Could Chicago Fire, Chicago PD go on without Chicago Med, Justice?

Earlier this spring, we thought that the One Chicago franchise would all absolutely continue as a four-part unit. Now, we’re not entirely so sure.

According to a report from Deadline, there is a little more uncertainty when it comes to the Dick Wolf franchise this year than there’s been in the past, with one of the interesting holdup factors being something that we hadn’t thought about as much before now: Syndication. Neither Chicago Fire nor Chicago PD have sold big in the market at the moment; syndication is a little more tricky than it used to be in the age of streaming, and we imagine that one of the problems with syndicating the franchise could be that there are so many crossovers it may be harder for Random Viewer A to know what’s going on if they are watching Chicago Fire randomly one night and all of these other characters pop up that they are meant to know.

While both Fire and PD are expected to come back, things are a little more tenuous when it comes to Chicago Med and newcomer Chicago Justice, brought on slightly by both ratings and the syndication concern. It’s possible one or both of them could be axed, though we personally are leaning towards all of them getting one more year to play around a little bit and see what happens. With the Med and Justice ratings being what they are, though, it wouldn’t shock us to see NBC try to take some risks on more shows with higher ceilings. They may be a little more ambitious with the risks than other networks right now coming off of the success of This Is Us, a completely original series with no catchy name or easy-to-describe logline.

For those wondering about another Wolf series in Law & Order: SVU, there’s no reason to fear there in that the show is absolutely coming back.

We’ll offer up some more news on all of these renewal situations as time goes by; if all of the Chicago shows do end up getting renewed, one of the big reasons for the holdup could just be trying to negotiate to bring them back together. We’re still pulling for them all continuing to come back for more.

Which shows within the One Chicago family do you want to see come back on the air? Be sure to share below!

Meanwhile, head over here to preview the next new episode of Chicago Fire right now. (Photo: NBC.)