Nellie Andreeva

On the heels of hitting series highs last night behind a two-hour Voice, NBC’s freshman Chicago Fire has received a full-season pickup. The firefighter drama, from Wolf Films and Universal TV, has been a modest performer with little help from NBC’s soft Wednesday lineup. But it has held its own, sometime building from the first to the second half-hour, a rare feat for a 10 PM series. And last night, with a strong lead-in, it perked up to finish No.1 in the hour. “We all love this thrilling new drama with its sexy breakout cast,” NBC’s Jennifer Salke said. “We are excited to see it gaining traction on our schedule.”

Chicago Fire is averaging a 2.4/7 in adults 18-49 and 8.0 million viewers overall in “most current” averages through the season’s first six weeks. The series is created/exec produced by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, with Matt Olmstead serving as showrunner. Taylor Kinney, Jesse Spencer, Eamonn Walker, Monica Raymund, Charlie Barnett and David Eigenberg star. Chicago Fire first got a five-script order from NBC before converting that into a full-season order. NBC has now given full-season orders to freshmen Revolution, Chicago Fire, Go On and The New Normal and has cancelled Animal Practice. Also expected to get a back order is new comedy Guys With Kids, which has a five-script pickup but was pre-empted last night to accommodate The Voice.

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