Entertainment

Grey's Anatomy Was Just Renewed For Season 15 & This Is SERIOUSLY Good News

Meredith Grey won't be scrubbing out of Grey Sloan Memorial anytime soon. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Grey's Anatomy is officially renewed for Season 15. ABC's commitment to the series isn't rooted in nostalgia — despite the show's age, it's currently increased viewership since its previous season, according to EW. After all this time, the soapy medical drama is still bringing in new viewers, and pleasing the ones who have been around since the hospital was still called Seattle Grace.

President of ABC Entertainment, Channing Dungey, seems to be in full agreement that Grey's Anatomy is still seriously good for the network. In a press release announcing the news, she said,

"Grey's Anatomy has a special place in my heart and millions of viewers feel the same way. Thanks to fiercely loyal fans who have been on this journey since the beginning, and new generations of viewers who continue to discover the joy and drama of Grey Sloan Memorial, the show is as strong as ever."

In addition to the renewal announcement, ABC also revealed a list of castmembers who will reportedly be back for Season 15. According to the press release, fans can expect to see these familiar faces hanging out in the elevators at Grey Sloan Memorial again next season: Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Justin Chambers as Alex Karev, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens Jr. as Richard Webber, Kevin McKidd as Owen Hunt, Jesse Williams as Jackson Avery, Caterina Scorsone as Amelia Shepherd, Camilla Luddington as Jo Wilson, Kelly McCreary as Maggie Pierce and Giacomo Gianniotti as Andrew DeLuca.

As previously announced, fan favorites Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew will exit the series at the end of Season 14. Details about how or why their characters will be leaving Seattle remain unknown, and it's safe to say that viewers are more than a little worried about what the future holds for them.

Grey's Anatomy has been a stalwart for ABC for more than a decade now. The medical drama holds the distinction of being the first official member of Shondaland — the name given to the host of series created by Shonda Rhimes and her collaborators. In fact, Rhimes has become such an integral part of ABC that the network named an entire night of programming after the feeling that her shows elicit — TGIT, or Thank God It's Thursday.

That popular lineup could look quite different next season, even if Grey's Anatomy continues to anchor Thursday nights in the fall. In 2017, Rhimes announced that she had signed a deal with Netflix. While her existing shows will stay on ABC, future Shondaland series will be exclusively for the streaming giant. That puts ABC in an interesting position.

Scandal recently aired its series finale, and How to Get Away with Murder, For the People, and Station 19 have not been officially renewed just yet. While it's highly unlikely that How to Get Away with Murder will end without a proper final season, nothing is guaranteed. Depending on what kind of scheduling decisions the network makes in May, TGIT as fans know it could be coming to an end.

Don't panic just yet though, because the good news is Grey's Anatomy isn't going anywhere, and as long as the mothership lives on, then so does Shondaland's ties to ABC. And it's clear that ABC still has big plans for Meredith Grey and her colleagues.

It's way too early to speculate on what kind of new drama Season 15 will bring — fans are still trying to figure out how Arizona and April will exit right now — but since this is Grey's Anatomy, it's safe to assume there will be sexiness, surgeries, and all kinds of heartbreak. And you know you wouldn't have it any other way.