ONE CHICAGO Crossover: Allen MacDonald, Andrea Newman, and Gwen Sigan Preview the Emotional, Action-Packed ‘In The Trenches’
January 27, 2025 by Marisa Roffman

CHICAGO FIRE — “In The Trenches: Part 1” Episode 13012/13011 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: Peter Gordon/NBC)
More than five years after the ONE CHICAGO franchise staged a three-show crossover—for 2019’s “Infection”—the NBC dramas are back, united, trying to save Chicago on the Wednesday, January 29 event, “In The Trenches.”
“[There’s a] gas main explosion that destabilizes a huge building and then causes an underground avalanche that traps a subway car,” CHICAGO MED showrunner Allen MacDonald tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “There’s a lot of people killed, and there are a lot of survivors…[who] survived the initial situation that go to [Gaffney Chicago Medical Center], and that’s where the MED hour lives—in trying to keep those people alive.”
“There’s a bit of question in the three hours if this explosion was an accident or on purpose, and PD[‘s Intelligence] is very much looking into that,” he continues. “And FIRE[‘s Firehouse 51] is trying to get the situation under control because there are people trapped under the surface and want to get them up.”
And, as the promo teased, “A big emotional centerpiece of the MED hour is…[CHICAGO P.D.’s] Trudy Platt’s life is very much on the line,” MacDonald previews.
What else can viewers expect? MacDonald, CHICAGO FIRE showrunner Andrea Newman, and CHICAGO P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan offer up a few teases…

CHICAGO FIRE — “In The Trenches: Part 1” Episode 13012/13011 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: Peter Gordon/NBC)
Finding the right team to build out the ONE CHICAGO world for the event.
To craft the three-part crossover, CHICAGO FIRE’s Victor Teran, CHICAGO MED’s Stephen Hootstein, and CHICAGO P.D’s Joe Halpin—who each wrote the episode for their respective show—held a mini-writers room outside of their normal show-writing duties.
“For me, it was a lot of fun,” MacDonald acknowledges. “For the writers of the individual episodes, it was a lot of work. They put their heads together, and they hammered out this story. They pitched several different versions [of a crossover] to Wolf Entertainment and Wolf Entertainment chose the one that we did, obviously.”
For the crossover event, the shows will technically air out of traditional order, with FIRE leading off the night, followed by MED, and closing out with P.D. “The showrunners absolutely had input into the individual episodes and then, especially when the scripts were done, there was communication between the writers and show writers about, ‘Is this what Voight would sound like? Is this Voight’s voice?’” MacDonald says. “We all collaborated to make sure that there was a consistency, because we’re not used to writing each other’s characters.”
Though Newman and Sigan were with their respective series the last time the crossover occurred in non-showrunning duties (MacDonald joined the franchise in 2024), this marks the first time all three ONE CHICAGO showrunners oversaw their series while also undertaking a crossover.
“It’s amazing how much is going on at one time,” Newman says. “It’s always the thing as a showrunner, how many balls are in the air. And the crossover is such a huge event, everything gets focused on that. So to keep other shows going, keep other episodes moving, and plots developing, and all that at the same time, it is tricky. It’s a lot to do.”
“We have fantastic group writers, and it’s all about divvying it up,” she continues. “Victor Teran wrote this one; he did an incredible job with the writers from P.D. and MED…We would go in and talk it out for a while and I’d pop in and pop out and get the other episodes going, but these are huge events, both on the writing side and production side.”
Though it’s been years since ONE CHICAGO crossed over, Sigan co-wrote the LAW & ORDER franchise crossover in 2022 with former CHICAGO P.D. boss Rick Eid. And like Eid shared that he took lessons from that experience for 2023’s FBI franchise crossover, Sigan acknowledges her experience with L&O helped guide them down the right path for “In The Trenches.”
“The writers are important, picking the right people to do these things,” she says. “I’m very grateful it was the three writers that we each [selected]; they worked really well together.”
Additionally, “what we found in the LAW & ORDER [crossover] was Rick and I didn’t look at it so much as like, ‘Okay, this hour is this show. This hour is this show,’” Sigan points out. “[LAW & ORDER’s ‘Gimme Shelter’] had a lot of scenes where there were characters from a different show and you kind of weren’t sure what show you were in. And this one is the same.”
“I would say this one, the story led it, and the writers allowed the story to lead it,” she continues. “And so there’ll be a scene in our episode where there’s not even a character from our show in it, and you’re on the ride. It’s like you don’t even really notice because it’s just that’s where the story is taking you. That works well because the story gets to dictate it, as opposed to what hour you’re in.”

