It is tough being a fan of firefighter shows when Fire Country, 9-1-1 Chicago Fire and more are killing — or just writing off — our favorite characters one by one.
While character deaths and dramatic series exits aren’t new, there has been an unprecedented amount in 2025. 9-1-1 drew public attention to the trend when Peter Krause‘s Bobby Nash died in an April 2025 episode after eight seasons on the hit series. Creator Tim Minear confirmed at the time that it wasn’t the actor’s decision to leave 9-1-1.
“I still think people grip their seats and are excited when Athena lands a plane on the freeway or a ship capsizes — but after eight years, it just felt like, if we have any hope of creating stories going forward that have actual stakes, then someone’s got to die,” Minear told Variety about why it “made sense” for that to be Bobby. “If you track the tragic arc of his character, of where he started, and how he came to L.A. looking for atonement, it just makes a kind of tragic sense for his character in a way it wouldn’t for another character.”
Minear concluded: “But also, I just didn’t want to go small. Not that any of the characters are small, but Bobby’s death affects every single character’s story in a way that really no other character death would.”
The hits just kept coming when that same month, Fire Country wrapped up its third season on a cliffhanger — only for news to break that Stephanie Arcila would be exiting the show after three seasons. While Arcila could return as a guest star, her costar Billy Burke was reportedly stepping away from the show after his character, Vince, was seemingly killed off in an explosion.
“I had no idea ever. But at the same time, I know that this is the nature of the industry that I’m in, and I have accepted the flow of release and acceptance throughout my journey and knowing that when one door closes, another one always opens,” she exclusively told Us Weekly after the controversial exit. “We have this beautiful eternal door of revolving desires in what we love in life. I believe that if we put resistance towards that, sometimes it stops us from fulfilling other things that we love.”
9-1-1 and Fire Country aren’t the only shows to take such big swings. Keep scrolling as Us explains why it seems like every TV show centered on firefighters is dealing with an onscreen death or an offscreen exit:
The Key Players
Just in April 2025 alone, 9-1-1 killed off Krause’s Bobby while Fire Country lost both Arcila and Burke’s characters ahead of its fourth season. Then there is Jake Lockett over on Chicago Fire, who also surprised Us when he announced that his character will exit the show in season 14. Lockett joins Daniel Kyri, who is also leaving Firehouse 51 after playing Ritter.
The Gist
Despite there being fan speculation that Krause was killed off because of budget cuts, Minear said in multiple interviews that it was a creative decision to kill off a main cast member in order to shake up the story.
Fire Country, meanwhile, allegedly asked the cast to cut down their episode count in season 3 as a cost-saving measure. Deadline reported that the main series regulars came together and were able to prevent their episodes from being reduced.
“It really just comes down to what’s the best creatively. There’s a lot of stuff going on that we as producers juggle, but honestly, we are writers first and foremost and storytellers,” executive producer Joan Rater told the outlet in response to a question about budget cuts affecting the season 4 cast. “And we struggle with these stories, we wrestle them to the ground, we consider them from six different angles. We don’t do anything lightly, we talk, we talk, we talk. And then we just have to go with our gut about what makes the most compelling story, and we are really trying to write authentic stories that examine what these heroes deal with and go through. So that’s where we’re coming from at all times.”
Fellow executive producer Tony Phelan argued that a cast change would allow for more intrigue.
“Also, going into Season 4, you don’t want the audience to ever feel complacent, to feel like they know exactly what they’re gonna get, and it’s gonna be the same thing that they’ve gotten,” he added. “You want to create lean-In moments where the real stakes of what’s involved with what these heroes do is always there. So the audience never knows what’s coming next.”
As for the One Chicago franchise, it has made headlines as several cast members across all three shows — Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. — announced exits throughout the years. Viewers — and cast — have speculated that the shake ups were connected to the budget.
Why It’s a Big Deal
9-1-1, Fire Country and One Chicago received major backlash for getting rid of fan favorite characters. The showrunners, however, stood by their respective creative decisions for their individual shows.
What People Are Saying
Fans have expressed concern about TV shows — especially about first responders — leaning into consistent cast changes. NBC’s president of program planning Jeff Bader previously said he wasn’t concerned about the future of the franchise despite the shake ups.
“Cast comes in, cast goes out,” Bader told TVLine in an interview published in July 2024. “It’s interesting. Because every year there are cast changes, and every year someone asks the same question” about what’s going on within the One Chicago universe. “But [those shows] just keep going on. We’re thrilled with how the Chicagos do on Wednesday. We have no plans on changing anything on that night.”
What We’re Saying
Killing off beloved characters is a big creative swing — but not when every other show is doing the same exact thing. It isn’t just firefighter shows leaning on character death now, with Netflix’s Outer Banks killing off Rudy Pankow‘s JJ Maybank, Yellowjackets‘ numerous onscreen deaths, a shocking demise on The Last of Us and a finale with a major death on NCIS: Origins.
What’s Next
9-1-1 is expanding with 9-1-1: Nashville, which might keep their characters alive for a while in the beginning. There’s also Fire Country‘s upcoming spinoff, Sheriff Country, and a wide variety of other first responder shows including medical dramas and cop shows. But unfortunately, onscreen deaths and possible cast exits are risks you have to take going into these shows.
