After “Chicago Fire” successfully launched two spinoff series, “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med,” it’s a no-brainer that a third spinoff could be in the works.
On stage Wednesday at the panel for his three Chicago shows during the Television Critics Association winter press tour, executive producer Dick Wolf teased the possibility more concretely.
“You’ll see certain things. It would obviously be short-sighted to not be mutually be kicking the tires on what that would be,” Wolf said. “It would probably be in the legal system. You may see, the same way you saw in the last three years, some people doing legal things, that would give an insight into where that could go. Would I like to do it? Of course…. My instinct is always to double down but there are many masters to serve and a lot of people have to agree. In the abstract, sure, that would be great. It’s a question of how that would operate and what the form would be, but there have been discussions.”
While talking to reporters after the panel, Wolf declined to specify whether a newly introduced Assistant State’s Attorney character, played by Maureen Sebastian, could be the catalyst for the spinoff.
“We’ve had a variety of people go through as ADA,” said Wolf. “Nobody is signed. It’s not that far along yet.”
Wolf also gushed over the success of the crossover episodes between all three shows, including the latest three-show crossover event, which aired last week. He’s also hopeful that continued integration among the three shows will help all three shows grow their audience.
“There are people who watch one, two, hopefully three,” he said. “I think there are people who watch one and not the others. Research last year showed only about 35 percent of the audience overlapped. That’s why the crossover last week was so incredibly satisfying. I think we got new eyeballs to all three shows. Whether they’ll stick around, who knows?”
Wolf noted that his four shows, including the New York-set “Law & Order: SVU,” reached 49.26 million people over two nights on a L+3 basis, and that the audience should climb above 50 million when factoring in seven days of delayed viewing.
“Obviously, it’s working,” he said. “I’m thrilled. This is exactly what I hoped would happen. We’re doing a four-show crossover in February. We’re doing a multitude of integrations, people from one or more of the shows can show up, so the world continues.”