After nearly 150 days of arduous negotiations and strike action in Hollywood, there is newfound optimism for the beloved One Chicago TV series – Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago P.D.
Following the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reaching a tentative agreement, the burning question (pun intended) for fans of these series is: when will these iconic Chicago shows resume production?
Writers from these shows, represented by the WGA, are eager to return to crafting the compelling stories that have captured the hearts of viewers worldwide. Meanwhile, the studios behind these series have incurred significant financial losses during the strike and are eager to restart production to reverse the trend.
However, several critical steps must be completed before Chicago’s finest can get back to work, beginning with the ratification of the contract.
Northwestern University Professor Zayd Dohrn, the director of the MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage, a WGA member since 2011 and the Chicago Captain since 2019, weighed in.
“While the agreement is still tentative at this point, this is a victory for the WGA and a testament to the solidarity shown over the past 146 days by our members and by our sibling unions – SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, the Teamsters and many others. We could not have come this far without them, and we plan to be there to return the favor over the coming days and months.”
Dohrn added, “I think everybody felt that if a deal could get done by October, we’d be able to have a Fall broadcast season. I don’t have specific insight on the timeline for One Chicago shows – it partly depends how many scripts they finished before the strike, where they were in the production process, etc. – but I think they will be able to come back in some form this Fall/Winter. We still have to see the deal and vote on ratification, but given the trust and goodwill our Negotiating Committee has earned from membership, the process will go quickly. I think writers will start returning to rooms in the next couple weeks.”
The Road Back to Production
In the coming days, the specific language of the tentative agreement will be formalized in official writing. The WGA Negotiating Committee will then vote on whether to recommend and send the agreement to the guild’s board for approval. This vote is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.
Following board approval, the contract will be submitted to WGA members for a ratification vote. The timeline for this vote has not been provided by the guild, but sufficient time will be allocated for members to review the contract before casting their votes.
In addition, guild leaders may choose to lift the restraining order and conclude the strike at a predetermined date and time, which is currently to be determined, pending ratification. This would enable writers for Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago P.D. to return to work during the ratification vote while still granting the membership the final say on contract approval.
As it stands, writers are not authorized to resume work until officially sanctioned by the guild.
A critical factor in the equation is the ongoing strike by SAG-AFTRA, which began on July 13. The WGA has pledged support for SAG-AFTRA throughout their strike, highlighting their solidarity.
While no date has been set for the resumption of negotiations between the actors’ guild and studios, industry insiders suggest that returning to talks with the actors has been a top priority for some studios, especially when discussions with the WGA encountered obstacles.
The striking actors and writers share common motivations, indicating that the actors’ guild is highly motivated to secure terms similar to those negotiated by the WGA as swiftly as possible.
One of the last sticking points in talks between WGA and AMPTP was securing protections for members who choose to wait until SAG-AFTRA reaches a deal before returning to work. The guild emphasized the importance of “honoring other unions’ picket lines as they have honored ours during this strike” in a memo to its members in early August.
Once the WGA deal is ratified, some shows can resume production more swiftly than others, particularly talk shows and variety of productions like SNL, which operate under SAG-AFTRA’s network code deal. The hope is that these Chicago-based series can swiftly transition back to production.
Late-night talk shows are among those that could resume production at a rapid pace, depending on each show’s discretion. Insider information from August suggested that late-night programs could be up and running in as little as two weeks following the resolution of the strike.
While scripted series will be the last to return, there’s optimism that the timeline could be expedited. On another Dick Wolf show, Law & Order: SVU, showrunner Warren Leight recently outlined a strategy on X that would allow for 13-episode seasons of scripted series to survive if the strike concluded by October. Leight suggested that with writers requiring less lead time for a shorter season and a reduced Christmas break, productions might be able to shoot five episodes before the new year.
Details of the new three-year agreement between the WGA and the AMPTP have not been revealed yet and SAG-AFTRA remains on strike. Stay with Reel Chicago and our sister publication Reel 360 News for the latest.
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