Chicago Fire, Law & Order: SVU and Chicago P.D. crossover on NBC

The Chicago Fire, Law & Order: SVU and Chicago P.D. crossover on NBC this week is a rare television event that has the opportunity to bring together the cast, creators and fans of the three dramas, but it also presents a serious challenge for viewers in this heavy DVR environment.

Taking place this Tuesday and Wednesday nights in three one-hour segments, the shows will unite for a single case that involves the police and fire departments from Chicago and the Special Victims Unit from New York.

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The plots of the three series become intertwined when a pornography ring stretches from Chicago to New York, creating an opportunity for the respective characters to appear in any one of the three episodes. It’s also a great chance to see some of your favorite actors sharing the screen with actors you aren’t familiar with or might have heard of but never seen.

This, of course, won’t be new for fans of Chicago Fire and/or Chicago P.D., because the latter was a spinoff of the former. Sophia Bush, Jason Lee Soffer and Jason Beghe all guest starred as cops on Chicago Fire before moving on to Chicago P.D., so the novelty for each of them will be interacting with the stars of Law & Order.

It will also be interesting to see how the writers handle the potential power struggles between the two cities. While cops and firemen tend to work closely together regardless of jurisdiction, there is bound to be some egos involved when police departments from two different cities are sharing a case. Solving this case will be tough enough, but adding a turf war could make things even more challenging.

My main concern on whether this crossover will work, though, has nothing to do with the plots, characters or actors. In today’s record-everything universe, how many fans of Law & Order will know that they must also add the other two shows to their DVR this week? By the time they tune in to watch Wednesday night, they will have already missed Tuesday’s Chicago Fire.

I fully admit to rarely if ever watching live TV (unless it’s a sporting event or movie), so I honestly had no idea Chicago Fire — one of my favorite shows, no less — airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET. It just pops up on my DVR every week, and I watch it when I have time. Had I not heard about this crossover promotion, I never would have known to manually record Law & Order and Chicago P.D. on Wednesday night.

So set your DVRs people! I’m doing my part to help spread the word on what should be a really cool television event, so feel free to do the same. Here is detailed programming and episode information as provided by NBC:

Chicago Fire
Tuesday, November 11, at 10pm ET on NBC

Members of Firehouse 51 are forced to contend with a house fire, but when the injured owner is rescued from his cellar clutching a suspicious box, Lt. Severide (Taylor Kinney) brings in Sergeant Voight (guest star Jason Beghe, Chicago P.D.) and Detective Lindsay (guest star Sophia Bush, Chicago P.D.) into the mix for further investigating. Elsewhere, Mills (Charlie Barnett) wonders if the dangers of Newhouses’s (guest star Edwin Hodge) off-duty gig are worth the cash returns, while Molly’s II is in dire need of a good chef.

Law & Order: SVU
Wednesday, November 12, at 9pm ET on NBC

Sergeant Hank Voight (Beghe) and Detectives Erin Lindsay (Bush) and Jay Halstead (Jason Lee Soffer) track a child pornography victim to his last-known whereabouts in New York City, where Sergeant Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and the SVU squad get a new lead – evidence of a livestreamed pornography “club” that caters to its subscriber’s shocking requests. When Lindsay discovers someone from her past is involved, she hopes it will help lead them to the site’s ringleader, but tensions between Voight and Benson could threaten the case.

Chicago PD
Wednesday, November 12, at 10pm ET on NBC

The final part of the crossover event finds our intelligence unit joined by detectives from New York’s special victims unit to help solve the pedophile ring case. Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) and Det. Amaro (guest star Danny Pino) along with Halstead (Soffer) and Antonio (Jon Seda) continue to hunt for the link to foster care and child trafficking. Meanwhile Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Roman (Brian Geraghty) try to find the shooter from the hospital after using surveillance footage to identify him. Platt (Amy Morton) shows her deep respect for police and the dangerous work they do by honoring their fallen brother.

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Matt Dinerstein/NBC

2 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for listing the order in which to watch the shows. I too only watch DVR shows. No idea what day what time what channel any show comes on anymore. No other article made effort to note this important order. Who has time to watch live tv these days?!

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