by A decade after an eight-season run on NBC, Will & Grace is proving even more popular for the network in its revival — already earning a two-season renewal into 2020.
The cast and creators announced the news Saturday during a previously planned celebration of the sitcom at PaleyFest in Beverly Hills.
After originally airing from 1998-2006, Will & Grace came back via a mini-reunion of Will, Grace, Jack and Karen — Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally — in the fall of 2016, tied to the elections. NBC and viewers loved them so much, they ordered a 10-episode season, which eventually expanded to 16 episodes, which run through April 5.
Now the gang already is set to return this fall and next for two more 18-episode seasons.
“There’s certainly a pressure to live up to it this time around, but we knew we could be these characters again. I just feel like this has been a magic carpet ride, this reboot,” McCormack said Saturday.
“As far as I’m concerned, we can’t get enough of Will & Grace, and 23 more episodes is music to my ears,” NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said. “We’re eternally grateful that Debra, Eric, Sean and Megan feel the same way and wanted to keep this good thing going. I’m overwhelmed by the euphoric response the new show has received from the press and the audience, and my hat is off to the unrivaled writing team of Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, as well as the brilliant directing of Jimmy Burrows, for consistently delivering one of the best shows on television.”
This first season of the revival has been packed with celebrity guest stars, helping Will & Grace soar to become NBC’s most popular sitcom on the air in 2018, and anchoring the network’s reborn “Must See TV” Thursday lineup in primetime.
