This Is Us ‘Forced’ to Push Back New Episodes for 2 Weeks Due to ‘COVID-Related Production Delays’

nbc Mandy Moore, Hannah Zeile in This Is Us

This Is Us fans will have to wait a little while longer for a new episode thanks to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Creator Dan Fogelman shared on Twitter Tuesday that because of "Covid-related production delays," the cast and crew were "forced" to delay production, meaning that there won't be a new episode as usual on Tuesday night.

"No new episode of #ThisIsUs tonight - Covid-related production delays in LA have forced us to delay a few weeks," Fogelman, 44, wrote. "But the next few are big ones, and we are close, so we hope you'll hang in there with us. Sorry!"

The official This Is Us Twitter account also shared the news, writing, "No new episode tonight, fam. We'll be back in two weeks on @NBC," and invited fans to catch up via the NBC app.

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20th Century Television declined to comment.

Los Angeles is currently the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 1 million cases, and the state of California surpassed 3 million cases of the deadly virus on Tuesday.

NBC Chris Sullivan, Chrissy Metz in This Is Us

While studios are technically still allowed to film with precautions in place, last month the L.A. County Department of Public Health encouraged Hollywood "to strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in COVID cases," the Los Angeles Times reported.

Several major studios extended their holiday hiatus into January.

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This Is Us production was previously delayed over the summer because of the pandemic, causing the show's autumn premiere date to fall a few weeks later than normal.

NBC Sterling K. Brown, Susan Kelechi Watson, Vien Hong

The Emmy-nominated drama hasn't shied away from including the pandemic in the fifth season's narrative.

Back in August, Fogelman said in a tweet that the writers had "decided to attack things head-on" when asked by a fan if COVID-19 would be included in the season's plot.

This Is Us is scheduled to return Feb. 2 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.

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