Grey’s Anatomy just returned with season 22, and while there appears to be no end in sight, creator Shonda Rhimes admitted she’s not exactly sure how the show will end.
“To be at 450 [episodes] is amazing, and really all because of the fans and the fact that they’ve kept watching the show and they’ve stuck with it and they’re excited and invested,” Rhimes, 55, said while appearing on the Monday, October 13, episode of the TodayShow.
Rhimes then noted that “people have been asking” her how she views the show ending in the future.
“I’d say back at around episode 150, I knew how it was going to end,” Rhimes admitted. “Now we’re at 450, I have no idea. I mean, I wasn’t sure we would get past season 4 or 5, so the fact that we’re here in season 22 is insane.”
Rhimes also weighed in on how much longer she sees the show lasting. “I feel like at this point, that decision is not mine as much as it is the fans,” she said. “I want everybody to end in a really positive, great way.”
Grey’s Anatomy first premiered in 2005 and followed the personal and professional lives of surgical interns and their supervisors. The original cast starred Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey), Sandra Oh (Christina Yang), Katherine Heigl (Izzie Stevens), Justin Chambers (Alex Karev), T.R. Knight (George O’Malley), Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey), Isaiah Washington (Preston Burke), James Pickens (Richard Webber) and Patrick Dempsey (Derek Shepherd “McDreamy”).
However, the cast has drastically changed over the years and the only original actors to still be making frequent appearances are Pompeo, 55, Wilson, 56, and Pickens, 70.
One day before the season 22 premiere, Rhimes looked back at the show’s earlier seasons during her October 8 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. While talking to host Alex Cooper, Rhimes was asked which character’s death was the hardest for her to process.
She wasted no time by declaring that Dr. George O’Malley’s death was the most difficult. During the end of season 5, the team of doctors worked on a John Doe patient who had been hit by a bus. They eventually learned that the victim was fellow doctor George.
“George was really, that character is so beloved,” she said of the character’s death. “T.R. is such a lovely guy. That was such a hard thing to do.”
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Rhimes also praised Knight, 52, for being a team player while filming his final episode as a main character. “T.R. was so amazing cuz … he didn’t need to lay on that table, but he was like, ‘I’m going to do the role even though you’re never going to see my face,’ the whole nine yards.”
Cooper, 31, the responded, “You really wanted us to actually, like, have snot coming out of our noses” with that death. Rhimes replied, “I mean, it broke me, so I knew that the audience would respond to it, but I really loved it.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Oct 13, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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