CHICAGO MED — “In The Trenches: Part 2” Episode 1011 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC)
How will CHICAGO FIRE’s Stellaride and CHICAGO P.D.’s Burzek get through their separation during a tunnel collapse?
As rescue attempts are happening to save trapped passengers in a subway—and Intelligence is in the middle of chasing a lead after a horrifying attack—FIRE’s Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and P.D.’s Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) wind up stuck underground after the avalanche…and their worried partners, FIRE’s Severide (Taylor Kinney) and P.D.’s Burgess (Marina Squerciati) are above ground, trying to find a way to get them out.
“[The Stellaride] relationship is such a strong, powerful relationship, but one of the biggest issues that they have is the separation,” Newman points out of the married duo. “Severide left for a while, and Kidd had her travels, and so they’ve kind of made this agreement going into this episode, ‘We’re not going to be apart anymore. We’re gonna stay together.’ And then in comes the crossover and literally rips them apart. Kidd is trapped below the ground and Severide has to get to her. And he’s gonna do whatever the hell it takes to get down there.”
“They’re challenged, both on an emotional level with being apart, and what their plans are for the future,” she continues. “And then they’re ripped apart physically in this one, too.”
For the engaged Burzek, “It’s interesting to watch this year…[the writers] did such a great job with it, because they found ways to morph their emotion throughout the three hours,” Sigan previews. “We know these two characters. They’ve been through a lot. They’ve seen a lot of incidents. They’ve been able to usually push those emotions aside and stay focused and stay in it. But this one, definitely, you get to see some cracks and some vulnerability and some real fear of the fact that they are separated. And I think it’s really emotional.”
“It’s very telling of the two of them,” she continues. “And [the writers] did a very nice job throughout all three hours of showing us all those emotions in different layers.”
Complicating things? “It starts where there’s some contact [between the people in the subway and those above ground],” Newman previews. “But then as the collapse gets worse and things start really going south in the subway tunnel, they are unable to communicate, basically. So they’re just going on faith. At that point…Kidd is going on faith that Severide is going to find his way down there and help get everybody out, [and they will] be reunited.”
Ruzek and Kidd, meanwhile, will have to work together for their first significant storyline of the franchise. “Stella and Ruzek, I just really enjoyed their pair[ing],” Sigan says. “We got to work with them a lot, and it’s just fun. I haven’t really seen those two characters together that much, and I enjoyed the two of them.”
“There are definitely different personalities [with them],” Newman adds. “The thing they have in common is they’re very tough, both of them, but Ruzek has a kind of take-charge personality. And Kidd is a lieutenant, and she’s in charge, too. So the power struggle is real between the two of them, but they have to work together to save the people who are trapped in the train with them. So it’s fun to see that relationship develop over the course of the crossover.”

CHICAGO FIRE — “In The Trenches: Part 1” Episode 13012/13011 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: Peter Gordon/NBC)
Can Trudy (Amy Morton) survive the crossover?
In the aftermath of the explosion, Trudy’s life is seriously endangered, leaving everyone scrambling to save her.
“She’s definitely in kind of dire straits in this episode,” Sigan teases. “We get to see the whole team have to rally around her, and it’s really used to sort of galvanize the team. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. And so you have to watch to find out what happens with her, but it’s definitely an emotional storyline for her.”
FIRE’s Mouch (Christian Stolte) is, naturally, distraught when he discovers what’s happened to his wife.
“Mouch, he’s had to make some really big life decisions this season about moving forward—becoming an officer and not retiring,” Newman previews. “And, in fact, recommitting in a lot of ways to being a firefighter. So he’s making these huge decisions—and some of the personal stuff has gotten a little bit buried along the way.”
“So, I think that that comes to the fore in this episode, kind of realizing that maybe he hasn’t been focusing as much as he should on Trudy,” she continues. “And then all [that] really comes to the fore when she’s hurt and he has to kind of deal with what that feels like. And what she really means to him, what the feeling of the possibility of losing her is, how profound that is for him. So yeah, he’s put through the wringer in this one.”
As Trudy clings to life, the doctors are tasked with trying to save her—through whatever means necessary.
“I don’t think that they were shot differently, but I think that storyline is…the main emotional centerpiece of the whole lot,” MacDonald acknowledges. “Action is wonderful and suspense is wonderful—and great storytelling devices—but I think it’s the emotion that people remember. And I think that [the] storyline between Mouch and Trudy [is] amazing. Christian Stolte and Amy Morton are amazing.”

