One Chicago has become the franchise to look at when it comes to crossovers done right, whether it’s one character or all three shows teaming up for a major event. No one does it better. (Having Med, Fire, and P.D. air back-to-back-to-back on Wednesdays does help.) However, we might not get that this season, according to Chicago Med executive producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider.
While Frolov is “sure” they’ll have those smaller crossovers, with characters coming over from Chicago Fire and P.D., “as far as a big crossover, it’s being talked about, but it’s difficult because each show is in a different dramatic place in a way that characters are involved in their stories,” she explains to TV Insider. “So it just becomes, when is it appropriate for one character to cross over into another?”
After all, Med in its premiere just set up a whole slew of storylines: Charles (Oliver Platt) seeing what came of former patient (and now new ED attending) Ripley (Luke Mitchell), who thinks he overmedicated him and then forgot about him; Maggie (Marlyne Barrett) and Ben (Charles Malik Whitfield) heading for a divorce; Dean (Steven Weber) about to get a kidney from his son; and the hospital’s new owners.
Fire has to sort through the issues that remain due to Severide’s (Taylor Kinney) absence last season — with both wife Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Squad member Cruz (Joe Minoso), who filled in for him; Herrmann’s (David Eigenberg) injury after he took a major risk to save 51; and Brett’s (Kara Killmer) upcoming wedding to Casey (Jesse Spencer) and departure. And P.D. has at least Ruzek’s (Patrick John Flueger) recovery and Upton’s struggles (and Tracy Spiridakos‘ exit) to cover.
Plus, all three shows have shorter seasons this year, due to the late start of production after the writers’ and actors’ strikes over the summer into the fall. “And the production schedule is shortened, so it’s harder to schedule the actors in, but it’s something we always try to do,” says Schneider.
Still, whatever kind of crossover action we get, we know it won’t disappoint.
One Chicago Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
