Chicago Fire: Why Are There No Crossovers With Med And PD Anymore?

Summary:

• The One Chicago shows used to do crossover episodes, and fans loved them.
• The last One Chicago crossover happened back in Seasons 8 & 7 of Chicago Fire & PD, respectively.
• Due to the COVID pandemic, Hollywood strikes, and budget constraints, crossover episodes became impossible to pull off.
• We can reasonably hope for more crossovers in the next seasons of the three One Chicago shows.

A large part of Dick Wolf’s One Chicago universe’s appeal is that all its shows are set in, well, one universe and city. For years, Chicago Fire, Med, and PD have been doing occasional crossover episodes where either two or even all three shows’ characters would have to work together to deal with a massive crisis.

However, it’s been quite a while since the last crossover episode: it was Chicago Fire’s Season 8 and PD’s Season 7 when two teams last joined their efforts. Why are there no crossover episodes anymore, and will there be any in the future?

Crossovers Are The Best Part Of One Chicago

While some may argue, for many fans, crossover episodes are their favorite moments in the entire One Chicago franchise. Watching several characters from your favorite shows get together is a true bliss, and it works toward the goal of highlighting the overarching continuity of Dick Wolf’s TV shows.

In the last few years, we haven’t gotten any crossover episodes, though. As Chicago Fire’s Season 12 is being aired, there aren’t signs of those, either, and fans are wondering why that could be. There are several possible reasons for the lack of crossovers in One Chicago, and we can only assume it’s a combination of them.

One Chicago Crossovers Are Very Demanding

The COVID pandemic put many restrictions on the industry, limiting the number of people who could work together and putting many locations off-limits. That time has ended, though, and it would have made sense for crossover episodes to appear at least this year — but in 2023, the Hollywood strikes began, crippling the industry’s capabilities once more.

After the strikes had ended, production began on short notice, and it was impossible to plan fully-fledged crossovers under such pressure as those episodes require collaboration from all involved shows’ teams. It was also problematic budget-wise, considering that crossover episodes suggest big incidents, and filming those eats through money caches like they’re nothing.

It would make sense to expect more One Chicago crossovers in the next seasons of the three shows, though, as they’d have enough budget and time to plan those by then. That is, of course, if no other global shenanigans occur in the meantime — but let’s hope for the best, shall we?