‘This Is Us’ Is Coming To An End With The Sixth Season
NBC’s award-winning and top-rated drama series This Is Us will come to an end with its sixth season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network is poised to announce on Friday that its time-jumping family tear-jerker from creator Dan Fogelman will close its run during the upcoming 2021-2022 broadcast season.
In May of 2019, when NBC renewed This Is Us for three additional seasons, they revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that season six would likely be the last for stars Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown.
Fogelman has been determined about the endgame for This Is Us, saying at the end of season three that his show was at its “midpoint.” Fogelman has said for years said that the structure of the series would not sustain a run comparable to NBC’s veteran series. Fogelman told the media outlet in April 2019, “We never set out to make a television series that was going to last 18 seasons, so we have a very direct plan. I have script pages I have written and I’m writing that really are deep, deep, deep into the future. We have a plan for what we’re going to do, and I know what the plan is.”
An official episode count has yet to be determined for the final season, but it’s expected to consist of around 18 episodes, likely enough to carry the series over the 100-episode threshold that is typically needed to secure a lucrative off-network syndication deal and triggering a cash infusion for Fogelman and Disney, which now owns the series after closing its $71.3 billion deal with Fox a few years ago.
This Is Us hit the ground running after the show’s trailer debuted to a record-setting number of YouTube views, the media outlet reports. The series lived up to the hype and was a ratings and awards breakout at a time when broadcast originals struggled to hold viewers who have moved on to streaming original series. This Is Us is expected to go out as one of broadcast’s top-rated dramas among total viewers and the adults 18-49 demographic.
This Is Us has earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and wins for best drama series, and for stars Ventimiglia, Moore, and Brown for their lead acting roles.
NBC is set to reveal its fall schedule for the 2021-2022 season on Friday as new executives Frances Berwick and Susan Rovner present their vision for the future of the network to the press corps for the first time.
