Grey’s Anatomy season 20 renewal: How hopeful should we be?
Before diving too far down this rabbit hole, let’s set the stage for a moment, shall we? We know already that the first episode back in 2023 (think February) will be the final one for Ellen Pompeo as a full-time cast member. It’s already confirmed that she will return as a narrator and executive producer, and Ellen herself has said that she’d like to come back here and there as an on-screen presence. Meredith Grey is not gone from this world, but no longer will she be the main driving force for much of the story.
Can Grey’s Anatomy really sustain itself without its title character? At this point, it doesn’t feel like a crazy thing to think about! We’re not sure that ABC is going to make a firm decision on this for some time, and honestly they have no real reason to rush any of this along. Instead, they can put some of their focus on making sure Meredith’s send-off is perfect and developing new stories around the other doctors, including the interns. They could be essential to the long-term future here.
So long as the ratings hold up reasonably well once Meredith leaves, we do think there’s a good chance we will get more on the other side. We don’t think that they even have to be close to even to what they were with Pompeo around full-time; the show can’t just fall off a cliff. The model that Grey’s Anatomy should look at here is NCIS. It doesn’t generate the same numbers without Mark Harmon that it did with him, but it still is one of the bigger shows on network TV.
Related – Take a look at some other news now connected to Grey’s Anatomy, including how Meredith will leave
Do you think that we will get a Grey’s Anatomy season 20 without Ellen Pompeo as a full-time cast member?
Let us know your thoughts below, and come back for some additional discussion now! (Photo: ABC.)