How will Chicago Med season 3 fare after This Is Us season 2?

The premiere of Chicago Med season 3 is coming to NBC just one week from Tuesday, and with that will likely come some pretty great ratings. Why? The show is airing after This Is Us for the first time, and this should help the Nick Gehlfuss – Colin Donnell series generate some of the best numbers that it has had in a while.

In theory, This Is Us should be one of the best lead-ins that you’re going to see on the schedule, but it didn’t quite work out that way for Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders when it aired there on Tuesdays this fall. This is a show that averaged only a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, and this average would be lower by a pretty wide margin were it not for the fact that it posted a 1.6 rating for its first episode on the air. To call it front-loaded would be an understatement and then some.

The expectations for Chicago Med season 3 in this timeslot should be a little bit closer to Chicago Fire, which aired after This Is Us last year and posted (on average) a rating of 1.5 in the demo. The One Chicago shows just have more of a natural connection to This Is Us than something as dark as Law & Order True Crime. While a show like Chicago Med is going to have its fair share of dark and serious moments, we do think that it is based in part on hope and doctors/nurses doing everything that they can to help people.

If Chicago Med can pull in around a 1.3 rating in the demo during season 3, it’s going to have a really good chance of coming back for another season. There’s no reason to think that it can’t achieve that given the show’s tone and the popularity of the Chicago brand. This is also a timeslot ripe for the taking at the moment — while NCIS: New Orleans is a viewership monster, it doesn’t perform all that well in the demo. Meanwhile, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World is proving to be as poor in the ratings as most of the other shows that air on ABC in this timeslot. Chicago Med has a big opportunity here, and we hope that they are able to take proper advantage of it.

What are some of your expectations for Chicago Med season 3? Be sure to share some of your thoughts/hopes now in the comments below!

Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here for some more news on the show! That includes a new video where some of the cast members talk about what’s coming next. CarterMatt is going to have some more interviews and scoop from when we attended the Chicago Med set for One Chicago Day both leading up to the premiere and after the fact. Stay tuned!

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