Philip Winchester headed back to NBC as 'Chicago Justice' gets series pickup 

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Philip Winchester (left) with LaRoyce Hawkins and Jason Beghe in a scene from the 'Chicago P.D.' episode 'Justice.'

Philip Winchester, who will be starring in a new fall series for NBC for the second year in a row as the network ordered a first season of

on Wednesday. The announcement was made via press release and is NBC\'s first drama series pickup for the 2016-2017 TV season.

franchise, focusing on the lawyers of the Cook County State\'s Attorney\'s Office. Winchester leads as the tough as nails senior prosecutor Peter Stone, while actress Nazneen Contractor (24) plays his second chair Dawn Harper. Their supervisor Mark Jefferies is played by Carl Weathers (

), while Joelle Carter and Ryan-James Hatanaka round out the cast as SA\'s Office investigators.

The show officially launched Wednesday night as a special episode of

If you missed it, you can catch up with our recap and review. The backdoor pilot pulled in 6.7 million viewers and a 1.4 rating in the demo, which put it just slightly above the regular numbers of

With that performance a series pick-up - which already seemed likely given NBC\'s appreciation for the

franchise and its long-running relationship with producer Dick Wolf, which he recently extended with a new deal that keeps him with NBCUniversal until 2020 - was a no-brainer. The real question is where

will land when it premieres this fall.

Another option might be Thursdays which has been a difficult night for NBC to program outside of

. But that would probably not be great for Winchester - his last series The Player drew the Thursday 10 p.m. slot and found itself cut down by the network ahead of its time. Having the

, but it still would be a disadvantageous position. (Not to mention, hilariously ironic.)

does land when NBC unveils its fall schedule - which will be sometime in the next two months as the fall Television Critics Association press tour kicks off in August - the good news is that Winchester is starring in a network TV series again. Hopefully, the second time goes better than the first.

'Chicago P.D.' recap and review: Philip Winchester dishes out some 'Justice'

Photos: Philip Winchester guest stars in this week's episode of 'Chicago P.D.'

Watch: First look at Philip Winchester making his 'Chicago P.D.' debut

Interview: Philip Winchester takes us inside Alex's head in 'The Player' finale

Watch: Philip Winchester, Wesley Snipes have your first look at 'The Player'

Award-winning entertainment journalist Brittany Frederick is an official honorary member of Section 20. She covered \'Strike Back\' in its entirety and is now doing the same for \'Blindspot,\' \'The Player,\' and \'Chicago Justice\' while reading every Chris Ryan novel and using the alias Michelle Stonebridge. Find her on Twitter (@tvbrittanyf).

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