None other than Dr. Natalie Manning returned to Chicago Med for Season 11 in the 2025 TV schedule, although not for the happiest of reasons. After the 200th episode featured Will (with Nick Gehlfuss’ long-awaited return) and Owen, she had to race to the Windy City from Seattle with her son’s life in the balance. Speaking with CinemaBlend, actress Torrey DeVitto opened up about the return to her old stomping grounds at Gaffney Med in One Chicago, and how the experience compares to working on Hallmark Christmas movies.
Natalie had to fight for the best course of treatment for Owen in her emotional return to Chicago, which extended to donating one of her kidneys despite being halfway along in her second pregnancy. There was crying, there was yelling, there was arguing… basically, Natalie had to channel a lot of emotions that generally aren’t seen in Hallmark holiday celebrations. Torrey DeVitto has starred in several of the movies, going back her pre-Med days.
Some of her holliest and jolliest credits are Best Christmas Party Ever (2014), Write Before Christmas (2019), The Christmas Promise (2021), and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (2022). When I spoke with DeVitto about her return to Chicago Med for the 200th and 201st episodes (both available streaming now with a Peacock subscription), she shared what it was like to go back to the halls of Gaffney after the holiday cheer of Hallmark:
I was definitely more emotional. [laughs] I cried more for sure. You know, there’s something about the Christmas movies that are so light-hearted. I think that was part of the reasons I started doing the Christmas movies while I was on Chicago Med, because over my hiatus, I just wanted to do something light, because I feel like especially Natalie was always going through something traumatic.
Considering that Natalie’s story began back in 2015 when she was pregnant after the death of her husband, continued to include twists like a botched Manstead wedding, a bout of amnesia after a TBI, and the events leading up to her departure, I doubt that any longtime Chicago Med fan could argue with Torrey DeVitto that her character really was always going through “something traumatic.” That officially includes her Season 11 appearances now! She continued:
It was very appropriate to come back on set and have to say all my hellos to all the cast and crew that I did know, and then go, ‘Okay, now I’ll be right back. I have to just focus on crying for the next eight hours, and then we can chat later.’ [laughs}.
None of this is to say that there are never tears shed in Hallmark movies, but happily-ever-afters are much more likely in Christmas flicks than in a season finale of Chicago Med (or Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., for that matter). As somebody who enjoys watching Hallmark to unwind from the intensity of One Chicago sometimes, it’s easy to see why DeVitto would enjoy a very different kind of project between Med appearances.
Take a look at clip from Write Before Christmas, which released just under a month after the Season 5 premiere of NBC’s hit medical drama, for an example of DeVitto channeling some Christmas cheer:
If you want to revisit Torrey DeVitto’s days as a Chicago Med series regular, you can find all of her full seasons as well as her two episodes of Season 11 streaming on Peacock now. As for the best and brightest of Hallmark’s Christmas movie options all year round, check out the Hallmark+ streaming service.