Grey’s Boss Reflects on Highs and Lows as Showrunner Ahead of Her Exit
Charlie Mason
Editor
As Krista Vernoff nears the end of her second stint as the showrunner of ABC‘s long-running Grey’s Anatomy, she can’t help but grow reflective. Since her 2017 return to the medical drama, she’s ushered in the Season of Love, reunited MerDer, navigated COVID, tackled the fight for women’s reproductive rights and introduced an appealing new class of surgical residents. But none of those are her proudest achievement, she told TVLine at the show’s recent PaleyFest panel.
“Grey’s Anatomy is such an extraordinary platform, such an extraordinary microphone,” she said. “It’s in hundreds of territories worldwide, and it has a very real impact on hearts and minds, and sometimes it literally saves lives. We get letters from people [that say], ‘I was able to save the life of my baby because of what I saw on Grey’s Anatomy.’ ‘I was able to save my brother who was drowning because I saw CPR on Grey’s Anatomy.’ We get these letters that — I have full body chills as I talk about it — and so I’m proud of it all.
“If I say any more,” she added, “I’ll start to cry.”
Vernoff will shed no tears, however, over stories that may not have played out as well as she might have hoped they would. “Oh my gosh, I’m sure that if I looked at some of the early stuff, there would be do-overs that I would want,” she acknowledged. “But the only way to survive in Hollywood is to filter out anything that doesn’t feel good anymore. I think we’ve done phenomenal work.”
Grey’s Anatomy has already been renewed for Season 20, with executive producer Meg Marinis stepping up to the plate to succeed Vernoff as showrunner. (With reporting by Scott Huver)
The show has gotten so stale and repetitive. I hope a new show runner can breathe new life into it. I would like to care about these characters again.
To each his own. I continue to love the show as it continues to be relevant. Take Jo’s daughter losing her hearing. That is very real. It happens. The doxing of Miranda and her family. Happens constantly.
Tru dat!
I’m happy to see the last of Krista Vernoff. She made some terrible decisions, such as killing off the wrong DeLuca. I’d hate to think that Grey’s hasn’t sunk so low that her replacement is guaranteed to be an improvement.
Why she decided to kill Andrew we’ll never know. I get writing him out cause she wanted to pair Meredith with someone else, but he could have survived his stabbing and miss some episodes while recuperating, then telling Bailey that he’d move to Italy to be closer to his father (which is something many people did during the pandemic). Instead Krista went on a walk and “nature spoke to her”.
She ruined the show for me. She was so intent on making S19 succeed that she didn’t care that she was driving loyal GA fans away with the crossovers. A crossover now and then is ok. What’s not ok is making people watch both shows to get a resolution of a plot from one to the other. She lost so many viewers with that.
I’m sure that was an edict from the network and look it paid off as Station 19 now regularly outrates Grey’s.
I learned from Grey’s Anatomy that Meredith is the Sun, cause secondary characters kept repeating each other that, then some of them disappeared (remember Casey? Simmons?Blake 2.0?) I’ll tell that to my loved ones as they lay dying.
TV dramas that have been on air for double digit seasons get stale, and even with a churning ensemble cast, the storylines begin to repeat. There is no freshness to Grey’s Anatomy, and the titular character is a mere occasional player now. Yet it is renewed, while an exceptionally well-written show with a fantastic cast like Alaska Daily is still in limbo awaiting word on a second season.
The first 6 episodes of the covid season were BRILLIANT– the best stretch the show ever had, though I still hate them for killing DeLiua.
Krista was great on her first go-round.
As for her more recent stint….well, if I can’t say anything nice….
Meredith gone and so am i
I’ll never forgive her for the firings especially Sarah’s. Heck April’s crisis of faith might be the best storyline that krista did only to turn around & fire the person who killed it every episode. Followed that by giving April a terribly disrespectful & condescending “happy” ending that retconned her entire development & reverted her back to her season 7 version (the one that Krista was involved with). Even after Sarah requested for the ending to be changed.
Nope, I knew back in season 14 that Krista will be the downfall of greys & I was proven right.
She couldn’t keep a single couple together, always coming up with some idiotic reason for them to break up. Good riddance!
while i haven’t always agreed with her choices, she has made grey’s better than what it was in its few seasons before her. every character was horrible and unlikeable when she took over, and she changed that. so far that, for how she’s handled the covid season, i am grateful.
Haven’t watched it since Derrick was killed off and don’t miss it. Couldn’t stand all the whining and Maggie was a very poor addition.
Maggie is gone now, if that’s your major complaint.
As a long term fan from the beginning she ruined quite a lot for me. The way Alex was written out, won’t forgive her for that one and killing off DeLuca was just…. Not to mention Meredith’s farewell. Worst lead character write out ever. Yes Meredith will be back but this was her farewell episode and we got that as her farewell? It didn’t even feel like one. She has done some great things too, the first part of the Covid season and some other strong stories but yeah it’s time for change and looking forward to it.
Bye, Felicia.
Krista Vernoff’s second run on “Grey’s Anatomy” (starting with season 14, but excluding season 14) was hampered by too many “Station 19” crossovers, and too much surgeon family life/relationship status focus during seasons 15 and 16. I feel like we saw way more of the domestic lives of Drs. Amelia Shepherd, Owen Hunt, and Teddy Altman during those seasons than anything they were doing at the hospital. Season 17 was a course correction of sorts (highly influenced by the COVID pandemic), but also featured the frustrating aspects of COVID-afflicted Dr. Meredith Grey’s long-running, dreamy beach-world storyline. The fourth era of Grey’s (seasons 15-18) is probably the weakest of the show’s run. I consider the show to be in its fifth era now, with the current group of new featured interns, and mid-season practical/definitive departures of Ellen Pompeo (Dr. Meredith Grey) and Kelly McCreary (Dr. Maggie Pierce).
Glad she’s leaving tbh, there were too many characters killed off for literally no reason, aside from what I’m assuming, was personal. The show could’ve been absolutely amazing, without her. The writing decisions could’ve been so much better