With just a few days to go until This Is Us returns with its final season, it's time to stock up on Kleenex and prepare for some serious tear-shedding.

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The upcoming season is set to be the NBC drama's most emotional yet, with star Mandy Moore revealing that she was "going to have to save all [her] tears" ahead of the new episodes, while creator Dan Fogelman revealed last year that NBC executives were crying while he read the season's plot outline.

"People were crying to the point that I wasn’t sure if I should keep going or not," he told Deadline. "Cameras were shutting off, and I thought I’d lost people."

As for what fans can expect from the hit show's final season, we already know from the season five finale that Kate (Chrissy Metz) will be splitting from her husband Toby (Chris Sullivan) and is set to eventually marry music executive Phillip (Chris Geere), with season six seeing their romance unfold.

"I'm the guy that everyone will boo at for a while," Geere told Entertainment Weekly in December. "I have 18 episodes of TV to go from a really icy, cold, mean-ass music guy who's belligerent and hostile and ridiculous to the guy that one of the lead characters falls in love with."

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Meanwhile, Susan Kelechi Watson recently teased to TVLine that although Beth eventually takes over a dance academy after her own closed down, she won't be returning to the dance floor.

"I pass the torch. There's some dancers in the episode, yeah, and I'm sort of passing the torch along. I do one little turn," she said.

Here's everything you need to know about This Is Us season six, including when it will premiere and how you can watch in the UK.

This Is Us season 6 release date

CONFIRMED: This Is Us season six will premiere in the UK on Thursday 6th January 2022.

Fans should be aware that the final season launches two days earlier in the US, which means that spoilers will most likely be floating around social media soon after.

NBC has promised that the family drama's final season will have "a largely uninterrupted run" following season five's pandemic-induced delayed start, multiple hiatuses and shortened episode count.

NBC Network boss Frances Berwick told Variety: "We know that saying goodbye to the Pearsons is going to be hard enough. So what we wanted to do is honour the fans and get them as close to an uninterrupted run as we could."

This was echoed by Chairman of Entertainment Susan Rovner, who told TVLine: “Obviously because of COVID this year, [This Is Us'] schedule has been on-and-off and we want to honour the fans by making sure they have the best viewing experience possible.”

How to watch This Is Us season 6 in the UK

This Is Us
NBC

Episodes will be rolled out weekly as usual, with the key difference being that this final chapter will be available on both Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus, alongside the first five seasons if you fancy a rewatch.

When it first launched, This Is Us aired on Channel 4 and All 4, before moving to being a Prime Video exclusive for several years, but this latest change gives fans an extra method of consuming the show.

Is This Is Us ending?

Unfortunately, This Is Us will be ending with its sixth season, as per the wishes of creator Dan Fogelman.

The news shouldn't come as a big surprise to fans, considering Fogelman said when season three came to an end that the show had reached its "midpoint", and told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019 that the show was never "going to last 18 seasons".

"We have a very direct plan. I have script pages I have written and I’m writing that really are deep, deep, deep into the future," he said. "We have a plan for what we’re going to do, and I know what the plan is."

This Is Us season 6 cast

This Is Us
NBC

With season six marking the show's last ever season, we're going to see the whole Pearson family return for one last emotional lap including Milo Ventimiglia (Jack), Mandy Moore (Rebecca), Sterling K. Brown (Randall), Chrissy Metz (Kate) and Justin Hartley (Kevin).

We'd also be surprised if Susan Kelechi Watson (Randall's wife Beth), Chris Sullivan (Kate's husband Toby), Jon Huertas (Rebecca's second husband Miguel), Eris Baker (Randall's daughter Tess), Faithe Herman (Randall's daughter Annie) and Lyric Ross (Randall's adopted daughter Deja) didn't return for season six.

This Is Us season 6 spoilers

This Is Us
NBC

Spoilers for This Is Us season five below.

This is Us is known for playing with our hearts - but even by their standards season five had quite the twist ending.

The finale began with Kevin rehearsing his vows, assumedly for his upcoming wedding to Madison. However, it was soon revealed that Kevin and Madison's wedding doesn't go ahead after all - and that the rehearsal scene was actually a four-year flash-forward where Kevin is to officiate his sister Kate's wedding, who is not marrying Toby but music teacher boss Phillip!

It was a fresh twist on the classic wedding cliffhanger that will obviously have huge implications for season six, particularly for the characters of Kate and Toby now they are going their separate ways.

Kate actress Chrissy Metz told Entertainment Weekly: "Well, I do know that we can see how she's continuing to show up for herself in a very different way than she ever did in all the previous seasons. She's really making herself a priority."

Fogelman also offered some hints for the final season, telling EW: "My clues for season six are a little bit more romantic. Resolution. Family…"

He also promised us more of the show's famous tear-inducing scenes, saying: "There's one story line that's one of our stakes in the ground for season six that when I speak about it, my eyes start welling up with tears. And I'm not a crier."

He may have been referring to the ultimate fate of Rebecca, who is seen battling Alzheimer's in this final season, which is causing her to lose the cherished memories she made with her children and late ex-husband.

“I’m going to have to save all my tears, calibrate all my adrenals, get myself into a stable place before all of that gets wrecked and ruined,” Mandy Moore told Los Angeles Times.

As for whether season six will see the death of matriarch Rebecca, Moore recently teased to TVLine that the upcoming episodes would see her take a "journey in an inevitable direction".

Season six is unsurprisingly going to be an emotional affair, Fogelman has confirmed, revealing that Disney executives were crying during the season's pitch meeting over Zoom.

"People were crying to the point that I wasn't sure if I should keep going or not," he told Deadline. "Cameras were shutting off, and I thought I'd lost people."

Meanwhile, with Kevin now the father of twins, we're sure we'll watch him adjust to new fatherhood whilst trying to progress in his filmmaking career and patching up his strained relationship with brother Randall.

At the end of season five, we saw Beth shut down her ballet school due to coronavirus and enter a bit of a slump when it comes to her future career – hopefully she'll manage to get out of it and find another venture she's passionate about next season.

Even executives at NBC struggled to keep their composure when hearing about Fogelman's plans for the finale, with the writer revealing that "people were crying to the point that I wasn’t sure if I should keep going" in his virtual pitch meeting.

As for the season six premiere, creator Fogelman took to Twitter to tease the first episode's title back in August – although the first-look doesn't tell us much.

This Is Us season 6 trailer

In November 2021, NBC released the emotional trailer for This Is Us season six, which looks back on some of the best moments from the show to date, as well as teasing the struggles to come – most notably, Rebecca's memory loss. Watch below:

Meanwhile, NBC also released several first-look images of the new season, including one of Phillip (Chris Geere) looking lovingly at Kate (Chrissy Metz), Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and his family celebrating a birthday and the original Pearsons sitting down for dinner together, as revealed by Entertainment Weekly.

This Is Us seasons 1-5 are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video – for more recommendations, see our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime.

This Is Us season 6 will also air on Disney Plus in the UK – sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for a year.

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