A few doctors from Grey Sloan Memorial are about to have a long-awaited reunion.
Grey’s Anatomy alums Katherine Heigl and Justin Chambers, who played Izzie Stephens and Alex Karev, respectively, on the ABC series, are set to make an appearance at the 2023 Emmy Awards alongside their former castmates. The duo will take the stage during the Monday, January 15, ceremony alongside Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey), James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber) and Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey), to announce one of the night’s major categories.
The medical drama won’t be the only iconic show linking back up at the 75th annual awards show, which will take place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Other notable actors from iconic shows reuniting on stage include: Lorraine Bracco and Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos, Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, Carl Anthony Payne II and Tichina Arnold from Martin, Calista Flockhart, Greg Germann, Peter MacNicol and Gil Bellows from Ally McBeal, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live, Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott from American Horror Story: Murder House and Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt from Cheers.
“It was really about, how can we celebrate 75 years of television differently?” Emmys executive producer Jesse Collins told The Associated Press earlier this month.
Fans have been wanting Heigl 45, and Chambers, 53 — who played love interests on the show — to reunite since Heigl abruptly exited the series during season six in 2010. Her departure came after Heigl publicly feuded with series creator Shonda Rhimes.
In November 2020, Krista Vernoff, who worked on seasons 1 through of Grey’s before returning as the showrunner for season 14, told the Los Angeles Times that there was a plan to wrap up Izzie’s arc in a different way.
“There was a resolution to Izzie’s story. We had planned to have her come back for an episode to really properly tie up Izzie and Alex,” she explained to the outlet. “And I wrote that episode, and it was beautiful. The day before it was supposed to start prepping or shooting, I can’t remember, we got a call that Katie wasn’t coming. Just wasn’t coming. Wasn’t going to do it. It became my job to stay up all night for multiple nights and reimagine a script that didn’t include Izzie.”
Vernoff added: “And for years and years and years and years and years, the fans scream at us, ‘How could you?’ Well, that’s the behind-the-scenes story. That’s what happened. I’m not saying that to bash Katie. I don’t know what was happening in her life.”
Sources close to Heigl, however, rebutted Vernoff’s claims at the time, sharing that the showrunner was “mistaken” when recalling her departure from the series. “Katherine was back in L.A. after parental leave (when she adopted her daughter) waiting to be called to set,” the insider told Us Weekly at the time.
Chambers, meanwhile, remained on the series until season 16. After his exit, it was revealed that his character left his wife, Jo (Camilla Luddington), to reunite offscreen with Heigl’s Izzie. Heigl later reacted to the news of the plot twist, telling Entertainment Tonight, “I didn’t see it. … Wasn’t he with someone? Listen, isn’t that an a–hole move? I’m sorry!”
As Grey’s Anatomy gears up for its season 20 premiere in March, Heigl’s official stance remains that she will “never say never” to reprising her role on the show. “I think it would just be completely dependent upon the team over there, how they feel about it, and the story,” she told The Washington Times in 2021.
The 2023 Emmy Awards air on Fox Monday, January 15 at 8 p.m. ET.
