‘This Is Us’ Gets Full-Season Order at NBC for Total of 18 Episodes
This Is Us has emerged as the breakout new hourlong series of the fall 2016 broadcast season. Now Dan Fogelman’s ensemble dramedy has received a Back 5 pickup from NBC for a 18-episode order, 4 short of the standard 22.
This Is Us, from 20th Century Fox TV, is projected to be the highest-rated new series to debut during premiere week both in Live+Same Day and Live+3. It averaged a 4.2 rating in the demo (L3) with 13.53 total viewers.
This Is Us has been an anomaly all around. It was a spec script Fogelman took out shortly after moving to 20th TV following the cancellation of his ABC comedy The Neighbors. It was an off-cycle buy by NBC and an off-cycle pilot with no big stars or pre-sold title. But somehow, it stayed strong as pilot season progressed and landed one of the two best protected slots on the NBC schedule, behind The Voice on Tuesday. Then the trailer cut from the pilot for NBC’s upfront presentation took off online, amassing staggering 100 million+ views. And just a couple of days before the premiere, one of the This Is Us stars, Sterling K. Brown, won an Emmy for People V. O.J. Simpson.
In addition to the highest-rated new series in L+3, with This Is Us, 20th TV also had the highest-rated entertainment program overall with Fox’s Empire (5.5).
NBC has been the quickest to hand out full-season orders this fall. On Friday, the network handed out a Back 9 pickup to sophomore comedy Superstore. (Its other fall comedy, freshman The Good Place, is designed for a 13-episode-season run).
Watch the series premiere:
This Is Us airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of This Is Us for free on Yahoo View.
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