'This Is Us' Will Not Air Tuesday Night Due to Weeks-Long Production Delay

This Is Us will not be airing on Tuesday night, due to a weeks-long production delay. In a post on Twitter, series creator Dan Fogelman announced the news, revealing that it is, in fact, related to issues stemming from COVID-19. He then went on to offer a silver lining, telling fans that "the next few" episodes are "big ones," and asking them to "hang in there."

Notably, when the initial rise of the COVID-19 pandemic came in early 2020, This Is Us was one of the rare shows to not be too badly impacted. Season 4 finished filming before the spread of the virus caused mass TV and film production shutdowns in March. The season finale aired in March and then filming for Season 5 resumed in September. At that time, Fogelman told The Hollywood Reporter that he was "very excited about — especially with where the world is right now — the uplift and I would call it almost a rebirth that comes next season." He added that there are "a lot of new beginnings" and that "something big" would take place.

In a subsequent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fogelman said that This is Us would address much of what has been happening in the real world, while not altering the crucial storylines that have already been mapped out. "We have a carefully crafted plan through six seasons of the television show that hundreds of people have now devoted for four-plus years of their lives executing," he explained. "And we're going to execute that plan, no matter what's happening in the world."

"What's happening in the world may shift the details of how things happen, but the big moves continue to happen — and actually potentially heighten and make better the television show than maybe some of our initial plans because that's our job," Fogelman added. "Here are the new rules we've been given. How do we continue to try and top ourselves and make things even better than they were?"

When it comes to how the show has been handling safety measures during filming, series star Sterling K. Brown previously told Dr. Oz that the show's producers implemented many new guidelines to help keep the cast and crew safe. He stated that they keep the cast "as separate as they can through the course of the day so that when you see us on camera that's really the only time that we're coming into contact with one another." He added, "The rest of the time, we're in our own little bubbles trying to be as safe as possible."