Grey's Anatomy It's going back to the beginning.
The longest-running medical drama is preparing to launch its historic 20th season on March 14, capping a 10-month wait for viewers due to writer and actor strikes. The ABC series pays homage to the past while charting a path forward amid years of cast departures, including a limited presence from star and executive producer Ellen Pompeo and several creative reboots.
Despite the changes in front of and behind the camera, Grey's Anatomy remains ABC's crown jewel in primetime and remains one of television's most consistent ratings networks, a feat increasingly difficult to achieve as it reaches the rarefied air of television.
According Nielsen streaming charts, Grey's Anatomy is consistently among the most streamed television shows on streaming platforms. Last season averaged 10.7 million total viewers with time-shifted viewing across linear and digital platforms, making it ABC's No. 1 entertainment series. It is also one of the most profitable franchises for Disney, supposedly generating 3 billion dollars.
It is not surprising that the new season of Grey's Anatomywhich is overseen by new showrunner Meg Marinis, whose history with the show dates back to Season 3, will be a cause for celebration.
“I'm a big fan of the show, as well as working on it, and have been from the beginning,” Marinis tells Yahoo Entertainment. “No one has 20 seasons and I thought we needed to honor the show that got us here.”
Created by Shonda Rhimes, Grey's Anatomy She debuted as a midseason replacement in the spring of 2005 with a star-studded ensemble led by Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Patrick Dempsey, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, TR Knight, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr.
The series quickly skyrocketed in popularity and became a pop culture phenomenon. Is most viewed episode It is the explosive installment after the 2006 Super Bowl, which had 37.8 million viewers.
While many of the original cast members are gone (some have returned for memorable arcs) and new characters have been introduced, the show's formula remains the same. Grey's Anatomy chronicles the complicated personal and professional lives of the interns, residents and treating physicians at Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital, formerly Seattle Grace.
In addition to romantic entanglements, the show holds a captive audience through a mix of strange medical cases (a man with tree hands in season 7), strange emergencies (a pregnant man in season 2), and life risks. or death for its protagonists. doctors (Meredith holding a bomb inside a patient in season 2).
Season 20 is a callback to the classic. grey days, says Marinis, a recognition of the iconic characters who have passed through the hospital's hallways, unusual patients and two decades of history. Parallels to the early seasons and key characters long gone are sprinkled throughout the nostalgic premiere episode, which marks the franchise's 421st hour. (The medical emergency at the heart of the first episode of season 20, for example, involves an AI-powered autonomous vehicle.)
“We haven't been on the air for that long, so I want to give the old people grey and I want to give you a part of grey That has it all,” Marinis explains, describing the new season as “a reboot.” “Your heart pounds because of the action, I want romantic comedy stuff, I want stuff that's hilarious, I want stuff that makes you cry. I wanted to get every emotion that grey He is known to give in in an episode.
“I wanted to say, 'Fans, we're here and we're back.' We're still who you love,'” she says. “And also the idea of honoring where our characters have been. Even though we have seen certain people in certain roles, they come with a different experience because it is 20 years later.”
The new season picks up immediately after the season 19 finale, following Teddy's (Kim Raver) operating room collapse just as he is about to perform potentially life-saving surgery on a patient, Sam Sutton (guest star Sam Page). . Under intense time pressure, the interns decide to go ahead with their surgery, the ramifications of which will be confirmed in the premiere.
Other lingering final threads are also left in limbo, notably the status of Meredith Grey's research study, now in danger of losing funding after she publicly shared her radical new theory on Alzheimer's.
“One of the themes we've been working with is the idea of 'back to basics,'” Marinis says. “Because so many characters had so many difficult moments at the end of last season, they have a long way to go to come back from that, and reflect on how you recover from big things.
“I love mess because it's fun to undo: 'Let's tie all the characters' stories together in big knots.' I love it when fans say, 'How are they going to come back?' There was so much adrenaline and excitement that we didn't want to miss a single moment. Although we answered a lot of things in the premiere, we're still going to analyze what everyone experienced in last year's finale. [throughout the season].”
Familiar faces from the past, like Jessica Capshaw, who played Dr. Arizona Robbins for 10 seasons, will return in the April 4 episode, nearly six years after her departure. The last time the public saw the character was in 2018, Arizona decided to move to New York with her daughter to reunite with another. Grey's Anatomy student, Dr. Callie Torres (played by Sara Ramírez).
“When Arizona came along, it came along with a story that was perfect for the character and therefore the stars aligned with her agenda,” Marinis jokes. “We have an open-door policy (we have people come and go) and it's a way to honor where the show has been by seeing old characters return and interact with new characters. The hospital has changed quite a bit since she came here.”
Pompeo's lower workload Grey's Anatomy continues in season 20, where he is expected to appear in at least four episodes. The premiere sets in motion a season-long story arc involving Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) that creates a way for Meredith to organically enter and exit the show.
“In my opinion, off screen, everyone is still texting and talking. Meredith also works for the Catherine Fox Foundation, so I don't think we'll ever not be able to find a way to help her,” explains Marinis. “But the premiere presents one way of how it's going to work.”
After all, the producer believes that “the essence” of Grey's Anatomy is still firmly intact.
“The heart of the show, what Shonda established 20 years ago, is still there. Even though Meredith isn't in every episode, her voiceover is and she still feels like we have Meredith here all the time,” Marinis says.
Grey's Anatomy premieres March 14 at 9 pm ET on ABC.
