It’s 2023 and Grey’s Anatomy is 18 years old, which means that the long-running medical drama will be old enough to vote and serve in the military. But will it make it to the legal drinking age? With some adorable new interns stirring the pot at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, here’s everything you need to know about whether Grey’s Anatomy is coming back again for season 20. Surely, it can keep on going for a couple more years to hit that milestone…right?
*Yes, that math means that once upon a time, there were two seasons of Grey’s in one year. That year was 2005. It was glorious.
Gimme the diagnosis: Has Grey’s been renewed for season 20?
After months and months of uncertainty, Grey’s Anatomy’s future is finally coming into focus. On March 24, 2023, news broke that Grey’s Anatomy has officially been renewed for a 20th (!!!) season. As Variety points out, this means the show will continue its reign as the longest-running medical drama in TV history (not too shabby).
When does Grey's Anatomy season 20 come out?
Glad you asked! According to a November 2023 report from Variety, the 20th season of the medical drama will return to our screens on March 14, 2024.
Are any big changes coming to Grey’s Anatomy behind the scenes?
When Grey’s returns for season 20, it will be with a new showrunner. According to THR, longtime series executive producer Meg Marinis will be stepping up and taking the helm as the iconic drama’s new showrunner (replacing Krista Vernoff, who is leaving her role as showrunner for both Grey’s and its spin-off Station 19 at the end of their current seasons).
Marinis is the opposite of a Grey’s newbie, for the record. She’s been with the show since season 3 and fully worked her way up the ranks—she started out as a writers’ assistant and medical researcher and got promoted up the ladder. She officially got promoted to executive producer four years ago and has written more than 25 episodes—and with experience like that, it’s not hard to see why she was ABC’s pick to take over as showrunner.
Who will be in Grey’s Anatomy season 20?
We already know that Ellen Pompeo quietly quit scaled back her involvement, according to Deadline. She wasn’t in as much of season 19 and therefore likely won’t be in much of season 20. In fact, it was confirmed at the 2024 Television Critics Association Press Tour that she is expected to be in at least four episodes, which compared to it's expected 10-episode season is still less than half.
But what about all the new interns? Are you loving them? Harry Shum Jr., Adelaide Kane, Alexis Floyd, Niko Terho, and Midori Francis all joined the show in season 19. It’s not the first time the show has gotten a ton of new characters at once, and it won’t be the last.
Plus, we still have Bailey, Richard, Owen, Amelia, Jo, Maggie, Jackson, Addison, and a handful of other familiar faces in the main, recurring, and guest cast.
Jessica Capshaw will be returning as Arizona and Alex Landi is also back as Dr. Nico Kim, so there will be at least two big reunions. Meanwhile, Natalie Morales and Freddy Miyares will also be joining the cast as guest stars with more set to be announced soon.
This isn’t a full reboot or anything. This isn’t even like that one random season of Scrubs with Dave Franco.
Should I have been worried????
We never really thought so. The people love medical dramas, and Grey’s has been such a consistent comfort for a full generation of fans. With the new characters and the old, there will be plenty of storylines to follow into future seasons (even beyond season 20) if fans (and ABC) are up for it.
Ellen gave Deadline an optimistic “we’ll see” about the show’s future past season 19 back in October and seemed confident the show would be “just fine” without her in the main character role all the time. She’s still an exec producer and still doing the voice-over, after all. “I’m going to always be a part of that show,” she said. “It’s my heart and soul, and I’ll never truly be gone as long as that show’s on the air.” In the same Deadline piece, ABC exec Simran Sethi also seemed optimistic but reiterated that nothing is set in stone yet. “We hope to be in business with Shondaland for a really long time,” Sethi said. Okay, well, no takebacks!!!!
Is Grey’s the longest-running show…ever?
No, but it is, BTW, neck and neck with Lassie for seventh and eighth place in the list of longest-running scripted American prime-time television series. (That’s a lot of qualifiers, but the longest-running shows in the United States in general are all pretty much sports, news, and daytime soap operas. You gotta narrow it down.) They are behind NCIS, Gunsmoke, Family Guy, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and The Simpsons. It’s genuinely so impressive that this show has been on for so long. There are fewer than 10 shows in that hyperspecific category to get 20+ seasons, so this renewal would be a BFD for television history!
