Chicago Fire Suspends Production Due to Positive COVID Cases
Another series has been hit by the coronavirus: Chicago Fire has paused production on Season 10 after encountering positive COVID test results, including among Zone A, which is made up of cast and those who directly interact with the ensemble, our sister site Deadline reports.
The Windy City-based NBC drama filmed this Tuesday after returning from its holiday break, but the cast and crew were notified Wednesday that production would shut down temporarily, with immediate contact tracing implemented. According to Deadline, the series is eyeing a return to work Jan. 10 or 11.
Chicago Fire is one of several shows affected by the current coronavirus surge fueled by the Omicron variant: Earlier today, TVLine reported that Los Angeles-based dramas Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19 and The Rookie have delayed the restart of production out of an abundance of caution. Grey’s and Station 19, which were set to resume production on Jan. 10, will instead resume shooting on Jan. 12. The exact length of The Rookie‘s delay is unknown.
Additionally, NCIS: Los Angeles, which was slated to restart production on its current 13th season later this month following its holiday break, will now return to work sometime in February. Meanwhile, NCIS — which was set to resume shooting on Season 19 this week — has temporarily paused production as well.
Chicago Fire Season 10 resumed with a new episode tonight at 9/8c on NBC.
Here we go again. People let’s get our heads on straight and get this over with. Stay home if your sick. Vaccinated or not. Don’t put others at risk. Pretty simple
Television shows have some of the strictest covid safety protocols around. If someone gets infected its unfortunate but you can limit the spread with how things work behind the scenes. It’s just now what with Omicron spreading easier it makes things harder.
Hope the cast and crew are well again soon. Stay safe guys!
Simple solution… they send a crew to Oregon and let them film Brett & Casey climbing Mt.Hood or something. Probably would be ratings gold!
The writers would never do an peaceful vacation episode they would just throw in some disaster. Too bad they won’t do an animated episode of Fire while the Live Action Production is paused cuz that would be another way to jump over this hurdle.
Unless we have another lockdown, which would prohibit live and animation teams from working, they would be well back into shooting live episodes before an animated episode could be conceptualized, designed, and completed. They’re only taking, what, a 5-day break?
The BlackList which is also another NBC show did an Hybrid Animated Finale that collaborated with the Live Action Segments when COVID first shut everything down in 2020.
Yeah, but that was a 2-month lockdown right at the end of the filming season, and that was the best way to have a proper finale. Here we’re talking about a few days’ delay, and we’re in January, they have plenty of time to resume production afterwards. Unless another lockdown comes, of course :)
Always put health and safety above all else! Television shows/movie/stage productions do not matter in relation to the common good. Everyone, please get fully vaccinated/boosted, wear masks and adhere to all other strict Covid protocols!