The Breakdown: NBC Wednesday in 2020-21 (Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Wednesday schedule in 2020-21...

NOTE: In addition to classic A18-49+, Breakdown posts with 2019-20 ratings also use CVPlus, comparing spring ratings against a higher league average due to viewership inflation from COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. See here for more. Also see here for information on the 2020-21 league average.


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2019-20	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	144
	2019-20	144		144	148		148	139			139	144
2020-21	The Wall		The Wall	American Ninja Warrior				American Ninja Warrior	American Ninja Warrior	American Ninja Warrior	69 (-52%)
	2020-21	91 (-37%)		90.5027360370168	59 (-60%)		59 (-58%)	59 (-58%)		59 (-58%)		69.2949479188873
VsAvg	+10%		0.103743314840451	-43%		-0.42639032326382	-42%		-0.417217482888782	-27%
Rank	5/20		5/20	19/20		19/20	18/20		18/20	18/20

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2019-20	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	136
	2019-20	136		136	140		140	131			131	136
2020-21	The Wall		The Wall	American Ninja Warrior				American Ninja Warrior	American Ninja Warrior	American Ninja Warrior	69 (-49%)
	2020-21	91 (-34%)		90.5027360370168	59 (-58%)		59 (-55%)	59 (-55%)		59 (-55%)		69.2949479188873
VsAvg	+11%		0.109048960724058	-42%		-0.424124009149846	-42%		-0.415020531858103	-27%
Rank	5/20		5/20	19/20		19/20	18/20		18/20	18/20

NBC basically aired a wide variety of filler throughout the fall, including two weeks of its shortened late summer/fall American Ninja Warrior season, plus just two episodes for each of the Chicago trio in mid-November.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2019-20	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	142
	2019-20	143		143	146		146	137			137	142
2020-21	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	146 (+3%)
	2020-21	151 (+5%)		150.791080190029	152 (+4%)		152 (+4%)	136 (-1%)			136 (-1%)	146.152615257067
VsAvg	+88%		0.882688175755977	+58%		0.584698747196526	+25%		0.247273045329207	+54%
Rank	1/20		1/20	2/20		2/20	5/20		5/20	1/20

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2019-20	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	134
	2019-20	136		136	138		138	129			129	134
2020-21	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	146 (+9%)
	2020-21	151 (+11%)		150.791080190029	152 (+10%)		152 (+10%)	136 (+5%)			136 (+5%)	146.152615257067
VsAvg	+89%		0.891903813563513	+59%		0.591307366113335	+25%		0.251546362576166	+55%
Rank	1/20		1/20	2/20		2/20	4/20		4/20	1/20

The Chicago trio was back more regularly after the new year, looking as strong as (or maybe a bit stronger than?) ever.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2019-20	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	132
	2019-20	134		134	138		138	125			125	132
2020-21	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	134 (+1%)
	2020-21	131 (-3%)		130.596240693275	139 (+0%)		139 (+0%)	132 (+5%)			132 (+5%)	133.696448187477
VsAvg	+84%		0.842780772624423	+62%		0.617637135668318	+27%		0.265959085829319	+54%
Rank	2/20		2/20	1/20		1/20	4/20		4/20	1/20

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2019-20	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	149
	2019-20	151		151	155		155	141			141	149
2020-21	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	134 (-10%)
	2020-21	131 (-13%)		130.596240693275	139 (-11%)		139 (-11%)	132 (-6%)			132 (-6%)	133.696448187477
VsAvg	+82%		0.821312868021823	+60%		0.60156422233521	+26%		0.256547668589506	+52%
Rank	2/20		2/20	2/20		2/20	5/20		5/20	2/20

Med and Fire took pretty typical spring drops, but did not look quite as good compared with the lockdown-inflated episodes from last spring even in CVPlus, while Chicago PD took minimal drops and looked better by comparison. Overall, though, this was pretty steady stuff.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Chicago Med*	0.8	0.92	1.2	-20%	143	hit	+1%	detail
Chicago Fire*	0.8	0.94	1.0	-20%	146	hit	+1%	detail
Chicago PD*	0.8	0.86	1.0	-20%	134	hit	+1%	detail

Chicago Med/Fire/PD: All three shows stayed at their very high levels from last year to an almost eerie degree. You could maybe make the case for a B+ since they managed to go +1% even while missing most of the fall, but according to CVPlus they were shafted a bit in last year's numbers too (because they had very few of the inflated post-lockdown eps). So Grade: B seems like the play across the board.

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

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