This Is Us season 2: Premiere date hopes, ratings expectations

Following tonight’s finale, we know that the questions are going to start coming out in rapid succession: What is the This Is Us season 2 premiere date?

For the time being, NBC isn’t confirming anything, and we understand why given that there is effectively no reason for them to at the moment. We’re still in the month of March! Meanwhile, the new season of the show is not going to be premiering until the fall. There’s little to no reason for them to confirm anything when you think of just how far down the road you’re having to look to find out more information.

Let’s give you a little bit of a timeline here to when the date could be announced. More than likely, the entire fall schedule will be announced during the NBC upfront presentation this May, and it would be a pretty dramatic shock to see the This Is Us timeslot shifted in any form away from Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. You stick with what works, and this show’s become a monster hit at this spot. You capitalize on the success of The Voice the hour earlier, but we saw earlier this year that this show doesn’t need the singing competition in order to draw big ratings. It does that on its own.

Also, we hope that they continue to air the show in such a way that there are no huge in-season breaks. Sure, that means a longer hiatus, but when you think about the binge-watching culture we’re in, it’s the best thing for the show to give you a new episode almost every week until it’s over.

As for a specific This Is Us season 2 premiere date, we’d argue that you should focus mostly on either Tuesday, September 19 or the 26th the week after. NBC tends to kick off their fall season in mid-to-late September, which is the same thing that the majority of the other big networks tend to do. It’s what works for them, and when you have a hit show, you don’t experiment that much because you don’t need to. You just stick with what works and run with that for as long as you possibly can. (Note: These dates are speculative; we’ll update if one is actually announced.)

What could the ratings be?

Given how huge a hit This Is Us season 1 proved to be, we’d be disappointed to see season 2 post anything lower than a 3.0 in the 18-49 demographic. Typically, network shows decline from one year to the next, but this isn’t like most other shows.

Following the finale tonight, we’re going to have more coverage over at the link here. Stay tuned!

What do you want the This Is Us season 2 premiere date to be? Share your thoughts in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)