NBC appears poised to revive Emmy-winning comedy Will & Grace, according to former co-star Leslie Jordan.
The actor — who won an Emmy for his role as Beverly Leslie — recently said in a radio interview with KPBS that the network has revived the series for 10 episodes. NBC declined comment.
“It’s back,” Jordan said. “[NBC] has ordered 10 [episodes]. It’ll be for next season, so they’ll go in in July.”
NBC has been eyeing the Will & Grace limited series revival since October, when the network was riding a wave of nostalgia after stars Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes stepped back into their former characters in an election-themed video that went viral.
At the time, deals with the four stars still had to be worked out, as did new pacts with series creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, the latter of whom had the idea to do the September election-themed TV revival. Universal Television, which produced the original series, also needed to secure the stars as well as the creators.
Will & Grace ran for eight seasons and scored 16 Emmy wins out of 83 nominations. All four stars took home Emmy gold for the show about a single woman, her gay roommate and their eccentric friends. In its heyday, the stars earned $600,000 per episode to do the series — on top of points on the back-end. The series remains a hit in syndication, but it does not have a streaming home.
Reboots continue to remain in high demand as broadcast, cable and streaming outlets look for proven IP in a bid to cut through a cluttered scripted landscape that is quickly approaching 500 original series. Key to the remakes is having the original producers involved in some capacity as more studios look to monetize their existing film libraries.
Already in the works this season are reboots of Car Wash (ABC), Sneakers (NBC), Enemy of the State (ABC), Dynasty (The CW), War of the Worlds (MTV), Magnum P.I. (ABC), The Lost Boys (The CW), Varsity Blues (CMT), The Departed (Amazon), Let the Right One In (TNT) and L.A. Law, among others.
