The Breakdown: NBC Wednesday in 2022-23 (Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Wednesday schedule in 2022-23...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2021-22	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	148
	2021-22	147		147	155		155	142			142	148
2022-23	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	147 (-1%)
	2022-23	145 (-1%)		145.138580641304	154 (-1%)		154 (-1%)	141 (-1%)			141 (-1%)	146.788869709039
VsAvg	+68%		0.681016355727097	+42%		0.422620131056186	+31%		0.311590304526801	+46%
Rank	2/24		2/24	3/24		3/24	7/24		7/24	2/24

NBC's Chicago trio kept on trucking in the fall. For shows that had been consistently up for years, maybe -1% is a bit worse than usual, but certainly nothing to worry about.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2021-22	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	156
	2021-22	156		156	165		165	147			147	156
2022-23	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	144 (-7%)
	2022-23	145 (-7%)		145.399152599368	154 (-7%)		154 (-7%)	134 (-9%)			134 (-9%)	144.356864767114
VsAvg	+68%		0.682388604507094	+50%		0.497475558660662	+17%		0.169250675853301	+43%
Rank	3/24		3/24	3/24		3/24	8/24		8/24	3/24

But the trends started to get worse after the new year. The winter saw the three shows fall back to about their ratings from two years ago.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2021-22	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	138
	2021-22	129		129	149		149	136			136	138
2022-23	Chicago Med		Chicago Med	Chicago Fire		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD		Chicago PD	114 (-17%)
	2022-23	111 (-14%)		110.55695934975	122 (-18%)		122 (-18%)	111 (-19%)			111 (-19%)	114.353865024388
VsAvg	+45%		0.452687704875257	+30%		0.304995830920957	+0%		0.00213410373696219	+23%
Rank	5/24		5/24	6/24		6/24	9/24		9/24	6/24

And in the spring, things went from somewhat shaky to downright alarming, as all three shows produced declines in the double digits. In this period, these numbers were far worse than each of the last three years, and only a little better than their first year together in 2019. After 0.67/0.80/0.74 finales in 2022, they ended on just a 0.44/0.49/0.45 this year.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Chicago Med*	0.4	0.57	0.7	-22%	134	hit	-7%	detail
Chicago Fire*	0.4	0.61	0.8	-23%	144	hit	-8%	detail
Chicago PD*	0.4	0.55	0.7	-24%	130	hit	-9%	detail

Chicago Med: Not sure what was going on over at Wolf Entertainment, but the FBI night, the Chicago night and even to some extent the L&O night kind of fell apart in the spring this year. It's not (yet) that big of a deal in the full season ratings, as the Chicago trio basically just reverted to the numbers from two or three years ago, which is still pretty strong stuff. But the trajectory across the season is definitely cause for concern. Grade: C.

Chicago Fire: See above. Grade: C.

Chicago PD: See above. 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

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