CHICAGO FIRE — “In The Trenches: Part 1” Episode 13012/13011 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: Peter Gordon/NBC)
Will the ONE CHICAGO crossover be a standalone event?
The ONE CHICAGO trio are well into their seasons, with many lingering storylines up in the air as the characters head into the crossover.
For Ruzek, who just learned his father has Alzheimer’s, “it’s probably not vocally addressed as much [during the event]—it’s more just that these characters are already coming into a stressful situation with some stress,” Sigan admits with a laugh. “It’s gonna ramp it all up. And then definitely throughout the rest of our season with [Burgess and Ruzek], we get to address some of that coming out in the next few episodes—after the crossover—and the fact that they have had this difficult year, while they’re also having one of the most exciting years of their life, being engaged and planning a wedding, and her getting promoted. All of these amazing things [are] happening, while at the same time, you’re dealing with so much stress from family and from a new job. And so we get to see this being a piece of that, too, and so it does kind of get addressed [later].”
For MED, “big picture, this is looked at as a ONE CHICAGO movie, and that the story is isolated within those three hours,” MacDonald says. “But it also takes place exactly where it falls. So you will see little touchstones of things that are going on, on the individual shows…[MED’s] Ripley and Hannah arrive at the hospital [and] they’re dressed in black because they just came from Sully’s funeral. I can tell you that although Goodwin is recovering, when she hears what happens, she shows [up] at the hospital ready to help. [Her] recovery [is] not done yet, so she’s coming in early.”
Of course, incorporating little beats came with its own complications, both leading up to this and producing the crossover itself. “That was a big part of it: Making sure we were tracking the characters and we know what we’re building to and how we’re challenging them in this episode,” Newman says. “There’s a lot of relationship drama in this crossover and we don’t always do that. So this is really integrated with the other shows, but also with the rest of the season…Kidd and Severide and Mouch and Platt and Burgess and Ruzek on the P.D. side, they’re all digging deep into those relationships and how they’re challenged in this episode.”

CHICAGO P.D. — “In The Trenches: Part III” Episode 12014 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC)
Which unexpected pairings can viewers expect?
Before things descend into chaos, “In The Trenches: Part I” showcases a non-emergency crossover for MED and FIRE.
“I loved watching [MED’s] Dr. Frost interacting with Violet and Novak from FIRE,” MacDonald previews. “And it’s not a spoiler to say, in the first hour, that the reason Frost is with them is because he’s shadowing, dropping in to spend a day with 51. And then this tragedy happens, and he ends up having to work with them. And he’s a doctor—he’s not used to being out on the streets, saving lives after accidents and stuff like that. And there’s a very steep learning curve for him, and there’s some tension between him and Novak and Violet.”
Romantic tension, though? “I would say there’s all kinds of tensions going on between characters,” MacDonald says. “That’s possible.”
But after the explosion, with all hands on deck to save the survivors, characters from all three shows will be intermingling.
“I loved seeing [FIRE’s] Pascal with [P.D.’s] Voight,” Newman says. “As somebody said, that’s like alpha central right there. So it was really fun to see these two big dogs having to work together because they both have people who are in serious danger. And they have to work together to figure out how to save them.”
“They’re two separate trains running as they’re trying to figure out the investigation and get the pieces of that, [which] will help them get to the subway car itself and also get rubble out of the way and get lives saved,” she continues. “They’re working together to get that done and we’ve never seen those two together, so that was a lot of fun.”
And why is Archer wearing a firefighter’s uniform in the photos from the episode? “All I can say about that is that I’m not giving away anything to say that Dr. Archer is a doctor, and there may be people that need help in places that aren’t easy to get to,” MacDonald teases.
Additionally, MacDonald admits that the crossover already has inspired future episodes of CHICAGO MED. “I am personally obsessed with Mouch; I think he’s amazing,” he says. “So amazing that I asked Andrea Newman if I could use [Stolte] in episode 15 of MED. And she said yes, thankfully. And so he will be in episode 15 of MED after the crossover.”
RELATED:
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- CHICAGO MED: ‘In The Trenches: Part II’ Photos
- CHICAGO FIRE: ‘In The Trenches: Part I’ Photos
- Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Videos from the ONE CHICAGO Crossover
- NBC Sets ONE CHICAGO Crossover Event
- CHICAGO MED Recap: Goodwin’s Stalker is Revealed
- CHICAGO FIRE: David Eigenberg Previews Herrmann and Mouch’s Officer Exams
- CHICAGO MED’s Steven Weber Teases Trouble for Goodwin: ‘People Are Gonna Lose Their S—‘
- CHICAGO FIRE: David Eigenberg Reflects on Herrmann Not Being Promoted—Yet
- CHICAGO P.D.: Benjamin Levy Aguilar Ponders the Potential Danger of Reid
- CHICAGO MED: Sarah Ramos Previews Lenox’s ‘Humdinger’ Backstory, Tension with Archer, and Halloween Hijinks
- CHICAGO FIRE: Miranda Rae Mayo on Learning More About Kidd’s Backstory and What Upcoming Storylines Have Her ‘Elated’
- CHICAGO P.D. Post-Mortem: Benjamin Levy Aguilar and Toya Turner Break Down the ‘Contrition’ Cliffhanger
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- CHICAGO P.D.: Benjamin Levy Aguilar Previews the Return of Gloria
- CHICAGO FIRE: Andrea Newman Teases an Unexpected Surprise for Cruz
- CHICAGO FIRE: Miranda Rae Mayo Reflects on Stellaride’s Big Decision, Plus Teases Tension with Damon
- CHICAGO P.D. Post-Mortem: Marina Squerciati and Gwen Sigan on Burgess’ Big Career Move
- CHICAGO FIRE: Andrea Newman Teases a ‘Roller Coaster’ for Violet and Carver
- CHICAGO P.D. Post-Mortem: Gwen Sigan Breaks Down Cook’s Addition to Intelligence
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- NBC Reveals ONE CHICAGO Key Art
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