Why hasn’t NBC renewed Chicago Fire, Chicago PD yet?

Earlier this year, the Chicago Fire / Chicago PD / Chicago Justice crossover first aired on NBC, and the ratings were all sorts of fantastic. Both Fire and Justice brought in a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic, while PD brought in its best rating in more than a year in a 1.9.

The big question that we have in the aftermath of all of this right now is rather simple: Why in the world have we not gotten renewals for some of these shows just yet? NBC at the moment is the Chicago network — we’ve joked in the past lovingly that it could stand for Nothing But Chicago, and come up with ways for them to jokingly move all of their shows to the Windy City. You could make Kevin and Randall from This Is Us into fans of the Chicago Bears, right? (Kidding, Steelers fans!)

So far, the network has renewed a handful of other shows. We know that there is going to be more The Good Place. The same goes for Superstore. In speaking further of This Is Us, the show scored a two-season renewal earlier this year at the TCA Winter Press Tour. This is not a network that is resistant to putting their shows on the air for more episodes, and we’re sure that there are plenty of crew members who would love to know so that they can plan ahead. The same can be said for the actors, especially given that having to get another job could mean relocating from the city.

In the end, the big thing that we want to stress here is that Chicago Fire and all of the other shows are not in any immediate danger. They’re all likely to be renewed — other than Chicago Justice, we’d argue that they are pretty much guarantees based on the ratings. There’s no need to be concerned about that, and given that none of these shows are at a place where contract negotiations could happen, that is probably not something to be altogether concerned about, either. Technically, the network has until May; the only reason for the anxiousness is that for the 2015-16 season, they announced the renewals for both Fire and PD in the fall.

Personally, we feel like if there is any reason for the renewal not being out there just yet, it’s a positive one: The network’s waiting on Chicago Justice. If it performs well in its new timeslot on Sundays, we could envision a four-show renewal being issued at once. That would be the sort of thing that would get Dick Wolf dancing around his office — we’d probably do the same thing.

Ultimately, give this a few weeks. There’s no reason to be afraid.

For now, we suggest heading over here to preview Sunday’s Justice episode, given that there’s another crossover coming!

Also, let us know in the comments if you want to see a renewal coming soon. (Photo: NBC.)