‘This Is Us’ Final Season Pitch Brought NBC Execs to Tears

This Is Us fans need to get the tissues ready as the script outline for the sixth and final season brought the NBC executives to tears.

During Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees event, series creator Dan Fogelman spoke about the reaction when he pitched the drama’s final run to the network brass over a Zoom call. “People were crying to the point that I wasn’t sure if I should keep going or not,” he said. “Cameras were shutting off, and I thought I’d lost people.”

Fogelman understood the response, however, as he too had become emotional when writing the premiere episode of the final season. “It’s the second time I’ve cried writing the show,” he explained, with the first being the death of Randall Pearson’s (Sterling K. Brown) biological father, William Hill (Ron Cephas Jones). “I was like, ‘Oh God, what’s happening?'”

This Is Us debuted in September 2016 and follows the lives and families of two parents, and their three children, in several different time frames. The series has received critical acclaim and landed several award nominations, with Brown winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama in 2018 and Jones picking up two Emmy awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

The final season will kick off its 18-episode run in early 2022, and Fogelman promises to bring closure to many of the lingering questions. “All the questions that you’re asking about Kate (Chrissy Metz), and who’s Nicky (Griffin Dunne) [with in the flash forwards], and how does this end…. We’ve had it very carefully mapped out,” he stated.

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He added: “So, love it or hate it, we get to go out the way we’ve always planned on going out and executing the plan. I feel very confident in it, and I’m excited about this season.”

This Is Us, Season 6, TBA, NBC