2025's One Chicago Crossover Insults Its Best Show By Underusing Its Characters

Spoiler alert: The following article contains spoilers from the 2025 One Chicago crossover, "In the Trenches."

The three One Chicago TV shows — Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med — united in 2025's "In the Trenches," but the event felt like a crossover between only two of the series. The three-hour episode began with a gas explosion at a government building, resulting in the NBC franchise's firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses, and police officers coming together to save the day. They worked to rescue victims (including two beloved One Chicago characters trapped on a train) and investigate what caused the disaster.

The Chicago PD season 12 characters learned that disgruntled employees targeted the building's pension fund, stealing a drive containing $250 million. One was a security guard/former cop, while the others included a burn victim and a train passenger. Before this discovery, Chicago Fire's Stella Kidd and Chicago PD's Adam Ruzek got stuck on a train underground. Kidd was trying to save the people inside and Ruzek was chasing a masked suspect when the tunnel collapsed. They were eventually rescued, meaning the 2025 crossover didn't take any prominent One Chicago characters' lives. However, it did ignore a significant portion of them.

Chicago Med Has Overtaken Chicago Fire As One Chicago's Top-Rated Series

The Medical Drama Is Performing The Best Out Of All 3 Shows

Despite statistically being the best show in the One Chicago universe, Chicago Med's characters were severely mishandled in the 2025 crossover. According to TV Series Finale, the medical drama is outperforming Chicago Fire and Chicago PD during the 2024–2025 season. It's averaging 5.783 million viewers per episode as of the writing of this article. Meanwhile, Chicago Fire's average viewership is 5.684 and Chicago PD's is 4.571, both down from the 2023–2024 TV season.

For many years, Chicago Fire had the highest ratings out of all the One Chicago TV shows, followed by Chicago Med and then Chicago PD. Now, though the third series in the franchise is on top. Even after Chicago Med's success, though, the crossover still pushed its characters to the side and zeroed in on figures from the other two shows.

The 2025 One Chicago Crossover Underused Chicago Med & Its Characters

"In the Trenches" Focused More On Fire & PD

Throughout 2025's One Chicago crossover, Chicago Med season 10's characters were more like extras than significant pieces in the plot. Every character whose life was at stake (Ruzek, Kidd, and Trudy) came from either Chicago Fire or Chicago PD, and people from both series were at the forefront of the rescue and investigation. Meanwhile, the doctors and nurses were simply there to tend to the wounded. Frost, Weber, and Lenox had a handful of significant scenes. However, they never spearheaded any story. For a show that's gaining momentum in the ratings, the One Chicago crossover should've prioritized Chicago Med's characters.

One Chicago

11

10.0/10

6/10

First Episode Air Date

October 10, 2012

Cast

Jesse Spencer, Taylor Kinney, Monica Raymund, Jason Beghe, Jon Seda, Sophia Bush, Jesse Lee Soffer, Nick Gehlfuss, Yaya DaCosta, Torrey DeVitto, Rachel DiPillo, Philip Winchester, Joelle Carter, Monica Barbaro, Carl Weathers, Yuri Sardarov

TV Show(s)

Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Chicago Justice

Created by

Derek Haas, Michael Brandt

Developed by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, One Chicago is a multi-series television franchise that combines various public service/government organizations in Chicago, Illinois. Each series shares a timeline and universe, with multiple characters crossing over occasionally. The One Chicago universe began with Chicago Fire in 2012, with P.D., Med, and Justice comprising the remainder of one of NBC's most successful primetime franchises.

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Source: TV Series Finale