Ellen Pompeo Is Only Going To Be In Less Than Half Of Grey's Season 19

Don’t hang up your scrubs just yet, because despite rumors that Grey’s Anatomy may have been nearing its end with Season 18, ABC has other plans for the long-running medical drama. That’s right — Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 is officially happening. The renewal announcement came in the middle of Season 18, and confirmed there still is no end in sight for the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

The big renewal was announced on Monday, Jan. 10, along with confirmation that Ellen Pompeo signed a new one-year deal to return as Meredith Grey for Season 19, per ABC’s press release. This came as a bit of a shock for Grey’s fans, since Pompeo has been very open about her opinion that the series should end soon. Just a couple weeks before the renewal, Pompeo publicly admitted she’s been trying to persuade her fellow producers to let Grey’s go. “I’ve been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end,” Pompeo said in a Dec. 18 interview with Insider. “​I feel like I’m the super naive one who keeps saying, ‘But what’s the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?’ And everyone’s like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars.’”

Pompeo’s new Season 19 deal will bump her up from co-executive producer to executive producer, and fellow executive producer Krista Vernoff will continue as showrunner. With another season officially on the way, let’s break down everything fans can expect from Season 19.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 Premiere Date

ABC confirmed Grey’s Anatomy will remain in its 9 p.m. ET, Thursday night time slot for Season 19, airing directly after its spinoff Station 19. The new season will premiere on Oct. 6, 2022.

On July 30, Caterina Scorsone, who plays Grey Sloan’s Head of Neurosurgery Amelia Shepherd, confirmed production was getting started in a tweet teasing the “gorgeous” new cast.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 Cast

It’s always up in the air which of the show’s rotating cast members — both new and old — will show up in each new season, but there’s absolutely no question about three doctors being on call. Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, and James Pickens Jr. are all confirmed to return as Meredith Grey, Miranda Bailey, and Richard Webber, further cementing their status as the only actors to star in every single season of the series.

Series creator Shonda Rhimes confirmed the three original stars will be back for Season 19 in a statement about the renewal: “I couldn’t be more excited that we get to keep telling the stories of Meredith, Bailey, Richard and all of the other doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial for another season.”

Although Pompeo will be back for Season 19, don’t expect to see as much Meredith Grey as in seasons past. On Aug. 3, Deadline reported that Pompeo is significantly reducing her screen time this season. More specifically, she will only appear in eight of the presumed 22 episodes. While she is still expected to narrate most episodes as Meredith Grey, she will only physically appear in about a third of the season.

Other longtime faves confirmed to return for Season 19 are Camila Luddington as Jo Wilson and Caterina Scorsone as Amelia Shepherd.

Joining all the familiar faces in Season 19 will be a few new residents, one of whom has actually been a Shondaland standout before. Alexis Floyd was announced as a new regular cast member in Grey’s Season 19 on July 19. Previously, Floyd starred in Shonda Rhimes’ 2022 fraudster miniseries Inventing Anna, in which she played Anna Delvey’s ever-loyal bestie Neff.

Floyd will be playing a new surgical resident named Simone Griffin, who has a painful personal history with Grey Sloan and a complicated family dynamic.

Simone won’t be the only new character to join Season 19 — alongside Floyd, several other notable actors are entering the Grey’s universe in pivotal roles. Glee star Harry Shum Jr. will play another first-year resident Daniel “Blue” Kwan, with Dash & Lily breakout Midori Francis also on board to play a resident named Mika Yusada. Rounding out the new cast, Teen Wolf star Adelaide Kane will play Jules Millin, and Niko Terho joins the show as another first-year resident, Lucas Adams.

Interestingly enough, Terho has a pretty notable Grey’s connection already: he starred in the Freeform rom-com There’s Something About Harry as the romantic interest of Jake Borelli’s character. It’s not yet confirmed if Borelli will return for Season 19 as Dr. Levi Schmitt, but if he does, it would be an on-screen reunion for the actors.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 Trailer

Look out for a trailer and more details about Season 19 to bubble up closer to fall of 2022.