What the Chicago Fire season 6 move means for it, Chicago Med season 3

Yesterday, the news first came out about the Chicago Fire season 6 move on the schedule. After previously being booked for its old Tuesday timeslot, now NBC has it airing Thursday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time following a two-hour comedy block.

On first glance, the metrics for this move don’t look great. NBC is showing less of a commitment to the One Chicago universe in general in between canceling Chicago Justice and saving Chicago Med to midseason, but now your top-rated show in the franchise is airing separate from its lucrative This Is Us lead-in and that’s a fairly difficult pill to swallow … especially since the performance of NBC comedy as of late is less-than-stellar and that could leave the show out on an island.

If there is a major silver lining for Chicago Fire, it is that it carries with it a pretty devoted following, and these are people who have showed many times over now a willingness to stick with the show despite whatever is coming on around it. Also, Thursday nights don’t carry with them the highest expectations in the world, given that The Blacklist wasn’t even getting 1.0 ratings at times during season 4 and it was renewed. So long as the show keeps a good 75% of its season 5 audience, it’s probably locked in for a season 7.

Now, what about Chicago Med? – This is a subject that we’ve shied away from in the past, largely because assumptions are sometimes a bad thing.

Nonetheless, right now the plan seems to be to start Chicago Med season 3 up at midseason, which is likely January. The benefit for it could be potentially replacing Law & Order: True Crime and it getting the lucrative timeslot after This Is Us. If This helps the show get higher ratings closer to the flagship, maybe it’s a win for all parties involved. The show needs it, given that with all of the creative changes, the time swaps, and Sophia Bush leaving Chicago PD, this is a strange time for a franchise that felt like it was smooth sailing at this point a year ago.

Now, the thing to remember is that NBC’s changed its mind about its schedule already. Don’t bank on anything with the Chicago Med premiere yet given that there are more than seven months to go — that’s a long time!

For the updated NBC fall schedule, be sure to head over to the link here! (Photo: NBC.)