The Will & Grace revival all started so promisingly.

Over 10 million viewers tuned into the US premiere of its long-awaited comeback season to surpass regular ratings winner Grey's Anatomy as the night's most-watched show. The critical response was largely positive too, while its four main cast members all appeared genuinely delighted to be delivering pithy one-liners with each other again.

But two years is a long time in the world of network TV sitcoms. And with viewing figures falling below three million and criticisms that it was focusing too much on anti-Trump sentiment than actual jokes, NBC announced back in July that the reboot's third (and the show's 11th in total) season would be its last.

Unfortunately, the resulting publicity doesn't seem to have encouraged any of the wandering millions to return as last week's season three opener, 'Eat, Pray, Love, Phone, Sex' could only pull in an all-time low of 2.28 million.

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And to make matters worse, its biggest scene-stealer is also now reportedly jumping ship following a rumoured feud which has rumbled on for several months.

Renowned for playing Karen Walker, a "spoiled, shrill, gold-digging socialite who would sooner chew off her own foot than do an honest day's work," Megan Mullally sent gossip sites into overdrive when she apparently asked for a temporary leave of absence from the final series.

The actress will allegedly miss two episodes as a result, with many citing bad blood between her and Debra Messing, aka leading lady Grace, as the reason for her request.

Mullally, who's married to another sitcom great, Parks and Recreation's Nick Offerman, first got tongues wagging earlier in the year when she unfollowed Messing on Instagram. She later posted a message on the same platform which many followers believed alluded to her co-star ("It's okay to let go of relationships that aren't healthy and positive, even with people you've known for years and once trusted").

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However, judging by regular Instagram etiquette, Messing isn't the only co-star that Mullally has a beef with. She also no longer follows Sean Hayes, aka jazz hands-flaring sidekick Jack. Interestingly, Eric McCormack, aka the show's 'straight man' Will, is the only main castmate she's following and being followed by.

All this social-media drama appears to contradict McCormack's recent claims that they are all still one big happy family. In an interview with Us Weekly last month, the actor dismissed talk of an on-set feud as "crazy" and insisted that "the four of us get along like a house on fire."

Both NBC and Mullally herself declined to comment when reached out to by Fox News. But the fact that the actress and Messing have rarely been photographed together during the promo rounds for Will and Grace's swansong suggests the rumours may have some substance.

The pair can also be seen keeping their distance from each other while taping an episode during a video clip posted to the official Will and Grace Instagram account. Adding further fuel to the fire, Messing tagged in the majority of her fellow cast and crew members while attempting to drum up some Emmy votes on the same site, but Mullally's handle was notable by its absence.

And in an even more blatant snub, Messing also posted a photo of a selfie featuring her male co-stars captioned, "I love them so much." Unsurprisingly, Mullally was once again nowhere to be seen.

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Whether Mullally and Messing really are providing Ryan Murphy with source material for his next series of Feud or not, they don't appear to be responsible for the show wrapping up.

McCormack also told Us Weekly, "The show's ending because we went to make sure that it ends up properly, that we go out on top, that it never gets sort of lost in the shuffle."

Creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, as well as director James Burrows, were also keen to point out that the decision to call time on Will & Grace was due to creative reasons. An official statement released by the trio reads, "We think of the Will & Grace reboot episodes the way Karen Walker thinks of martinis – 51 is not enough, 53 is too many. That is why, after consulting with the cast, we all have decided this will be the final season of Will & Grace."

The 18-episode final season kicked off in the States on Oct 23 and will run into the New Year, with guests such as Ryan Phillippe, Demi Lovato and Billie Lourd all confirmed to make an appearance.

However, with the second season bypassing UK screens altogether and heading straight to DVD, it's not yet clear when fans on this side of the Atlantic will get the chance to see the gang bow out for good.

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