series join NBC medical drama New Amsterdam, which also recently received a three-season renewal, and This Is Us, which is a in the first year of a three-season renewal. These are NBC’s highest rated drama series across linear and digital, and the network has now locked them all for multiple seasons. Other than The CW, NBC seems to be the only primetime network that is fully realizing the power of digital and delayed programming. It makes sense that they’re securing their library, especially with their streaming service Peacock coming very soon.
The three Chicago dramas have dominated Wednesday nights in total viewers and the Chicago One lineup is poised to give NBC just its second Wednesday season-long win in total viewers in 17 years. All three series rank among television’s top seven most-watched dramas and all three are generating double-digit digital growth this season versus last. In Live+7 Nielsens, Chicago Med is delivering 11.0 million viewers, Fire is averaging 11.4 million and P.D. is attracting 11.0 million, with a 1.7 rating in adults 18-49 for Med, a 1.9 for Fire and a 2.0 for P.D.
With the new renewals, fresh deals will have to be made with the ensemble cast of all three series. Negotiations aren’t typically difficult on any of these dramas so the cast of all three shows should remain mostly stable. This is a huge day for NBC and a major vote of confidence in mega producer Dick Wolf who continues to be one of primetime TV’s most resilient players. Wolf also has brand growing power over at CBS with the popular procedural series FBI and its spinoff, FBI: Most Wanted.
