Everything Ellen Pompeo Has Said About How Long She’ll Stay on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Credit: ABC/Nino Muñoz

Everything Ellen Pompeo Has Said About How Long She'll Stay on 'Grey's Anatomy'

Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes and series star Ellen Pompeo have both said the long-running ABC medical drama will end when the actress decides to walk away. The series, which debuted in 2005, has had many ups and downs through the years, but the creative team behind the scenes wants to be sure everyone is happy with the ending when the time comes. "I didn’t ever think that I would stay on the show this long. It happened, and here I am. It’s been this incredible platform for me and allowed me to stay home with my kids so much and not travel and have the circus life of an actor," she told Variety in 2020. "So I thought that it wasn’t the road less traveled, to stay on a television show for this many years, but actually it is the road less traveled. And so, that’s been ironic." Although she said she has "no expectations" about the show's eventual end, she does have an idea in mind for Meredith Grey's final episode. [jwplayer fAbt1PcM-l3ahXupL] In January 2018, Pompeo opened up about her battle for equal pay on the series after 14 seasons, telling The Hollywood Reporter that she attempted to negotiate with former costar Patrick Dempsey. (Dempsey exited the show in 2015 and returned for a multi-episode arc in 2020.) "They could always use him as leverage against me — ‘We don’t need you; we have Patrick’ — which they did for years. I don’t know if they also did that to him, because he and I never discussed our deals," she recalled at the time. "There were many times where I reached out about joining together to negotiate, but he was never interested in that. At one point, I asked for $5,000 more than him just on principle, because the show is Grey’s Anatomy and I’m Meredith Grey. They wouldn’t give it to me." Ultimately, she got her ask and became one of the highest-paid actors on TV, raking in nearly $20 million a year. So, what will happen when that ends? "I can do anything I want or not do anything at all,” the producer said on CBS This Morning in 2021. In August 2022, TVLine reported that Pompeo would take a reduced role in the show, appearing in just eight episodes of the season. Her final episode will air in February 2023. Scroll through the gallery below for everything the actress has said about when the show will end. [podcast_block]

Credit: Scott Garfield/ABC/Getty Images

What’s Not to Love

Pompeo’s contract was up after season 8, but she reassured fans that she had no plans to exit the series during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in April 2012. "It's a wonderful job and wonderful group of people who all really care how good the show is," she said at the time. “It's a win-win: I have a great job, the show touches people and people find solace in the show and it's entertaining. I don't see what more I could want in a job."

Credit: Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Ready to Retire?

The actress signed another two-year deal to stay on Grey’s Anatomy in January 2014, but then revealed she may quit acting after the series’ run.”I definitely don't have a strong desire to act after Grey's; I definitely feel myself transitioning," she said during a panel with BuzzFeed Brews in September 2014. "I don't find acting terribly empowering. For the place I am in my life ... I don't necessarily want to work for other people."

Credit: Craig Sjodin/Abc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

Thinking About the End

Pompeo admitted to Cosmopolitan in February 2016 that she thinks about the end of the drama. “I think about it a lot. And I can't really talk about my future plans, but yes, Shonda and I talk about it. We feel like we're in this together, and I think we don't want to do the show without each other. I think when either of us is ready, when we feel like it's time to wrap it up [we will],” she revealed. “When she feels like it's time to wrap it up, I'm happy to, and if I were to feel that way, she would probably be OK too. We have a good relationship in that way, and hopefully it's a decision we'll come to together.” 

“The most freeing thing about my place in my life right now is I feel absolutely no pressure to prove anything,” Pompeo continued. “The only pressure I feel is to my daughters, to be a good mother. Other than that, I feel no pressure to have to prove anything. Anything. Which is such an amazing, free place to be.” 

Credit: Mitch Haaseth/ABC

Too Blessed to Be Stressed

“We're blessed to be able to go on this long. As long as the show is successful and Shonda and I and the cast are having fun, I think that will be a decision that Shonda and I come to,” Pompeo told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of season 13 in September 2016. “Obviously the network and the studio will have some say. There's no talk of going away with numbers like this. As long as the show's a success — I mean, it's so fun! It's such rarified air. To have a show on the air for this long and have it be this successful and have it be driving a whole night of television and be the network's No. 1 show — I'm super grateful. And I don't want to take that for granted, and I don't want to walk away from the golden goose. I want to put a leash around it and take it everywhere with me.”

