Tracy Spiridakos Finally Wins Over Fans Of 'Chicago PD' Following Sophia Bush Exit

When fans heard that Erin Lindsay would no longer be appearing on their beloved police detective show “Chicago PD,” it seemed like the worst had happened.

The detective played by Sophia Bush,  was a fan favorite, and many wanted to see her end up with her love interest, Jay Halstead.

However, Bush wanted out of her contract and the show's producers moved swiftly to replace her character with another female officer. A lovable one at that.

Bush was replaced by Tracy Spiridakos, who plays Hailey Upton on the show, and though fans did not welcome Upton with open arms initially, all that has changed since season eight of the show wrapped up.

They felt that Spiridakos was the season’s main star and have finally warmed up to her.

Sophia Bush is not a new face to her fans, as she starred in the iconic love-drama titled “One Tree Hill.”

Her popularity made it easy for lovers of the show to accept her when she was cast as a female officer in the cop series.

She then appeared on the show for four seasons and suddenly decided to leave for personal reasons, even though she had been contracted for seven seasons.

Bush disclosed that acting for that duration of time on the show severely took its toll on her health.

“My body was, like, falling apart because I was really unhappy,” she said.

Bush added that filming in the cold weather was harsh and alleged she was harassed on the show. Once her mind was made up, she gave the producers two choices; they either had to terminate her contract, or she would reveal to the press why she left the show.

After a bit of haggling, she was allowed to leave. As a result of this, the producers wrote her character out by stating to viewers that Lindsay left for a new job with the FBI.

Even though fans still loved "Chicago P.D," the departure of Bush’s character was a tough one for them to swallow. They were enamored by her soft and sweet personality as she upheld the law and fought crime on the streets of Chicago.

Her replacement Spiridakos, who played the head-strong Upton, immediately went into the bad books because of the controversial arc the writers took with her romance with Lindsay’s man, Jay Halstead.

Fans know that Spiridakos is a great actor. They’ve seen her in other shows, and they have nothing against her personally. It’s Upton that bothers them.

As one fan wrote back then, “For me personally it’s nothing against the actress @trspiridakos I just don’t like her character, Upton. Usually, characters that I don’t like to end up growing on me but hers hasn’t. In the beginning, I didn’t like Adam and he grew on me.”

Spiridakos' character, Upton, first appeared on the show after she was assigned to work with the intelligence unit on a joint operation.

Instead of playing the bully, she showed excellent teamwork skills and impressed Hank Voight, chief of Chicago's P.D intelligence unit. This prompted him to ask her to join the elite unit on a permanent basis.

Since her initial appearance, Upton has done a lot to stir fan’s attention from how great Lindsay was to her own awesomeness.

In season seven of the show, they saw her dark side rear up and watched how she dealt with it in the next season.

These days, they can’t seem to get enough of her, and some have taken to Reddit to disclose their affection for the character.

One fan said “I liked Erin but if I’m being honest, I like Hailey more.”

Another fan said, “Definitely miss Erin. But her leaving did mean Hailey came on the show.”

Like the saying goes, old wine tastes sweeter.

Fans have been eager to see their favorite characters return to grace their screens, and it seems like it won't be long now.

The show has confirmed that core members of the Intelligence Unit such as Voight, Adam Ruzek, Trudy Platt, Jay Halstead, Kevin Atwater, Kim Burgess, and Upton would be returning. Yay!

They also got a hint that Lisseth Chavez would return to reprise her role as Vanessa Rojas from a teaser the show released on Twitter.

Their Twitter handle posted “Would you like to see Lisseth Chavez return to #ChicagoPD, even if just to give her character a more formal sendoff?”

For now, there is still no news on whether Bush would return as Lindsay, and the chances are slim to none. But fans would have to wait till the premiere of season nine to find out.