Andrea Newman is leaving Chicago Fire. She is the showrunner who has been present for every single season of the NBC drama since it premiered in 2012.
That makes fourteen seasons, more than 290 episodes, and the entire run of one of the most durable scripted franchises on American television. She will not be returning for Season 15. Her exit was confirmed exclusively by Deadline on April 24, 2026.
Newman is leaving on her own terms. According to Deadline, the decision was hers. She has not announced what she plans to do next.
Victor Teran, currently a co-executive producer on the show, has been named executive producer and showrunner for Season 15, which is expected to premiere in fall 2026 on NBC.
Newman’s Amazing 14-Year Run
To understand what Newman’s departure means, it helps to understand the scope of what she did and how long she did it.
Chicago Fire premiered on October 10, 2012, created by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt. Newman joined the series immediately after the pilot as co-executive producer, meaning she was not there for the first episode but was there from the very second one, embedded in the writers room as the show found its footing and began building what would become the most watched scripted franchise on television.
She stayed. While cast members came and went, while co-creators moved on, while the network went through regime changes and the broader television landscape transformed around the show, Newman stayed.
In Season 6 she was promoted to executive producer. In 2021, when co-creator Derek Haas stepped into a co-showrunner arrangement with her covering Seasons 10 and 11, she was effectively running the room alongside the person who invented the show.
When Haas stepped down ahead of Season 12, Newman took over as sole showrunner.
She held that position through Seasons 12, 13, and 14, three consecutive seasons as the single person most responsible for the creative direction of a show that averages 5.28 million viewers per episode and anchors NBC’s Wednesday night.
In her statement, she described the show the way anyone who has spent fourteen years inside a workplace would.
“After 14 years, you really do become a family,” she said. “Working at Chicago Fire, with the absolute best cast and crew in the business, has been the highlight of my career. Like so many others, I was inspired to get into TV writing because of Dick, so what a thrill it’s been to work with him and the amazing Wolf team of Peter Jankowski, Rebecca McGill and Anastasia Puglisi.”
She continued, “I’m so grateful to them, Derek Haas and the NBC and Universal execs who have been so supportive of the show all along the way. Working with this group will always feel like home.”
Peter Jankowski, President and COO of Wolf Entertainment, called her the heart and soul of the show. “We’re sad to say goodbye to Andrea,” he said. “She’s been at the center of the heart and soul of Chicago Fire since the beginning and the show thrived under her watch. We’re grateful for her commitment to the development of the next generation and know the show will be in great hands with Victor taking the reins.”
Who Is Victor Teran?
Teran is not an outside hire. He has been inside the Chicago Fire writers room since Season 10, which means he has been working directly under Newman for the same period she served as sole showrunner.
The transition is a promotion from within, which is consistent with how Jankowski framed Newman’s contribution, her “commitment to the development of the next generation.”
Before television, Teran’s background was in independent film. He worked his way up through the production side of the industry, eventually becoming VP of Physical Production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.
He produced, wrote and directed his own independent films, including Filly Brown, which starred Gina Rodriguez and Edward James Olmos and was selected for competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and Snap, which competed at SXSW.
He began writing for television in 2018 and landed on Chicago Fire as his first network series credit in Season 10. He has been there since, learning the show and the franchise from the inside.
For Season 15 he steps up as executive producer and showrunner, the full creative authority over a series that has been running continuously for nearly fourteen years and shows no sign of losing its audience.
What Is ‘Chicago Fire?’
Chicago Fire is the mothership of the OneChicago franchise, Dick Wolf’s trio of interconnected NBC dramas that also includes Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med.
All three series follow first responders in Chicago and share cast members, storylines, and occasional multi-show crossover events that have become appointment television for the franchise’s audience.
All three were renewed in March 2026 for the 2026-27 season, Chicago Fire for Season 15, Chicago P.D. for Season 14, and Chicago Med for Season 12.
The March 4, 2026 crossover event boosted each of the three series to season-high viewership, with social video views up 75% compared to the 2025 crossover.
The shows air back-to-back on NBC Wednesday nights and remain a regular presence in Peacock’s top 10 in-season.
Season 14 of Chicago Fire averaged 5.28 million viewers and a 0.34 rating in the 18-49 demographic, numbers that, in the current television landscape, make it one of the most watched scripted shows on broadcast.
The current cast heading into Season 15 includes Taylor Kinney as Lt. Kelly Severide, Miranda Rae Mayo as Lt. Stella Kidd, David Eigenberg as Christopher Herrmann, Christian Stolte as Lt. Randall “Mouch” McHolland, Joe Miñoso as Joe Cruz, Dermot Mulroney as Chief Dom Pascal, Hanako Greensmith as Paramedic Violet Mikami, Jocelyn Hudon as Lizzy Novak and Brandon Larracuente as Sal Vasquez.
No cast changes have been announced in connection with the showrunner transition.
What Season 15 Will Look Like
Chicago Fire Season 15 is expected to premiere in late September or early October 2026, maintaining its Wednesday night 9/8c time slot on NBC as part of the full OneChicago block. Season 14’s finale is expected to air May 13, 2026.
The showrunner change heading into Season 15 is the most significant behind-the-scenes shift the series has seen since Haas stepped down ahead of Season 12.
Newman’s exit removes the last direct link to the original creative team that built the show from the pilot forward.
Teran inherits a franchise that is still drawing millions of viewers per week in its fourteenth year, a position that represents both a significant responsibility and a significant opportunity.
Newman’s departure also comes at a moment when the OneChicago franchise is negotiating an increasingly complex budget environment.
Last year’s renewal went down to the wire, with the network and studio going back and forth on cost reductions that ultimately trimmed each show’s episode order from 22 to 21 and resulted in cast departures across multiple series.
The 2026-27 renewal came earlier and more smoothly, suggesting the financial tension has eased, but the operating reality of running three interconnected dramas simultaneously at this scale of production is not a simple one.
Teran walks into that environment as the new person at the top. He has spent the last four seasons learning how the room works, how the franchise operates, and what the show is.
What he does with all of that in Season 15 is the question that Chicago Fire’s 5-plus million weekly viewers will start getting answers to this fall.
