Is One Chicago Wednesday back on tonight? (December 28)

One Chicago has had a sporadic schedule over the past few months. Things always get complicated for scripted dramas around the holidays, with networks leaning more towards live specials and TV celebrations. It can be hard to tell whether a given Wednesday will provide fans with Christmas content, reruns, or brand new episodes of Chicago Med, Fire and PD.

It’s already been a few weeks since the fall finale for each show, so invariably the questions becomes: when are the next episodes scheduled to air? Will we get them ahead of Christmas or will we have to wait until after the new year?

Is there a new Chicago Fire episode tonight?

Unfortunately, the answer is the latter and not the former. None of the One Chicago shows will be airing new episodes tonight, Wednesday, December 20. There will be no reruns of earlier episodes from the season, either. Instead, NBC will be airing the new special Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas and premiering the film The Wheel starring Tori Spelling.

While it may be disappointing to One Chicago fans who are dying to find out to happens to their favorite character, it is standard as far as network scheduling goes. NBC always puts Chicago Fire and its peers on the back burner to allow room for more seasonally specific titles, and to give the showrunners time to work on the last batch of episodes.

The good news is that fans won’t have to wait long for new episodes once 2023 arrives. The shows will resume their normal time slot on Wednesday starting January 4, which happens to be the first Wednesday of the year.

There have yet to be any details revealed about the episodes and their storylines, but writers and showrunners for each title have dropped hints about certain characters and thematic directions. We’re curious to see, for example, how Emma Jacobs (Caitlin Carver) factors into Chicago Fire, or how Sean O’Neal (Jefferson White) will be handled now that he’s been critically wounded on PD.

One thing’s for sure: we will be tuning in on January 4 to find out.