INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Chicago Fire’ Season 5 Postponed To 2017?

By Alexandria Ingham
Published on: 02:44 PST, Sep 26, 2016

There are currently rumors that Chicago Fire Season 5 has been postponed until 2017. Is this really the truth or has there been some miscommunication?

The rumors started last week when HNGN incorrectly quoted Inquisitr saying that Chicago Fire Season 5 wasn’t airing on October 11, 2016, as planned. Earlier last week, the Inquisitr answered the question many fans had: why were the other two One Chicago shows starting back and Fire was being held off for three weeks. It turns out that the shows were following a similar format to the year before.

Rather than report this, one publication thought that the show was being postponed. It stated that the producers had decided to hold off, which wouldn’t really make sense. Not airing a program in the fall TV scheduling suggests that there is a problem with the viewing figures. It indicates that the show is failing but that the network wants to keep it on air unless there has already been another reason stated. For example, Scandal has been delayed because of Kerry Washington’s pregnancy. Rather than try to film around her bump, the producers decided to push filming back.

While The CW announced that The Originals Season 4 being delayed until January, 2017, was to strengthen the midseason programming, there are worries that really the network believes the program isn’t strong enough. It was one of the network’s lowest-rated programs in the 2015-2016 schedule.

None of this is the case with Chicago Fire. Season 5 began filming at the usual time, along with the rest of the One Chicago shows coming back for new seasons. There are still plans for the show to come back on October 11 with its usual 10 p.m. time slot on NBC.

Fire is one of the most highly-rated programs on the network. There is no way that the network would support the program being pushed to January, 2017, unless there was an extremely good reason behind the scenes.

Chicago Fire Season 5 needs to run as usual in the fall TV programming. There is a crossover romance between Fire and P.D. It would be far too difficult to get this right if one of the shows aired at a different time of year. Trying to fit the two shows together in this way is difficult enough already.

Fans can now stop worrying about the return date and focus purely on what is to come. Fire Season 4 left fans wondering what would actually happen between Casey and Dawson. Would Casey make the decision to leave Dawson or support her with this adoption? At the very end, fans were delighted to find out that he chose Dawson, but is she ready to take him back? Right now she has Louie to think about first, after being approved of adopting him.

There were hopes that there would be a wedding between the two characters this season. Derek Haas, executive producer, has said that the wedding won’t happen but that the two will move forward in their relationship. It is time for Casey to take on the challenge of being a father. The two will also have to talk about their roles in the fire service now since they have someone else to think about and put first. It appears that Dawson may make a decision to step away from the firehouse to make sure she is always there for Louie.

The storyline will also focus on the ever-growing tension in the firehouse between Chief Boden and Jimmy Borrelli over Danny’s death. This is likely to come to a head early on in the season.

Chicago Fire Season 5 has not been postponed. It will definitely premiere on October 11, 2016, on NBC.

[Featured Image by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images]

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