‘This Is Us’ Will Slightly Supersize Super Bowl Episode

The most anticipated episode of This Is Us will give you a little extra crying time.

The NBC hit family drama’s upcoming post Super Bowl episode will be the series’ longest to date, running approximately three minutes longer than a normal episode.

According to Entertainment Weekly however, viewers will notice that DVR listings for the episode as beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET and running at 80 minutes in length. That extra time is provided as a buffer, given the possibility that the football game runs longer than expected in the case of an overtime game.

Following the episode and late local news, The Tonight Show will welcome the stars of This Is Us.

The upcoming post-Super-Bowl episode is one This Is Us fans have been waiting for since the series’ first season — the reveal of how Pearson family patriarch Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) met his maker.

Ventimiglia teased the episode last week, warning fans Jack’s death will be a ‘soul-crushing event.”

“It’s just an absolute soul-crushing event,” Ventimiglia said. “Once you figure out the moment where it’s going to happen, you may get some hope — and then it’s all going to go away.” He has another way of putting it: “I think the best thing I can say — or the worst thing I can say — is: It’s going to be f—ing painful.”

“When they learn what happened to Jack, I think people are going to find themselves surprised with their own emotion,” he continued. “I really think people are going to have a hard time accepting it, but what they should know is that even when we do find out Jack’s death, it doesn’t mean that Jack goes away. That’s a good thing to remind people of — I’m not going away from the show, Jack is still around. There is still so much story to mine in this world of This Is Us.”

“I think at that point then you gotta start wondering if anyone else is going to die. I’m going, ‘Whoo! All right! I’m off the hook!’” he joked.

This Is Us star Mandy Moore also spoke about the upcoming episode, saying she hopes fans will be able to move on from the mystery surrounding Jack’s death after the episode.

“I can’t wait for fans to see our Super Bowl episode. People will get a lot of answers and will be able to move forward,” Moore said of the episode. “I think for everybody’s sake it’ll be a good thing.”

This Is Us will air the episode on February 4 in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot. The show regularly airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.