‘This Is Us’ Delays Season Finale Date After State of the Union Switch

This Is Us will be airing its Season 3 finale one week later than planned due to the State of the Union switch.

Normally delivered at the end of January, the 2019 State of the Union address will be delivered by President Donald Trump on Tuesday Feb. 5, delayed due to the recently ended federal government shutdown.

The big four broadcast networks had already made plans for the address on Tuesday, Jan. 29, but when the speech was delayed they opted for repeats and specials in primetime rather than airing new episodes without promotion, The Hollywood Reporter writes.

The change in schedule will push the next new episode This Is Us to Tuesday, Feb. 12, meaning that the season finale — originally scheduled to air March 26 — is now set to premiere on April 2.

The change will also affect the timeslot premiere of NBC’s new drama, The Village, which is slated to take over This Is Us‘ time slot in the spring. The show is set to premiere at 10 p.m. ET on March 12 and air after This Is Us for its first few episodes.

With the change, the show will get an extra week after the NBC family drama before moving to the 9 p.m. ET timeslot starting on April 9.

The move will also give freshman drama New Amsterdam an extra week off, giving its timeslot to The Village for the first few episodes, and will rejoin the schedule on April 9 an run with no interruptions until its May 21 season finale.

This is not the first time This Is Us has been affected by a speech from President Trump. The NBC hit series was bumped back in 2017 when a February episode had to be moved to accommodate for a live telecast of Trump addressing a joint session of Congress.

This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman commented on the possible new episode delay early Tuesday, while also giving a shoutout to actor Lonnie Chavis’ bonding moment with Lady Gaga during the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“It seems revolving State of the Unions will keep us off air for two weeks. In the interim here’s a picture of little Randall [Lonnie Chavis] getting some love from [Lady Gaga] !!! #ThisisUs,” he wrote

The last episode of This Is Us resolved a key Pearson family secret when it revealed the dark reason why Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) lied about his brother Nicky being dead for most of his life.

This Is Us returns with a new episode Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.