Grey's Anatomy renewed for 18th season, may actually run forever
Grey’s Anatomy has been on a weird run this season, with it openly acknowledging the pandemic, dramatically cranking up the amount of ghosts who appear in a given episode, and even sending off yet another long-term cast member. Before long, the show will just be Meredith Grey’s “What might have been?” dream fantasies for an hour and then maybe there will be some doctor stuff thrown in as a treat. That hasn’t quite happened yet, but the show just inched even closer to making it happen: According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC has renewed Grey’s Anatomy for an 18th season, with original cast members Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, and James Pickens Jr. all getting new deals to return as well. THR says Pompeo’s deal includes a salary increase, allowing her to keep her title as the highest-paid woman in a primetime network drama series (here’s a good opportunity to remind all actors to try and get their character’s name in the title of the show they’re on).
THR says current Grey’s showrunner Krista Vernoff was planning to set up season 17's finale as a series finale just in case, but now nobody needs to worry about that. Grey’s Anatomy will keep going on forever, or until Ellen Pompeo has put as many stories on her house as she needs. It seems somewhat safe to assume that next season will be it for the show, but who knows? There are always going to be ghosts to talk to and ridiculous medical emergencies to help with.
In other Grey’s-verse news, firefighter spin-off Station 19 (which notably does not have anyone’s name in the title) has also been renewed, sitting it on the path to someday have 18 ghost-filled seasons of its own. Maybe some of the Grey’s ghosts could start showing up on Station 19 as well, setting up another spin-off that’s all about ghosts hanging out.