‘This Is Us’ becomes first fall series with full-season pickup

Great news for fans of NBC’s “This Is Us”: The show is going to be around longer than the standard 13-episode run.

Following some strong ratings for the premiere and very good figures in the live+3 data, the network has decided to go ahead and hand down a full-season order of 18 episodes for the dramedy featuring Sterling K. Brown, Mandy Moore, and many others. Reviews for the first part have been extremely positive for the show to date, and we have to think the positive trajectory will continue. A network doesn’t give a full-season order this early unless they’ve got some serious confidence in what they’re putting out there.

In a statement, here is what executive producer Dan Fogelman had to say:

“This order for a complete first season of 18 episodes is exactly what we’d wanted and hoped for. We’d carefully mapped out an 18-chapter story for the first year of the show, and this allows us to follow through with our exact initial intent. And to get the order so early on is a tremendous show of confidence and a boost for our entire cast and crew.”

Of course, the big challenge for “This Is Us” will be figuring out a way to impress on the level that they did with the time-jumping twist at the end of the pilot. While Fogelman may have had a twist at the end of another one of his pilots in Fox’s “Pitch,” this one was the more impressive of the two and was very hard to see coming. We’ll see what happens from here.

What’s your take on the pickup? Share below.