The Season 19 finale of Grey’s Anatomy ended on a major cliffhanger. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait a lot longer than expected find out about Teddy’s fate. When does Grey’s Anatomy return for Season 20? Here’s the latest from ABC.
Grey’s Anatomy is ABC’s long-running medical drama that focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents and attendings at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle, Washington. Created by Shonda Rhimes, the show debuted in 2005 and has earned more than 38 Primetime Emmy nominations after almost two decades on the air.
Season 19 marked the first season where the show’s main actress Ellen Pompeo – who plays Meredith Grey – took on a reduced role in the series, only appearing in eight episodes. Pompeo left the show on a full-time basis to work on the upcoming Hulu show, The Orphan. While some fans couldn’t picture the medical show without Pompeo, the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes told E! News in May 2023 that she doesn’t want it to end anytime soon. “I might be a very old lady by the time we reach its last season because it doesn’t seem to be stopping,” she said in the interview, “which is wonderful and I feel the world really belongs to the fans and the fans have been really clear about what they want.”
In March 2023, Grey’s Anatomy was renewed for a 20th season by ABC. The show also announced that Meg Marinis, an executive producer on Grey’s since 2016, will take over as the series’ new showrunner. The previous showrunner, Krista Vernoff, stepped down from the role in January 2023. In another huge change for the show, Kelly McCreary, who played Maggie Pierce since Season 10, will also not return for the upcoming season.
Deadline reported in May 2023 that salary negotiations for the upcoming season wrapped pretty quickly, and many of your favorites are slated to return for the upcoming season, including the last two remaining original cast members, James Pickens Jr, and Chandra Wilson, as well as Kim Raver, Kevin McKidd, Camilla Luddington and Caterina Scorsone. Our sister site couldn’t confirm negotiations for the new intern class but said that they are all expected to return, including Harry Shum Jr., Adelaide Kane, Alexis Floyd, Niko Terho, and Midori Francis.
So, after the end of two Hollywood strikes, when does Grey’s Anatomy return? Keep reading to find out.
When does Grey’s Anatomy return for Season 20?
When does Grey’s Anatomy return for Season 20? Grey’s Anatomy will return for Season 20 on Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 9 p.m. Along with Grey’s Anatomy Season 20, Station 19 Season 7 and 9-1-1 Season 7 will also return on March 14 at 10 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively.
Due to the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, ABC announced in 2023 that it had pushed all of its scripted content, including The Rookie, Station 19 and The Good Doctor, until 2023. In previous years, new seasons of Grey’s Anatomy typically return in late September. But the writers’ and actors’ strikes made that timeline impossible for Season 20. On July 13, 2023, the national board of the Hollywood actors’ union SAG-AFTRA approved to strike. The actors’ union represents 160,000 television and movie actors. During the strike, members are not allowed to work union jobs, promote their respective films and shows, attend press junkets and premieres and more.
The actors’ strike came two months after the WGA began their own strike on May 2, 2023. The demands requested by the actors and writers were similar: They wanted better compensation for TV shows and movies, increased residual payments for their work on streaming services and regulations on artificial intelligence.
When Grey’s Anatomy does return for Season 20, the series will also have fewer episodes. Deadline reported in Novembe 2023 that Grey’s Anatomy was planning to produce 10 episodes for Season 20, which is half of the episodes Season 19 had. The fewer episode count for Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 could be due to decreased production times as the result of the strikes. When the WGA went on strike from November 2007 to February 2008, Grey’s Anatomy – as well as other shows like Bones, Scrubs and Friday Night Lights — all experienced episode cuts, according to Movie Web.
Although we might have to wait longer, hopefully, we’ll see a familiar face grace our television screens. Before the actors’ strike, Pompeo revealed that she plans to make a cameo in Grey’s Anatomy Season 20. “I will be making some appearances hopefully next year, if I can find some time,” Pompeo told Heigl in Variety’s Actors on Actors interview. “It’s not a complete goodbye. And I think we’ve got an interesting story to tell,” the actress added.