Credit: ABC/Rick Rowell

‘Why Walk Away From a Hit?’

Pompeo reiterated that she and Rhimes will end the show when Pompeo’s ready to stop during an interview with Variety in March 2017. “The story is about Meredith Grey’s journey and when I’m done, the show will end,” she explained. “I don’t know how long the show will go on. I know the network and the studio like to say they see no end in sight, but I think the audience will tell us when the show is no longer a fan favorite. I think it’s quite arrogant to assume the show can go on forever — I don’t like that approach. Right now, we’re very lucky to have the fans still hanging on, and I think the fans will let us know when it’s time to stop the show.”

“Why walk away from a hit?” she added. “You don’t walk away from something for nothing. And with the track record out there, I’m good to keep doing it for now.” 

Credit: ABC/Richard Cartwright

Ratings Gold

“Every year I keep saying, ‘This is the last year, they're definitely gonna get sick of us, the ratings are going to plummet and we're over at the end of this year,’” Pompeo confessed to Seth Meyers on Late Night in November 2017. “I say it every single year and it never happens. I can't believe people aren't sick of me yet. … Maybe they're all drinking tequila and not really paying attention.”

Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Making History

Pompeo became one of the highest paid actresses on TV — earning more than $550,000 an episode — in January 2018 after signing a contract for seasons 15 and 16 of Grey’s.  “I’ve been saying since season 1, ‘We have two more years.’ This show, it’s taking on a life of its own, and who knows? We take it season by season really,” she told Deadline at the time. “Shonda and I will decide when we end the show, and I think that Shonda will decide how the character ends her journey. That will be all Shonda Rhimes at this stage. Maybe that will change, but I think that until she says otherwise, until she says she wants [current showrunner] Krista [Vernoff] to decide, or me and Krista to decide, in my mind, she created this show, and it’s her right to end it however she sees fit whenever she sees fit..” 

Credit:

The End Is Near

“We’re getting there. Shonda and I will make that decision together,” Pompeo told Us exclusively in May 2018. “I think that one of the biggest lessons that this show has taught me and being on this show for so long has taught me, is that relationships do change. And they do grow. They take work. Like any marriage, friendship. You gotta put in the work. You have to accept other people’s flaws, and accept your own flaws and try to change and be a better person. But I think everything is worth the time and effort. And things get better.”

Credit: Ella DeGea/CBS

Familiar Faces

During an interview with James Corden in September 2019, Pompeo admitted she'd love to have original cast members appear in the final episode. "That probably won't happen, but that would be the most amazing way to [end it]," she said on The Late Late Show.

Credit: ABC/Eric McCandless

Looking for a Change

While Pompeo said she “clearly” wasn’t prepared “to make any kind of formal announcement” about her future on Grey’s during an interview with Entertainment Weekly in September 2018, she hinted the show may end after season 16 in 2020. “I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories we can tell,” she admitted. “It’s about time that I mix it up. I’m definitely looking for a change.”

Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

A Sense of Obligation

A month after Pompeo admitted she was looking for change, she told Ellen DeGeneres that there is “no end in sight” for Grey’s. "The show is so popular,” she told the host in October 2018. "Everywhere I go, whether it's Italy, whether it's France, London, Kansas … the people that come up to me with tears in their eyes and tell me how meaningful the show is to them.” 

An emotional Pompeo added: "I got to keep doing it, man, because we're touching lives and making a difference.” 

Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images

Two More Years

A month after Grey’s was picked up for two more seasons — and Pomepo signed another two-year contract — the Catch Me If You Can actress revealed that she nearly left the drama because of a “really toxic work environment.”

“It became my goal to have an experience there that I could be happy and proud about, because we had so much turmoil for 10 years,” Pompeo told Variety in June 2019. “My mission became, this can’t be fantastic to the public and a disaster behind the scenes. Shonda Rhimes and I decided to rewrite the ending of this story. That’s what’s kept me.”

