Updates on the One Chicago and ‘Law & Order’ Franchises amid SAG and WGA Strikes

20 July 2023 827

NBC’s beloved One Chicago and Law & Order franchises were not spared during the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

The network announced on Wednesday, July 19, that new seasons of Dick Wolf’s biggest hits — including Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. — have been pushed from its fall lineup. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order have also been affected by the picketing. (Law & Order: Organized Crime, for its part, was always set to be a midseason return and for now is unaffected.)

The One Chicago shows traditionally air back-to-back on NBC Wednesdays starting in September. The Law & Order programs, meanwhile, were initially set to come back on Thursdays this fall, but neither franchise tapped new episodes ahead of the simultaneous writer and actor strikes.

In their places will be reruns of past seasons from 8 to 9 p.m. ET/PT on their respective nights starting in October.

Fresh episodes of Magnum P.I. (the final season) and Transplant were originally slated for midseason premieres but have been now moved to the fall. Magnum P.I. will help fill the void on Wednesdays alongside Quantum Leap, which returns in October for season 2. Transplant’s third season will be slated on Thursdays beginning that same month.

The One Chicago and Law & Order series aren’t the only shows affected by the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike, which began in May, and the SAG-AFTRA picketing, which started earlier this month.

Some shows were able to keep filming amid the start of the WGA protests — the writers have been fighting over labor disputes and wages — due to completed scripts that changed in July. However, when SAG-AFTRA stood up against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over their own desire for fair wages and better residuals from streaming sites the entertainment landscape got more complicated.

Although most projects had to press pause this month due to SAG strike rules — no actors can film new pieces or promote past, present or future movies and shows — there were a few exceptions.

House of Dragon, for example, shoots in the U.K. and the cast are mostly from the surrounding area. Therefore, the U.K. actors, who are part of a different union called Equity, have been told to move forward as planned. In fact, Equity prohibits its members to picket in solidarity with their U.S. counterparts.

Ahead of the U.S. strikes, Chicago P.D. star LaRoyce Hawkins exclusively told Us Weekly in June that he couldn’t “wait to get back to work” ahead of season 11. Hawkins, 35, revealed at the time that all of the One Chicago stars are “very much like family” even though there is a “soft sibling rivalry” between the shows.

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“We tease Chicago Med because they’re never out in the elements and, you know, just kind of stay in their plush scrubs and they’re extremely comfortable,” Hawkins, who plays Kevin Atwater on P.D. told Us. “We tease Fire sometimes because they’re probably the most dramatic out of all of us.”

Scroll down to see NBC’s current fall 2023/2024 lineup — with both original episodes and reruns — as the strike continues:

Monday, September 25

8-10 p.m. – The Voice (Original)

10-11 p.m. – The Irrational (Original)

Tuesday, September 26

8-9 p.m. – The Voice (Original)

9-11 p.m. – America’s Got Talent (Performance finale)

Wednesday, September 27

8-9 p.m. – America’s Got Talent (Rerun)

9-11 p.m. – America’s Got Talent (Season finale)

Thursday, September 28

8-10 p.m. – 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards