Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes and series star Ellen Pompeo have both said the long-running ABC medical drama will end when the actress decides to walk away.
The series, which debuted in 2005, has had many ups and downs through the years, but the creative team behind the scenes wants to be sure everyone is happy with the ending when the time comes.
“I didn’t ever think that I would stay on the show this long. It happened, and here I am. It’s been this incredible platform for me and allowed me to stay home with my kids so much and not travel and have the circus life of an actor,” she told Variety in 2020. “So I thought that it wasn’t the road less traveled, to stay on a television show for this many years, but actually it is the road less traveled. And so, that’s been ironic.”
Although she said she has “no expectations” about the show’s eventual end, she does have an idea in mind for Meredith Grey’s final episode.
Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes and series star Ellen Pompeo have both said the long-running ABC medical drama will end when the actress decides to walk away.
The series, which debuted in 2005, has had many ups and downs through the years, but the creative team behind the scenes wants to be sure everyone is happy with the ending when the time comes.
“I didn’t ever think that I would stay on the show this long. It happened, and here I am. It’s been this incredible platform for me and allowed me to stay home with my kids so much and not travel and have the circus life of an actor,” she told Variety in 2020. “So I thought that it wasn’t the road less traveled, to stay on a television show for this many years, but actually it is the road less traveled. And so, that’s been ironic.”
Although she said she has “no expectations” about the show’s eventual end, she does have an idea in mind for Meredith Grey’s final episode.
In January 2018, Pompeo opened up about her battle for equal pay on the series after 14 seasons, telling The Hollywood Reporter that she attempted to negotiate with former costar Patrick Dempsey. (Dempsey exited the show in 2015 and returned for a multi-episode arc in 2020.)
“They could always use him as leverage against me — ‘We don’t need you; we have Patrick’ — which they did for years. I don’t know if they also did that to him, because he and I never discussed our deals,” she recalled at the time. “There were many times where I reached out about joining together to negotiate, but he was never interested in that. At one point, I asked for $5,000 more than him just on principle, because the show is Grey’s Anatomy and I’m Meredith Grey. They wouldn’t give it to me.”
Ultimately, she got her ask and became one of the highest-paid actors on TV, raking in nearly $20 million a year. So, what will happen when that ends?
“I can do anything I want or not do anything at all,” the producer said on CBS This Morning in 2021.
In August 2022, TVLine reported that Pompeo would take a reduced role in the show, appearing in just eight episodes of the season. Her final episode will air in February 2023.
Scroll through the gallery below for everything the actress has said about when the show will end.
What’s Not to Love
Pompeo’s contract was up after season 8, but she reassured fans that she had no plans to exit the series during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in April 2012. “It’s a wonderful job and wonderful group of people who all really care how good the show is,” she said at the time. “It’s a win-win: I have a great job, the show touches people and people find solace in the show and it’s entertaining. I don’t see what more I could want in a job.
Ready to Retire?
The actress signed another two-year deal to stay on Grey’s Anatomy in January 2014, but then revealed she may quit acting after the series’ run.”I definitely don’t have a strong desire to act after Grey’s; I definitely feel myself transitioning,” she said during a panel with BuzzFeed Brews in September 2014. “I don’t find acting terribly empowering. For the place I am in my life … I don’t necessarily want to work for other people.”
Thinking About the End
Pompeo admitted to Cosmopolitan in February 2016 that she thinks about the end of the drama. “I think about it a lot. And I can’t really talk about my future plans, but yes, Shonda and I talk about it. We feel like we’re in this together, and I think we don’t want to do the show without each other. I think when either of us is ready, when we feel like it’s time to wrap it up [we will],” she revealed. “When she feels like it’s time to wrap it up, I’m happy to, and if I were to feel that way, she would probably be OK too. We have a good relationship in that way, and hopefully it’s a decision we’ll come to together.”
“The most freeing thing about my place in my life right now is I feel absolutely no pressure to prove anything,” Pompeo continued. “The only pressure I feel is to my daughters, to be a good mother. Other than that, I feel no pressure to have to prove anything. Anything. Which is such an amazing, free place to be.”
Too Blessed to Be Stressed
“We’re blessed to be able to go on this long. As long as the show is successful and Shonda and I and the cast are having fun, I think that will be a decision that Shonda and I come to,” Pompeo told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of season 13 in September 2016. “Obviously the network and the studio will have some say. There’s no talk of going away with numbers like this. As long as the show’s a success — I mean, it’s so fun! It’s such rarified air. To have a show on the air for this long and have it be this successful and have it be driving a whole night of television and be the network’s No. 1 show — I’m super grateful. And I don’t want to take that for granted, and I don’t want to walk away from the golden goose. I want to put a leash around it and take it everywhere with me.”
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