Why isn't Chicago PD new tonight? (Wednesday, Jan. 15)

If you were expecting a new episode of Chicago PD tonight, Wednesday, Jan. 15, you are not alone. Yes, there was supposed to be a new episode tonight.

NBC changed plans at the start of the week. This happened due to President Biden making an announcement about his outgoing speech. Here’s what you need to know about the new plan.

Why isn’t Chicago PD new tonight?

When the promo for Chicago PD season 12, episode 10 aired, it came with us believing the series would arrive this week. That was the plan, as NBC wouldn’t want to bring the show back and then go straight on a break. That doesn’t make sense this time of the year.

However, plans changed when President Biden announced that he would make a farewell speech tonight. That speech starts at 8 p.m. ET, affecting all of primetime.

The speech is only slated to go on for 20 minutes. Some networks, such as ABC, are opting for a shifted lineup, with everything still airing, just 20 minutes later than normal. NBC opted to pre-empt all three of its One Chicago shows instead.

This is a good thing in the long run. There are going to be breaks in the schedule as we get closer to May as there are more weeks than there are episodes available. This break just means that there’s one week that isn’t needed now.

When will Chicago PD air new episodes?

The episode that was set to air tonight will now air on Wednesday, Jan. 22. NBC announced that the new episodes would be pushed a week via social media, confusing a lot of people. There wasn’t the reason given on social media, making people wonder if they’d missed an announcement.

The episode will see Ruzek deal with a young girl, Zoe, who has had multiple (presumably foster) moms. All of them have ended up killed, and Intelligence will need to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

Chicago PD returns on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 10/9c on NBC.

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