It’s always nerve-wracking getting to the end of a season of Chicago Med. This is the time when some actors look at leaving, or when the creatives behind the show decide it’s time to get a little too fancy with their storylines. However, there’s some great news for fans of two particular characters in the One Chicago series.
Multiple One Chicago actors have signed new contracts, as their current ones came to an end during the 2024–2025 TV season. It’s not unusual at this point for different actors to have different timeframes within their contracts, especially after a show has been on the air for 10 seasons.
Deadline reports that both S. Epatha Merkerson and Oliver Platt will return for Chicago Med season 11. They play Sharon Goodwin and Daniel Charles, and they have been with the series since the very beginning. Considering some of the darker and harder storylines the two have been through these last couple of seasons, it’s not surprising that fans were worried one or both might end up leaving.
The two did ink multi-year deals last year, but that still means their options had to be picked up for the upcoming season. That’s happened, along with Chicago PD’s Jason Beghe.
There is no word on if anyone else is leaving at this point, but having these two OG characters around will certainly make things a lot easier. Right now, we have Goodwin handling her PTSD after her attack at the end of Chicago Med season 9, while Charles has had to deal with some of his past involving his daughters.
There is some bad news that comes with the deal. As previously mentioned, when the One Chicago shows were renewed, some cost-cutting measures were put in place. The easiest way to reduce the cost of production is to reduce the episode count for the season, and that’s exactly what has happened.
Initially, there were thoughts that the episode count would drop to between 18 and 20 episodes, but that’s not the case. We’re just losing one episode for the upcoming season, so Chicago Med season 11 will have 21 episodes. The other two One Chicago shows have been cut by the same amount, so the three shows will continue to be able to dominate Wednesday nights on broadcast together.
Chicago Med will return on Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC in fall 2025.