The Breakdown: NBC Wednesday in 2025-26 (Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Wednesday schedule in 2025-26...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2024-25	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	117
	2024-25	122		122	122		122	107			107	117
2025-26	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	109 (-7%)
	2025-26	115 (-6%)		115.43759044036	114 (-6%)		114 (-6%)	97 (-10%)			97 (-10%)	108.918387674444
VsAvg	+31%		0.306089051452238	+6%		0.0641230492496722	-8%		-0.0793864539720491	+9%
Rank	6/27		6/27	11/27		11/27	16/27		16/27	11/27

The Chicago trio returned and continued their single-digit yearly descent, something that's been the case for the last four years.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2024-25	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	126
	2024-25	134		134	125		125	118			118	126
2025-26	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	101 (-20%)
	2025-26	109 (-19%)		108.85478569624	100 (-21%)		100 (-21%)	93 (-21%)			93 (-21%)	100.618329518815
VsAvg	+20%		0.196684969027629	-5%		-0.0501798921521263	-19%		-0.185516053743736	-3%
Rank	8/27		8/27	15/27		15/27	21/27		21/27	15/27

All these shows aired throughout January to get a jump on the Olympics hiatus and, despite favorable competition (no Survivor 50 yet), looked their worst all season by far.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2024-25	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	111
	2024-25	112		112	115		115	106			106	111
2025-26	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	107 (-3%)
	2025-26	111 (-1%)		110.816509211471	117 (+2%)		117 (+2%)	94 (-11%)			94 (-11%)	107.407840692098
VsAvg	+38%		0.381863755544323	+22%		0.220413794709927	-14%		-0.14219744306726	+13%
Rank	7/27		7/27	8/27		8/27	20/27		20/27	10/27

But the trio made up for it with a nice post-Olympic bounce, starting with season highs for all three (Fire 0.43/Med 0.41/PD 0.39) in a crossover in their first week back on March 4. Even after that, the first two hours usually rated better than they did in January, all while Survivor 50 and Scrubs were making splashes on the night.

Rating the Ratings (about grades)

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Chicago Med*	0.3	0.34	0.4	-13%	113	solid	-8%	detail
Chicago Fire*	0.2	0.34	0.4	-13%	113	solid	-7%	detail
Chicago PD*	0.2	0.28	0.4	-19%	95	marginal	-14%	detail

Chicago Med: This marks four years in a row of C+ to C level drops for the Chicago trio, which means they're now a pretty long way from their respective 144/156/142 peaks, even though no individual season looks all that horrible. Grade: C+.

Chicago Fire: See above. Grade: C+.

Chicago PD: Maybe I should just turn in the same grade for PD since it serves as one of the only real "control groups" when trying to assess how much harder the 10/9c hour has gotten. But the gap is just a teeny bit too wide for me; it continued to struggle somewhat in the spring while the others bounced back, setting it apart a bit. Grade: C.

The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.

Previous Breakdowns for NBC Wednesday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for NBC Wednesday.