The NBC series Will & Grace has revealed its series finale date on Instagram. The show, which has enjoyed success as a reboot for the past three seasons, will air its final episode ever on April 23.
The series taped its final episodes as 2019 came to a close, ending a total run of 11 seasons over the course of 22 years since the groundbreaking show first aired on NBC in 1998. Will & Grace was the first television series to effectively shift the country’s attitude towards the LGBT community by having two gay main characters.
In the share, the show posed an image of the series’ core characters, Will, Grace, Jack and Karen as they snuggled together. The actors who portray the characters are from left to right: Meghan Mullally, Sean Hayes, Eric McCormack, and Debra Messing .
Prior to the finale, the show will air a retrospective episode that will air at 8:30 p.m. before it’s scheduled airtime of 9 p.m. EST.
The series has tried to find a way to tie up all loose ends for the characters, effectively overwriting the first series finale of the show which aired in 2006. In that episode, the characters of Will and Grace both had children, Karen did not divorce Stan, and Jack never married Leslie Beverly.
When the series returned in 2017 the series rewrote the ending and erased the entire prior finale, remarking that Karen had dreamt the entire first series closer.
As the reboot series draws to a conclusion, both Will and Grace are expectant parents, Jack is married, and Karen owns a baseball team. Demi Lovato was introduced to the series in the recurring role of Jenny a young woman who carries Will’s child as a surrogate. In the most recent episode, the twosome agreed to both take part in the child’s life, rewriting an ending to their business arrangement where they would have initially gone their separate ways after their daughter’s birth.
In that same episode, Grace learned she would be having a son.
Fans loved the photo, and in the comments section of the post, they shared their sadness that the show was ending and their thanks to the cast and crew for so many years of joy and laughter.
“Not again we need them now more than ever!” remarked one fan, who wished the show would remain on the air for a longer period of time.
“This was the best reboot,” said a second fan.
“Hard saying goodbye the last time, not sure we can go through this again!!” stated a third Instagram follower.
“Oh my God I don’t know how I’m going to handle this,” said a fourth viewer of the hilarious NBC series.