This is a trend that is not lost on the people behind “This Is Us.’’

“I’m aware of it because it happens to me,” said Dan Fogelman, the show’s creator. “There’s a point in a TV show where I check out a little bit despite my best efforts. You know that feeling: You’ve got that big DVR list at home, and you’re suddenly not going back to a program that used to be first up.”

But Mr. Fogelman and executives behind his show are convinced that “This Is Us” has passed a series of stress tests that indicate it can avoid a serious drop-off.

“It’s already bucking the trend,” said Dana Walden, co-chief executive of the Fox Television Group, which controls the studio that produced the show. “It has weathered an incredibly difficult fall in the TV business with the election, presidential debates, a wildly entertaining World Series and a holiday break.”

NBC executives even argue that the holiday breaks have benefited the show as word-of-mouth spread and new viewers began jumping on board by binge viewing. Within NBC’s offices in Universal City, Calif., they have been referring to its performance in early December as the “Thanksgiving bump”: The two episodes that were broadcast after the holiday had a jump of more than a million viewers, according to Nielsen.

NBC’s decision last month to give “This Is Us” a two-season renewal was not just bravado. It was also a strategic decision meant to entice would-be viewers and assure them that the show is not going anywhere.

Jennifer Salke, NBC Entertainment’s president, said that as TV ratings had eroded, networks had been too trigger-happy in recent years, canceling shows that failed to hit traditional ratings benchmarks — even if the show had a loyal fan base.

“We’re all over social media to figure out who’s watching, and there’s a lot of negative sentiment that I heard that goes, ‘I really want to watch it, but they’ll just cancel it and burn us like they always do,’” she said.