‘This Is Us’ Super Bowl Episode Watched by 33.4 Million Total Viewers

The This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode reached new highs to 33.43 million viewers in the Nielsen Live+7 ratings.

The episode, which aired immediately after Super Bowl LII, gained 6.45 million viewers in seven days of playback for a 24 percent gain. It also rose from a 9.3 rating in adults 18-49 to an 11.6 for a gain of 25 percent, making it the highest-rated episode for the hit NBC drama during its two-season run.

The news comes a week after the series posted the biggest Live+7 gains in NBC’s history, Variety reports.

CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory ran a distant second to This Is Us for week 19 of the 2017-2018 broadcast season, which began on Jan. 29, gaining 59 percent in the key demo to grow to a 4.6 and 33 percent in total viewers to grab 19.58 million.

Fox sleeper hit drama 9-1-1 came in third place, growing 94 percent in the key demo to 3.1 and 70 percent in total viewers to 10.58 million.

This Is Us fans will recall the Super Bowl episode as the one where the mystery behind Jack Pearson’s (Milo Ventimiglia) death was finally resolved.

In “Super Bowl Sunday,” viewers finally saw how the Pearson family house fire played out.

After rescuing Rebecca, Randall and Kate, Jack ran back into the house to save Kate’s dog. That extra exposure to the flames and smoke weakened his heart. At first, it looked like he would make it, as he was all smiles when the doctor explained the side effects of his heroics. But moments later, he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Jack’s funeral was featured in the following episode.

“He sacrificed himself without even knowing that he was doing it,” Ventimiglia told Esquire. “He was pulling memories out of that house.”

Despite showing Jack’s death, Ventimiglia revealed he will still be a series regular for the upcoming third season. As for the final episodes of season two, viewers will learn more about Jack’s service in Vietnam and his brother, who died during the war.

The show will also show Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chriss Sullivan) as they prepare for their wedding, Kevin (Justin Hartley) continuing to recover after rehab and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) dealing with Deja’s return.

The next episode of This Is Us airs on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. The show was on hiatus for the Winter Olympics.