ABC's long-running medical drama, Grey's Anatomy, is getting ready to return from its midseason hiatus next week, continuing the historical 17th season. Although it still seems like the series could go on forever, series star Ellen Pompeo is talking, once again, about the longest-running medical series coming to an end.
Ellen Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey, was on CBS Sunday Morning and spoke about the future of Grey’s Anatomy, which not too long ago passed ER as the longest-running primetime medical series. Pompeo said they haven’t decided yet where the story is going to go, saying she wants to make sure they do it right for her character, the show, and the fans when they do decide to end the show:
We honestly have not decided. We’re really trying to figure it out right now. . . . It’s ‘what story do we tell?’ To end a show this iconic, how do we do it? I just wanna make sure we do this character and this show and the fans… I wanna make sure we do it right.
Over the last few years, Ellen Pompeo has publicly spoken out about the end of Grey’s Anatomy. After the series was renewed for Season 15, Pompeo mentioned she and the creatives were already in talks about how they wanted to end the show, but they were trying to take it one season at a time and weren’t quite there yet.
After Ellen Pompeo previously spoke out about the show’s former “toxic work environment,” she revealed that the reason she stayed on the show is that, for her, a healthy home life was more important than her career. She made the decision to make money, rather than chase creative acting roles. It now seems like things have gotten better over the years for Pompeo on the set of Grey’s.
When viewers last saw Grey’s Anatomy before it went on hiatus late last year, Meredith’s COVID condition looked like it was getting better. However, after saving a patient, because it’s what she does, her condition got drastically worse, giving Richard no other choice but to put Meredith on a ventilator. This season has also brought back some fan-favorite characters who have been in Meredith’s COVID-induced dreams, like Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and George (TR Knight), with another appearance from a different character arriving in an upcoming episode.
After the winter finale, showrunner Krista Vernoff mentioned that everyone is doing everything they can to save Meredith and that she has a “rough road” ahead of her. Grey’s Anatomy finally returns next Thursday, March 11 at 9 p.m. ET with a special crossover event with spin-off Station 19, and it'll pick up exactly where the two dramas left off last December.
