The Two Chicago One Stars That Rescued Someone In Real Life
The "Chicago" franchise — which includes "Chicago Fire," "Chicago P.D.," and "Chicago Med" — follows professional firefighters, police officers, and medical personnel who risk their own lives to save others in the streets of Chicago. The series started to run on NBC in 2012, and over 500 episodes have aired to date. And as it turns out, the actors who portray these emergency personnel are just as impressive behind the camera as they are in front.
In July 2021, two of the stars of the franchise performed a real-life rescue at the scene of a "bad accident" by saving a woman who had driven into a ditch, which was the result of a dig for the plumbing of a building. Speaking at the TV Guide Magazine 2021 Fan Favorites panel, actor Jesse Lee Soffer detailed the incident, and shared how he and another fan-favorite, Nick Gehlfuss, were able to show that they are just as heroic as the characters they play on-screen.
Jesse Lee Soffer and Nick Gehlfuss saved a woman involved in a car accident
When Jesse Lee Soffer (above) appeared on the TV Guide Magazine 2021 Fan Favorites panel for Comic-Con@Home, he shared that he and on-screen brother, Nick Gehlfuss, went out to dinner one night. On their walk home, they heard screeching tires, and turned to find that a car had collided with another car and rolled into a 10-foot ditch. Soffer said, "They had hit another car and rolled in, and Nick and I — he plays a doctor on 'Chicago Med' — we ran and he was like 'What are we doing?' And I was like, 'We go, we have to go.' And we sprang into action. We jump into the ditch and we pulled this woman out."
Soffer said that he and Gehlfuss pulled the woman out of the car window to save her. Coincidentally, the woman was a huge fan of the show. After being rescued, the woman looked at them and screamed. "It was like a weird meta experience for her that like the Halstead brothers were saving her life," Soffer said.
The woman they saved was a fan of the Chicago franchise
It's not too surprising that the woman they rescued was a huge fan of the "Chicago" franchise as the shows do, unsurprisingly, film in Chicago. "Chicago Fire" films downtown and in the Bucktown neighborhood, while the Chicago Fire Academy is located on W. De Koven Street, according to Choose Chicago. The police station used on "Chicago P.D." is in the Pilsen neighborhood. Lastly, "Chicago Med's" Gaffney Medical Center is in the Rush University Medical Center, which is the "home base" for the show.
TV Series Finale confirmed that "Chicago P.D.," on which Jesse Lee Soffer stars, has been renewed through Season 10. Then, in May 2021, Newsweek confirmed that "Chicago Fire" and "Chicago Med" had also been renewed for further seasons. According to the outlet, "Chicago Med" averages 7.3 million weekly viewers, while "Chicago Fire" averages 7.2 million and "Chicago P.D." 6.1 million. This makes the shows the second, third, and fourth most-watched series behind NBC's "The Voice."