The Government Shutdown Affected Everything — Even The Drama On 'This Is Us'

Tuesday nights are sacred for fans of the Pearson clan — but there's about to be a sad kink in all their plans. This Is Us isn't on on Jan. 29, much to everyone's disappointment. Instead, on the lineup are a few episodes of Ellen's Game of Games. According to HiddenRemote.com, the major networks were prepping for President Trump's State of the Union address, which was originally scheduled this week. But as the speech was postponed amid the government shutdown and rescheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 5, NBC is filling that time with a few re-runs.

In light of the rescheduling, it makes sense that NBC can't just whip out the next episode of This Is Us and air it in the State of the Union's place at a moment's notice. What's even worse for fans of the show is that the new Feb. 5 date for the speech will still interfere with This Is Us. Feb. 5 was supposed to be the day the drama continued, but it's likely to be postponed yet again in favor of Trump's new speech date. A spokesperson for NBC told Bustle via email that there no plans for next week as of yet.

The State of the Union has had tons of drama surrounding it in recent weeks, and it's definitely an important event in its own right. But the shuffling of This Is Us air dates does come at a pretty inconvenient time in the show's narrative — everyone is on the edges of their seats to see what happens next between Nicky and Rebecca, and we cannot take this suspense!

After a long wait, fans finally found out in the most recent episode what exactly happened that caused Jack to disown Nicky. It was a heartbreaking misunderstanding that ultimately ruined the brothers' relationship for good — Jack thought Nicky murdered a Vietnamese boy, but in reality, it was a tragic accident. Now the younger Pearsons know the whole story, and are trying to mend the relationship their father was never able to.

Rebecca, as it turns out, had no idea Nicky was still alive, either. She wasn't keeping more secrets for the kids — she was just as much in the dark as they were. And now it's time for her to confront the secrets the beloved Jack kept from their entire family. The latest episode ended with Rebecca resolving to find out more about the family she never knew she had.

Not everyone is happy with Jack's choices. Even Milo Ventimiglia himself said he wasn't on board with the decision to cut Nicky out. “There have been very few things that Jack has done that I haven’t agreed with, but not talking to his brother was definitely one that upset me,” the actor told Variety.

Ventimiglia also said it's a shame that Jack passed away before possibly becoming more sympathetic to his brother's situation. "He is a man who lives in the positive, and I don’t know what it would be like to really have him crack that open, and sadly we’ll never know," he continued. "I feel like Jack, had he made it past his 50s and was around in the present day and seeing his wife and his kids’ struggles, he probably would have softened up a bit and decided he might be willing to open up those past wounds and let them heal properly."

Though Jack can never make things right with Nicky, that doesn't mean the rest of the Pearsons can't offer him a hand of friendship. Whatever goes down next is bound to be emotional, so hopefully the NBC schedule gets back on track soon.