Ratings Progress Report: Will NBC’s ‘This is Us’ be first fall show to score season 2 renewal?

With some of the entries in our Ratings Progress Report series this month, we are going to be discussing programs that are somewhat on the bubble — and there are many of them right now, given that this is proving to be one of the hardest fall seasons in quite some time. There’s so much competition, whether it be from sporting events, the Presidential Election, or there simply being such an enormous array of options out there. Clearly, there’s a mountain more competition than what we’re used to seeing in the past.

Luckily, “This Is Us” rises above much of this. It’s the biggest guaranteed hit of the season, and one that does it almost entirely on the strength of the story. It has no A-list stars, a name that is rather ambiguous as to what the show is about, and isn’t trying to exploit current events for ratings. It’s a show about heart, family, and quality writing. To see an often-fickle audience reward that is one of the most encouraging things of the entire season.

So with that, we want to ponder if this could be the first new show of the fall season to officially score a season 2 renewal, and we feel like undoubtedly it will be. We often like to weigh both the good news and the bad in these articles, but there’s almost no bad news to report on here at all. It’s kept roughly 80% of both its demo and total audience from the series premiere six episodes into the season, and that’s tremendously — especially when you consider that the most-recent episodes both aired against the World Series. It’s even toppled “The Voice,” which it was scheduled behind in hopes of getting a trickle-down effect in the ratings.

What a season 2 renewal this fall would do is offer viewers further confidence the show isn’t going anywhere, cement the series as more of an awards-season contender (we anticipate some Golden Globe buzz), and also build excitement early for what the next chapter in the lives of Kevin, Randal, Rebecca, and others will be.

Now, we just have to wait for that green light. Our hope is that it’ll come after the winter finale.

Tell us: Should “This Is Us” score an early renewal? Sound off in the attached poll, and you can head over here to preview more of what is next. (Photo: NBC.)