The merit of a show is very subjective- some people simply enjoy things that others don’t. That’s is why we look at the ratings- for quantitative answers. The problem with using live ratings is most people don’t watch television shows live anymore, so ratings don’t account for real viewership and how “popular” or “good” a show could be considered. To see how well a show is doing we need to look at the Live +3 or Live+7 viewership ratings.

Will and Graces re-debuted on September 28^th did phenomenal for an NBC sitcom, but we didn’t even see how well they really did until looking at their L+3. The day after Will & Grace airs its put onto Hulu, leaving viewers options on how to watch- live, DVR’ed or streaming- so we must look at their L+3 or L+7 for accurate information.

Will & Grace’s Live+3 showed that their ratings were actually 2.6 points more (making it a 5.6) and they had 4.6 million more viewers than the data from the day it aired (making it 14.8 million). This was the biggest L+3 lift in primetime comedy history. By measuring delayed viewership we are able to get more accurate viewership ratings.

http://deadline.com/2017/10/will-grace-premiere-live3-ratings-thursday-nbc-comedy-record-1202181596/