Credit: ABC/Kelsey McNeal

Mer’s Ending

“I have no expectations and that’s how I survive,” Pompeo told Variety in April 2020 when asked about the how the show will end. “The final episode I did [have an image], but I can’t really tell you because then I’ll have to kill you. Krista [Vernoff] and I talked about potential things.” 

She added at the time, “I’ve signed on for one more season is all I can say.” 

Credit: ABC/Kelsey McNeal

A Big Decision

Ahead of the season 17 premiere in October 2020, Pompeo told Variety that she doesn't yet know when the show is ending. “The truth is, this year could be it," she said at the time. "I’m constantly fighting for the show as a whole to be as good as it can be. As a producer, I feel like I have permission to be able to do that. I mean, this is the last year of my contract right now. I don’t know that this is the last year, but it could very well could be."

Credit: Gilles Mingasson/ABC/Kobal/Shutterstock

Still Deciding

"We honestly have not decided. We’re really trying to figure it out right now," Pompeo said on CBS Sunday Morning in February 2021 about whether season 17 will be the last. "To end a show this iconic — how do we do it? I just wanna make sure we do this character and this show and the fans, I wanna make sure we do it right."

Credit: ABC

Another Go!

In May 2021, ABC announced that Grey's Anatomy will be returning for season 18. Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr. inked new contracts that will secure them for at least one more season each.

Credit: Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

‘Trying’ to Consider the End

Before presenting at the 2021 Emmys, Pompeo said that fans who say the end must be coming soon are “not far off,” explaining that she often contemplates ending her historic run.

"I mean, I've been trying to get away for years,” she told Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet in September 2021. “I have been trying. It's not because I haven't been trying. I have strong relationships at the network and they have been very, very good to me, and have incentivized me to stay."

She added that the writers haven’t run out of story yet either. “Miraculously, we keep coming up with ways to have a reason to stay and if there's a reason, that warrants it," Pompeo explained.

Credit: ABC/Liliane Lathan

Concerned About Continuing the Story

In December 2021, Pompeo revealed that she didn't hear many people arguing for Grey's Anatomy to end after season 18, but the conclusion is certainly at the front of her mind.

"I've been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end," she told 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.'"

Credit: ABC/Mike Rosenthal

A Future Without Her?

Pompeo hinted in May 2022 that Rhimes may be considering continuing the series without her once she officially leaves the show. “The show speaks to a lot of people, and the young people love the show,” Pompeo told Entertainment Tonight. "It's inspired so many generations of healthcare workers, so, I think for the young people, it's a really good piece of content.”

She added: “We're going to try to keep it going for the young people, not necessarily with me, but keep it going beyond me." When asked whose “anatomy” would it be without her character, the actress replied, “We’ll find someone, or maybe, we won’t.”

Credit: Courtesy of Ellen Pompeo/Instagram

Almost Goodbye

In August 2022, TV Line reported that Pompeo's role on season 19 would be significantly reduced. Her final episode was later confirmed to be airing in February 2023. 

"I am eternally grateful and humbled by the love and support you have all shown me, Meredith GREY and the show for 19 seasons! Through it all….none of it …would have been possible without the best fans in the world. You all are RIDERS and you all have made the ride so fun and ICONIC!!" she captioned a grateful message to fans via Instagram in November 2022 as she prepared to say goodbye. "I love you madly and appreciate you right back. This isn’t your first time on the rollercoaster… you know the show must go on and I’ll definitely be back to visit. With a lot of love and immense gratitude XoE 🙏🏼❤️."

Credit: E! Entertainment/NBC

Coming to an End

While on the red carpet for the 2022 People's Choice Awards, the actress revealed that she had two more episodes left before exiting the medical drama: one after the midseason hiatus and another on the season 19 finale.

Credit: ABC/Nino Muñoz

Happy Changes

"I feel super happy," Pompeo said during a December 2022 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, reflecting on her reduced role on the ABC series. "But listen, the show has been incredible to me and I've loved a lot of the experience. It's just [that] I gotta mix it up a little bit. I'm 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs ... I gotta do something new or I'm literally gonna turn into, like, [someone who] can't do the New York Times crossword puzzle every single day."

The actress added: "I mean, 10 years. That's more than people keep their kids in their house — like, people keep their kids in their house until they're 18 and then they send them off to college, so this is like me going away to college."