Alan Sawyer
Ellen Pompeo has been a fixture at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, playing the role of Dr. Meredith Gray on Grey’s Anatomy since the inception of the show in 2005. After 400 shows and 18 seasons, she may just be ready to leave her lab coat on the door.
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She recently opened up with Entertainment Tonight about that exact situation, giving a pretty stoic answer, saying that “trying to reinvent the show and continually trying to reinvent the show is the challenge at this point, and listen, the show speaks to a lot of people, and the young people love the show.”
But, then, she delivers:
“We’re going to try to keep it going for the young people, not necessarily with me, but keep it going beyond me.”
Keep it going beyond me.
That certainly does not sound like an actress committed to the longterm of a show that does appear to still have a future — maybe even one without her.
Pompeo, along with with Chandra Wilson (Dr. Miranda Bailey), and James Pickens Jr., (Dr. Richard Webber), are the only original characters remaining from the launch of the show.
Grey’s Anatomy has established itself as the longest-running primetime medical drama in U.S. television history and it has anchored ABC’s Thursday night lineup for nearly two decades.
Pompeo, for the immediate future, will be ready to start Season 19 when the show debuts during the fall 2022 TV season.
As for Season 20, we hope she goes for the clean two decades before tabbing a replacement.
