The War of 18-49, Chicago PD

Chicago Fire Gets a Spin-Off

When Chicago PD was announced, there were a lot of questions about whether a one-season, below-league average series like Chicago Fire should already be tapped as the start of a franchise. But on premiere night, PD appeared to pass the test, with a solid enough 2.0 leading out of a well above-average 2.1 from Law and Order: SVU. Then it took a similar path to the opening weeks of Fire, with a sizable drop to 1.5 in week two (but it actually built on its 1.4 SVU lead-in), but then a bounce-back to high-1's for most of the rest of the season.

In what would become a trend, the season highlight came thanks to a crossover event; it grew to a season high 2.2 for its first crossover with Law and Order: SVU on 2/26/14. The crossovers have been a big boon for PD in years to follow: historical-adjusted series high so far came in another crossover, a 1.9 / 155 Plus sandwiched by Fire and the premiere of Chicago Justice.

Growth, Growth and More Growth

After four seasons, there isn't a whole lot more to say about PD's story because it's the same thing every year: it has always been on Wednesday at 10/9c after SVU, and it has always been up year-to-year in A18-49+. Combined with Chicago Fire's continued growth on Tuesday, Dick Wolf has set up quite the little dynasty in the 10:00 hour.

Season three was the biggest growth season, but two and four were notable as well because those years had a noticeably better trend compared with the SVU lead-in. The retention has subtly improved over the years, to the point that PD had a higher average than SVU for the first time in 2016-17. A 10/9c drama pulling that off as the hour seems to get tougher every year is quite a success story. Next year, the familiar pairing with SVU continued into a fifth season, and in the Dick Wolf tradition, the loss of series lead Sophia Bush didn't make a lot of difference.

In 2018-19 came more improvement, as the tail end of a three-hour #OneChicago night with Chicago Med at 8/7c and Chicago Fire at 9/8c. While the other shows had moved around a lot, for Chicago PD it marked a sixth consecutive year in the same timeslot, and the compatibility helped it eke out a new series high. In season seven, the whole lineup took a major upswing to new series highs, with PD's growth the most robust of all.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2014	Wednesday 10:00	1.65		1.4	2.2	detail
2	2014-15		Wednesday 10:00	1.58	-5%	1.4	2.2		detail
3	2015-16		Wednesday 10:00	1.55	-2%	1.3	2.0	detail	A-
4	2016-17		Wednesday 10:00	1.37	-11%	1.2	1.9	detail	B+
5	2017-18		Wednesday 10:00	1.20	-13%	0.9	1.4	detail	B
6	2018-19		Wednesday 10:00	1.10	-9%	0.9	1.4	detail	B+
7	2019-20		Wednesday 10:00	1.09	-1%	1.0	1.4	detail	A
8	2020-21		Wednesday 10:00	0.86	-20%	0.8	1.0	detail	B
9	2021-22		Wednesday 10:00	0.72	-16%	0.7	0.9	detail	B+
10	2022-23		Wednesday 10:00	0.55	-24%	0.4	0.7	detail	C
11	2024		Wednesday 10:00	0.46	-17%	0.4	0.6	detail	C+

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now24	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2014	88	marginal	0.33		74	117	106	85
2	2014-15	94	marginal	0.36	+7%	83	131	113	83
3	2015-16	107	solid	0.40	+14%	89	137	117	96
4	2016-17	112	solid	0.43	+5%	98	155	131	106
5	2017-18	110	solid	0.42	-2%	79	125	118	110
6	2018-19	115	solid	0.44	+5%	92	147	123	100
7	2019-20	133	hit	0.50	+15%	117	165	133	134
8	2020-21	134	hit	0.51	+1%	118	152	152	132
9	2021-22	142	hit	0.54	+6%	127	171	171	145
10	2022-23	130	hit	0.49	-9%	103	159	157	106
11	2024	121	solid	0.46	-7%	98	150	150	103
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	117	solid
CAREER:		CAREER:	1284	star

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.