'Will & Grace' Picked Up for Third Season, Alec Baldwin Finishes Season 1

By SOTH Team

3 minute 03/20/2018

Megan Mullally as Karen Walker, Sean Hayes as Jack McFarland, Alec Baldwin as Malcolm Widmark on "Will — Megan Mullally as Karen Walker, Sean Hayes as Jack McFarland, Alec Baldwin as Malcolm Widmark on “Will

As the first Will & Grace revival season, starring Hamptonite Debra Messing, winds down, NBC announced Saturday that the show has been picked up for Season 3, or 11, depending how you look at it. Amagansett actor Alec Baldwin will reprise his guest role from the show’s original run in the final two episodes of Season 1, on Thursday, March 29 and in the April 5 finale.

The Will & Grace revival began as an internet reunion before quickly gaining a one-season order, and then a two-season order before the new show aired its first episode. Now as wildly popular as NBC had hoped, the show has an 18-episode third season lined up to premiere in the fall of 2019. Additionally, NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt announced Saturday that they’ve extended the Season 2 order from 13 to 18 episodes.

The cast of "Will & Grace" — The cast of “Will & Grace,” Photo: Andrew Eccles/NBC

“As far as I’m concerned, we can’t get enough of Will & Grace and 23 more episodes is music to my ears,” Greenblatt said. “We’re eternally grateful that Debra, Eric, Sean [Hayes] and Megan feel the same way and wanted to keep this good thing going,” he continued, adding, “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.”

Baldwin, who is returning as Karen Walker’s (Megan Mullally) love interest, secret agent Malcolm Widmark, first appeared as the character in 2005, during Season 7 of Will & Grace‘s original eight-season run, from 1998–2006. Widmark helped Karen’s husband, Stanley Walker, fake his death before eventually starting to date his wife.

Along with Baldwin, this season of Will & Grace has two more Hamptons resident guest stars, including Water Mill homeowner Jennifer Lopez, who played both herself and her Shades of Blue character NYPD detective Harlee Santos, and Amagansett’s Blythe Danner, who returns as Will’s (Eric McCormack) mother Marilyn Truman in the final Season 1 episodes.

The first Will & Grace revival season (and the show’s 9th season overall) airs on NBC Thursday nights at 9 p.m. through April 5. The show returns with Season 2 (10) in fall of 2018 and Season 3 (11) in fall 2019.