This spring, the Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital will open its doors to patients for the 20th consecutive year. Grey’s Anatomy is set to debut its strike-delayed milestone season on ABC this spring. So yes, the show is still running. Launched in March 2005, Grey’s depicts the personal and professional lives of doctors and medical personnel at the familiar Seattle hospital. It is the longest-running TV medical drama and ABC’s all-time longest-running primetime scripted show. Over those two decades, we’ve seen more than our fair share of doctors pass through the hospital halls. 20 years in, and the series shows no signs of slowing down. But is that for the best?
Talk to Grey’s Anatomy fans; many would say the show’s past its prime. Storylines have grown more outlandish, and nearly all of the original cast is gone. The viewership numbers, which could easily reach 20 to 25 million in its heyday, have now fallen to 3 and 4 million by season 19. Yet ABC remains as committed to the show as ever. So, has Grey’s Anatomy overstayed its welcome? Let’s take a look.
The Early Years of Grey’s Anatomy
Grey’s Anatomy first opened its doors on March 27, 2005. The show originally centered on a group of surgical interns trying to establish themselves at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital (then known as Seattle Grace Hospital). That first season’s nine-person cast consisted of Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, T.R. Knight, Chandra Wilson, James Pickens Jr., Isaiah Washington, and McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey. Viewers fell in love with the budding relationship between Pompeo’s Meredith Grey and Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd, and the show was a hit.
The young interns from season one would grow in their practice, becoming residents and full doctors as the show progressed. While it is a medical drama, the characters’ personal (particularly love) lives often take precedence over treating patients. The hospital isn’t too strict regarding office relationships, as everyone’s slept with everyone else at some point. May is a bad month to be a doctor at Grey-Sloan, as a character seems to leave or die horribly in almost every spring season finale. Personal dynamics have become more complicated as the cast expands, though the core focus on relationships remains constant.
Grey’s Anatomy Cast Changes
Over the next two decades, multiple cast members would come and go. The upcoming 20th season is set to feature around 14 cast members, with only two remaining from the first season. Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey) and James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber) are the last survivors from that inaugural year. Ellen Pompeo’s titular Meredith Grey exited the show midway through the 19th season. She pops in from time to time next season, and fans will still hear her voice narrating each episode. However, her series regular days are over.
A whopping 39 stars have been credited as main cast at some point in the show. Hundreds more have featured in recurring roles. That’s a lot of doctors to remember. Some stars only stay for a season or two, while others are in it for the long haul. Characters who leave Grey-Sloan still upright are the lucky ones, as this hospital seems cursed. Upwards of 15 main cast members have had their characters killed off, often in gruesome and terrible ways designed to maximize viewer devastation.
Watch episodes from season 1 and season 19 back to back. It doesn’t feel like the same show, and that original cast of characters audiences followed is long gone. As more and more faces join the cast each year, the show looks less and less like the one fans remember. Now, even the titular lead is gone. Piquing viewer interest in a brand-new cast is not easy, and several fans may be ready for the hospital to call it a day.
The Less Than Plausible Storylines of Grey’s Anatomy
No one would accuse Grey’s Anatomy of being completely realistic, but some storylines and plot twists have completely jumped the shark. On top of the dozens of office romances, several characters have committed medical fraud with almost no lasting repercussions. Relationships weren’t limited to staff, as Katherine Heigl’s Izzie Stevens was unethically involved with both a patient and a ghost. Yup. Doctors died in plane crashes, car crashes, and bus crashes (anyone sense a theme?).
While dozens of doctors suffer and die, the show offsets this by making Meredith Grey practically immortal with plenty of near-death experiences. She goes through drowning, assault, that plane crash, severe COVID-19, and even holds onto a bomb inside a patient’s chest while escaping, all unscathed.
Secret long-lost family members show up at Grey-Sloan pretty regularly, with Meredith’s half-sisters Maggie Pierce and Lexie Grey coincidentally also being doctors. Justin Chambers’ Alex Karev exited offscreen via a letter to be with his and Izzie’s secret children. And for no earthly reason, the seventh season contained a musical episode where the cast performed songs previously featured in the show as they operated. Many of these storylines give the impression that the writers were going for shock value and buzz for the sake of buzz. If any real hospital had this many doctors die, we’d have to assume they’d be under some sort of FBI investigation. Hmm… Seattle FBI as the next spin-off?
At least Meredith Grey had a proper, still-alive exit episode. At the show’s height, ABC repeatedly said that the series would only end when Pompeo and series creator Shonda Rhimes wanted out. Now, neither Pompeo nor Rhimes has an active presence in the creative process, though the show continues. Recent comments from ABC bosses suggest the show is still going strong.
Viewership has steadily fallen from 20+ million in the early years to around 8 or 9 million in season 10 to just 3 million in season 19. It still has fans, but Grey’s Anatomy is far from the cultural powerhouse it once was. The show is on life support, and the only question now is how long ABC will leave that life support plugged in. Grey’s Anatomy is available to stream on Netflix, Hulu, fuboTV, and Philo.
