Is ‘Chicago PD’ season 2, episode 20 new tonight? On ‘The Number of Rats,’ and alignment

Let us start this “Chicago PD” article by being the bearer of bad news: There is no new installment airing on NBC tonight. There will not be one coming on until “The Number of Rats,” which is the second part of a three-hour crossover event featuring “Chicago Fire” and “Law & Order: SVU.” That will air on April 29 at a special time in 9:00 p.m. Eastern. We’ve written about this episode extensively, with one of the main things to note here being simply that you can actually watch all three parts in a row starting at 8:00. The reason “Chicago PD” is earlier is to make the narrative make more sense.

One little but interesting thing to point out today is that while “Chicago Fire” has not aired every week concurrently with the other two shows in this Dick Wolf franchise, they are doing this with “SVU” and “Chicago PD.” If you had asked us preseason what we thought the plan was going to be, we would have told you that we would most likely see the latter show air 22 episodes to the former’s 24, and there would be a couple of weeks where Sophia Bush and company would not be on the air alongside Mariska Hargitay. That has turned out to not be the case.

Instead, the two shows have found a happy medium, and there are 23 episodes of each coming on over the course of this season. Maybe this will be a matter that continues moving forward, and it makes sense. These shows can handle the larger orders and all of the crossovers thanks to the enormous casts that they present. It gives you a chance to feature some supporting characters, like we did with Olinsky on this past “Chicago PD” episode.

As of right now, the “Chicago PD” finale is set for Wednesday, May 20.

If you do want to get some other “Chicago PD” scoop right now, head over to the link here. Also, sign up to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)