ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News have all also committed to airing the State of the Union address live.
With that in mind, NBC will not be the only channel airing the State of the Union address.
Work has to go into a televised address and the February 5 date should give enough time to plan for the televised event.
Because the major networks generally air the State of the Union address (along with the more newsy channels) as it is unfolding, it is not a huge surprise that NBC ultimately made the decision to bump the February 5 episode to February 12 and so on and so forth.