NBC/Chris Haston
(NEW YORK) — There were clearly lots of people waiting for the return of This Is Us. The NBC drama’s Tuesday-night season two premiere of This Is Us scored the second-highest ratings in the series’ run to date, scoring some 12.6 million viewers — 36% higher than its series opener, Variety reports.
By comparison, last season’s finale was the show’s high-water mark, with 12.8 million viewers. Tuesday’s episode, however, set a new high in the 18-49-year-old demographic, the trade notes, quoting Nielsen numbers.
Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby in the show, thinks he knows the key to This Is Us‘ popularity.
“Right now, people want to engage with each other,” he tells ABC Radio. “People want to be vulnerable. People want to be honest. People want to be sincere. And we don’t all know how to do that. And sometimes we need a bit of an example.”
He adds, “This show is, is a bit of a training manual on relationships, and on parenting, and on … romance, and on what it means to be in love, or what it means to be a father, or what it means to be a sibling….And how…we can better take care of each other.”
This Is Us, which also stars Emmy-winner Sterling K. Brown, and Emmy nominees Milo Ventimiglia, Ron Cephas Jones and Sullivan’s onscreen love interest, Chrissy Metz, airs Monday nights at 9:00 ET on NBC.
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