What You Need to Know About the Return of Will & Grace

Spring was slowly becoming summer in New York City, and actor Sean Hayes was appearing on Broadway in An Act of God. More than that, he was sure that there’d never be another episode of Will & Grace, the sit-com that made him famous. That Was Then.

“We’re all different people now,” he said in June, dismissing any chatter about a possible reunion. “Besides, I was growing and the character was not, so it became time for all of us to move on.” But only a few weeks later, presidential polls began tightening after the conventions. Worried that GOP nominee Donald Trump might actually win the White House, all of the principals – Hayes. Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullaly and even Shelley “Rosario” Morrison agreed to revive their characters in a show of support for Hillary Clinton.

But that’s only the beginning of the story. The 10-minute “mini-episode” quickly went viral and has now passed six million views. Anyone who knows anything about television programming knows that numbers like those translate into a ratings bonanza. And it didn’t hurt that the cast hadn’t lost an iota of chemistry and the writing displayed the same bouncy crispness that made the show a hit in the first place. Favorite moment: When the ever-snack sneaking Jack raids Will’s fridge. He looks inside, peers around and slams the door shut. “Why” he quizzes, “does everything in there look ten years old?” The episode, in case you are not one of the 6 million-plus, is posted below:

That’s because Will & Grace ended its network run in 2006. Now NBC execs are in talks with series creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick as well as stars for a limited run of new episodes, probably no fewer than eight and no more than ten. Both HULU and Netflix have been mentioned as part of the rumor-mongering, but for the moment, no agreement has been reached. It’s clear that the cast is interested, and it’s even more clear that there’s a TV-watching public hungry for more from Will, Grace, Karen, Jack and Rosario. Only two questions remain. When will they reappear, and who will be lucky enough to snag them?