'This Is Us' series finale marks end of sentimental journey

LOS ANGELES — After six years of taking viewers on an emotional roller coaster week after week, the Emmy Award-winning drama series "This Is Us" will bid a tear-filled farewell to fans on Tuesday night.

The series finale of the critically acclaimed and wildly popular show, which premiered in 2016 and has run for six seasons, will air at 9 p.m. on WPTV NBC.

The penultimate episode on May 17 had the "Big Three" Pearson siblings — played by Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, and Justin Hartley — saying their touching and personal goodbyes to their mother and family matriarch Rebecca Pearson — played by actress and singer Mandy Moore — before she passed away.

Tuesday's series finale is promising all the feels with the "This Is Us" Twitter account jokingly posting a "doctor's note" for viewers, saying, "We just think that #ThisIsUs fans deserve tomorrow off."

The note, written in jest by the fictional Dr. Nathan Katowski on the show, tells employers to "please excuse" fans from work on Tuesday, saying "your employee/student will be too emotional to work" and will need "the proper time to recover."

Over the course of its impressive and poignant six-season run, "This Is Us" garnered 39 Emmy nominations and four wins, including Television Academy Honors in 2017, Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for Brown, and Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series for Ron Cephas Jones.

"To know that something shall live in perpetuity that was really special, that touched people, can't help but make you feel good," Brown said.

The cast gathered on Sunday in Los Angeles for a special screening of the finale and admitted the show's powerful themes, messages, and values have resonated with them beyond the screen.

NBC

"How to be a better husband, a better brother, a better friend," said actor Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby Damon, Kate Pearson's ex-husband.

Tuesday's sendoff is promising to be a celebration of not just just Rebecca Pearson's life, but of the entire family.

"Really been grateful of the audience that's been around six years on the whole journey with us," said Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Rebecca's husband, Jack Pearson.

"As humans, I think we always want more. That's really just sort of how it goes," Metz said. "But I think it's really important to go out with a bang and not a thud."

The show's Twitter account posted an endearing message to fans on Sunday, saying, "The end is not sad. It's just the start of the next incredibly beautiful thing."

"And now the bubble is gonna burst and everyone's gonna go back to their regular lives and move onto their next chapter," Moore said.

You can watch the series finale of "This Is Us" on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on WPTV NBC.