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The NFL is definitively why This Is Us stayed on Tuesday nights

By MacKenzie Washington

THIS IS US -- "The Pool" Episode 104 -- Pictured: (l-r) Mandy Moore as Rebecca, Mackenzie Hancsicsak as 8 year old Kate, Milo Ventimiglia as Jack, Lonnie Chavis as 8 year old Randall, Parker Bates as 8 year old Kevin -- (Photo by: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
THIS IS US -- "The Pool" Episode 104 -- Pictured: (l-r) Mandy Moore as Rebecca, Mackenzie Hancsicsak as 8 year old Kate, Milo Ventimiglia as Jack, Lonnie Chavis as 8 year old Randall, Parker Bates as 8 year old Kevin -- (Photo by: Ron Batzdorff/NBC) /
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This Is Us is staying on Tuesday night because of the NFL — and that’s a good thing for everyone but Dan Fogelman.

Early in May, NBC made waves when the network announced it would be moving its breakout freshman show This Is Us from Tuesday nights to Thursdays. The move would be part of the network’s efforts to build up Thursday and compete with ABC’s #TGIT Shonda Rhimes lineup. Then, at the end of the month, NBC announced This Is Us would stay on Tuesdays. Turns out that’s all because of the NFL.

NBC Entertainment executive Jennifer Salke explained the situation at an Entertainment Weekly panel at ATX television festival. Essentially, the network believed it would be a disservice to the show to let football ruin its midseason momentum.

Salke described how the network felt like no matter where they put This Is Us, the audience will follow and that initially guided the interest in Thursday. Still, she was really swayed by creator Dan Fogelman’s pitch for the second season arc and felt it wouldn’t be right to break it up, which the NFL on NBC would necessarily do.

When the NFL takes over Thursday nights on NBC starting in late October or early November, This Is Us would be off the air. Then, they would hit the Christmas holidays. Only then would the show come back. So they were looking at six episodes, a two month break and then the rest of the season. As Salke remembers, “I think we all just had to look at each other and say, this is not in the best interest of the show.”

Of course, that meant more urgent work for Fogelman, who was so in the zone working on new episodes that he had to skip the panel. He is now looking at ten straight episodes for the winter break. The second season of the show starts filming July 11 and it should premiere sometime in mid September. Ten straight, here we go.

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