As “Chicago Fire” fans will know, Dora Madison left the NBC franchise behind in the middle of the fourth season and had some fairly big storylines during her time playing Jessica “Chili” Chilton — including a steamy yet short-lived romance with Steven R. McQueen’s Jimmy Borrell. But things began to unravel and Chili struggled with her career in the wake of the death of her sister. Sheturned to the bottle, ended up treating a patient incorrectly and was fired for drinking on the job.
As for the exact reason why the show’s team decided to call time on the character? Well, it was all a case of keeping viewers on their toes! “You can’t just save up the big moments and departures and entrances for characters at Episode 1 and Episode 22,” “Chicago Fire” showrunner Matt Olmstead, explained to The Hollywood Reporter in April 2016 of Madison’s mid-season departure. “It 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.'”
As for Madison, she didn’t appear to publicly respond to leaving, but seemed excited to be brought promoted as a Season 4 series regular. “Happy to be apart of @NBCChicagoFire [sic],” she tweeted alongside a duck face selfie back in October 2015, thanking those behind the scenes for “bringing [her] to the team.”