Will & Grace's Lost Episode: Eric McCormack Reveals the Envelope-Pushing Scene That Got 1 Rerun Yanked

Eric McCormack is revealing the aftermath of a controversial  Will & Grace episode. 

At The Magic of Will & Grace panel at The Paley Center for Media in New York City on Monday evening, McCormack recalled an episode of the show that was so boundary-pushing, it never made its way to reruns.

The actor, 60, told the audience about an episode that ran in the second season when Sean Hayes’ character, Jack McFarland, joined McCormack’s Will at the gym. 

“He was being particularly gay,” McCormack said of the famously (and hilariously) flamboyant Jack. “And I called him the F-word. And they didn't repeat that episode.” 

“That's the one episode that's never ever been ever aired again,” he continued. “But there was such truth to it. And [it’s] the only episode where we lost sponsors. So we did take that issue on. But that issue, particularly, was within the gay community. There are levels and there were feelings, and we dared to sort of show them.”

Will & Grace enjoyed an initial eight-season run on NBC from 1998 to 2006, then returned to primetime for three more seasons from 2017 to 2020, with McCormack, Hayes, Debra Messing and Megan Mullally starring.

At Monday's event, producers of the show talked about another moment that likely would stir up some controversy if aired today. McCormack and Messing — who played interior designer Grace Adler on the show — filmed the series pilot and even though it wasn’t in the script, they kissed.

“They kiss at the end of the pilot. And Grace says to Will, ‘Anything? Anything?’ ... That would never, ever fly today,” a producer from the panel said, as the cast and audience laughed.

McCormack also shared that after he and Hayes fell “didn't keep in touch that much” after the series ended, they reconnected in the last few years. “We found each other again just before COVID," he said, "and now we've been closer pals ever since then.”

McCormack and Hayes, 52, are soon launching a Will and Grace rewatch podcast. “It's Sean and I watching the show, but really watching the minutia,” he explains.

"Rediscovering who we were, the choices we made. You shoot 24 episodes, sometimes in a season, you're not stopping to think. You're not stopping to breathe.... You're kind of marveling at your young self, like Back to the Future."

The actor added, "We're watching ourselves going, 'Huh, would I still make that choice? Did I become funnier? Did I become better?'"

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Will & Grace can be streamed in full on Prime Video.