CHICAGO MED Bosses Preview Will’s New Trial, Tweaking their COVID Storyline Plans

CHICAGO MED returns on Wednesday, January 6, with Will (Nick Gehlfuss) hard at work on his new clinical trial—with some headaches ahead.

“Well, he continues to be Will,” CHICAGO MED executive producer Diane Frolov says with a laugh. “So he’s going to push and stretch and do things his way.”

“Not necessarily the trial’s way,” executive producer Andrew Schneider adds.

“There’ll be consequences for that,” Frolov says. “But we’ll see him struggling with ethical issues and just physical problems with his patients—and crises. So it’s a kind of bumpy road for him.”

As Will’s trial moves along, it bumps against the long-lasting effects some COVID-19 survivors have faced.

“One of the interesting things we do, we’re always trying to find ways to reflect what’s going on in the real world in our show,” Schneider said. “And there are post-COVID coronary issues. So, one of his trial patients is someone whose coronary issues were exacerbated by [it]. He survived COVID, thought he was over it, but turns out, oh no, there’s some other problems [now].”

The executive producers acknowledge trying to produce a medical-based television show in the midst of an ever-changing pandemic has led them to reassess how the story is playing out on-screen.

“We’re trying to stay as current as we can and not be a quasi-[alternate] reality, as much as we can,” Frolov says. “We try; we do a lot of reading and talking to doctors and trying to anticipate what will be happening [when we air]. For instance, we originally we did not have a vaccine story.”

“We didn’t know when one would be out,” Schneider notes.

“So when we’re shooting episode 5, which is going to air towards the end of January, we’re thinking, ‘You know, by then, they’re going to be vaccinating healthcare workers pretty consistently,'” Frolov recalls. “So we decided, well, we better get that in…That meant changing what we were going to shoot. You have to sort of be a little nimble.”

But, Schneider admits, it’s all still a gamble as the world remains, in many ways, up in the air. “We’re rolling the dice on some of these things,” he says. “We do have to be prepared that we might need to reshoot some [elements], or replace some dialogue. So far we haven’t had to. But…it’s changing very quickly in this world.”

CHICAGO MED, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC

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