NBC’s One Chicago franchise might be over a decade old, but the franchise continues to do incredible things, and its latest seasons helped NBC pull off quite a feat in the television landscape.
With the 2025-26 television season now behind us in the rearview mirror, NBCUniversal is celebrating what has turned out to be quite a successful year. With help from events like the Super Bowl and 2026 Winter Olympics, NBC reclaimed the No. 1 spot, becoming the most-watched network in total viewers for the 2025-26 TV season.
In celebrating this achievement, NBCUniversal revealed several additional highlights from the season, which included a major win for the network courtesy of the One Chicago shows. With the help of the One Chicago Wednesday programming block comprised of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago PD, NBC was the No. 1 most-watched entertainment network on Wednesday nights for the entire season!
NBC’s One Chicago programming block indeed continues to make waves for the network and has given NBC an unbeatable block of programming. Even CBS’s historic 50th season of Survivor proved to be no match for the One Chicago shows, which consistently beat Survivor 50 in viewers throughout the season.
Chicago Med season 11 was the fifth most-watched program of the entire season by TV Series Finale’s tracking, which is an amazing feat for a show that is a decade into its run. Chicago Fire season 14 was just a few spots behind as the eighth most-watched program of the season, helping One Chicago lock down two key spots on the Top 10 list and putting the shows’ audiences above several top competitors across ABC, CBS, and Fox.
In fact, Chicago Med and Chicago Fire both were watched by more viewers than any ABC or Fox scripted drama! That’s no easy feat for shows in the current TV landscape, especially ones that have been on as long as the One Chicago shows have.
So many times we see viewers wanting to write off the success of long-running shows with jokes about how they need to just end already, but the reality is that it’s the longest-running shows that are running laps around many new series. Of the 10 most-watched programs of the 2025-26 season, only two shows managed to crack the list that have aired for fewer than five seasons (Tracker and Marshals).
Fans love their comfort shows, and the One Chicago shows' ratings continue to prove that the fans are just as invested in the franchise today as they were when it first began. Hopefully, this will translate to many more seasons ahead for all three One Chicago shows at NBC, and the shows will continue to lead NBC to victories, such as making it the most-watched network on Wednesday nights for years to come!
Chicago Med showrunner hints we've seen the last of one of the show's most disliked characters
The final episodes of Chicago Med season 11 took an unexpectedly darker turn for Dr. John Frost as the season revisited his traumatic experiences growing up as a child actor and his rocky relationship with his parents, who failed to protect him. It all began when Frost’s parents, James and Celeste, showed up in town hoping to reconnect with their understandably estranged son.
Frost would eventually agree to meet with his parents, and he came to learn that his father’s health was in decline due to his MS diagnosis. As the season progressed, Frost would come to learn that his father was not suffering from MS, but rather he had a tumor on his spine which was causing MS-like symptoms. He’d also come to learn that his dad knew about the tumor but didn’t explore treatment out of fear.
By the time Frost found out the truth, his father was no longer eligible for a medical trial which could provide treatment designed to shrink the tumor. Despite their fractured relationship, Frost didn’t want to give up on his dad and agreed to sign on for a Nick of Time reboot series in order to make the money needed to pay for his father’s expensive treatment.
It was clear from the start that Frost did not want to return to acting, but it was a means to an end to make the money needed for his father’s treatment. He was all set to proceed with the project until the reboot’s producer surprised him at lunch with the news that Ainsley, the woman who played his mom on the show and took advantage of Frost as a teen, had been added to the cast.
Upon learning the news, Frost chose to walk away from the reboot which was when he’d come to find out that his father knew about his relationship with Ainsley and never stepped in to protect him. Instead, he turned a blind eye. This led to another fallout between Frost and his father, one that was short-lived as Frost would learn in the penultimate episode of the season that his dad’s treatments were not working and he’d been moved to hospice care.
The season finale saw Frost make peace with his father as he stayed with him through his final hours and remained at his side until his father passed as the finale came to a close.
Jessalyn Gilsig not expected to return for Chicago Med season 12
Needless to say, the back half of the season was particularly trying for Frost in many ways, but it was one that allowed the show to close the book on the past as the show focuses on how Frost will move forward. With the closing of this book, Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald seemed to indicate that we’ve seen the last of a character that quickly became one of the show’s most disliked characters: Ainsley.
While you can truly never say never in the world of television, MacDonald appears to have all but confirmed we’ve seen the last of Ainsley on Chicago Med. In speaking with Parade following the finale, MacDonald noted that while they’ll always make reference to Frost’s past and to Nick of Time and Ainsley, specifically, they’ve closed the book on that—seeming to hint that while Ainsley might come up in conversation, she won’t be popping back up on the show directly.
“There’s a weight lifted off his shoulders. I think the past has always been something he’s run away from, that he thought he didn’t need to deal with it but it was actually weighing him down more because he wasn’t. We’ve spent the last two seasons with him slowly confronting the past and growing from the processing of it, and now I believe next season he’s going to move on,” MacDonald revealed. “There will be other challenges next season for Dr. John Frost, but as far as the past and Nick of Time and Ainsley, those are things we’ll always make reference to, but I feel like we’re closing the book on that, on the past, and now he’s going to move forward.”
As much as we love Jessalyn Gilsig, who was phenomenal in the role of Ainsley, it does make sense for her appearance in season 11, episode 19, “Exit Strategies," to serve as her final episode on the show.
Frost will surely continue to unpack the events of his past in the new season as he works on his relationship with his mom following his father’s death, but we don’t need to see Ainsley back again as it’s time the show began to allow Frost to reclaim his future and move forward. Thankfully, that seems to be the plan, and we’re certainly eager to see what season 12 will bring for Frost as he begins this new chapter in his story!
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