Chicago Fire Showrunner on Chili's Exit

We've known that at Firehouse 51 that there has been some changes ever sine Chicago Fire premiered. There has been a lot of personnel changes because of death from Andy Darden to Leslie Shay or even the ones that departed from Peter Mills and Scott Rice.

But when it comes to the most recent exit that took many viewers off guard was when Chili (Dora Madison) was unceremoniously fired by Boden. No doubt that disciplinary action was a long time coming for Chili since she was coming in late and drinking pretty heavily following the death of her sister. With that in mind, off screen, the decision to boot Chili was a bit of a surprise given that Madison's promotion as a series regular at the beginning of the season after joining the team as Brett's new paramedic partner at the end of the third season.

"(There are" no plans for Chili come back right now," showrunner Matt Olmstead tells to The Hollywood Reporter.

He explains that the decision behind the mid-season exit was to keep the viewers on their toes.

"You can't just save up the big moments and departures and entrances for characters at episode one and episode 22," Olmstead says. "It's almost conditions the audience to be like 'OK, we'll tune in for the first episode and tune in for the finale because not much is going to happen in between because the writers are too timid to make any kind of moves.' So you can threaten people leaving and you can kind of rattle your saber here and there, but unless you follow through on it, no one is going to believe you."

Chili's downfall, which also came at the expense of her romantic relationship with fellow newcomer Jimmy (Steven R. McQueen), was discouraging for the entire house. And even though those who tired helping her were those of her partner Brett and Dawson.

"You think you could have helped her out, but shes on this path of self-destruction," Olmstead said. "It got us some good stuff midway through the season as opposed as to waiting for a finale to have the character exit."

The firehouse has since filled the void left by Chili as her former beau Jimmy is now the paramedic and the firehouse has welcomed a new female firefighter in the form of Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo). However, Olmstead explains that it wasn't such an easy deisicion to write Chili out.

"It's hard," Olmstead says. "We liked the actress a lot and she did a great job."

You can catch Chicago Fire as they return tonight at 10/9c along with a new Chicago Med at 9/8c on NBC.