Kate Aurthur editor When the 19th season of “Grey’s Anatomy” premieres on ABC on Oct. 6, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) will be front and center in the episode, as she’s been since the series made its debut on March 27, 2005.
Meredith is now the chief of surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and she’s been charged with rebuilding its surgical intern program after it was dismantled last season following a patient’s death.
Five of those interns will be new characters this season. Yet as Variety reported over the summer, Pompeo (and Meredith) will soon be taking a step back, and will appear in only eight of this season’s episodes — though all the episodes will still have Meredith’s voiceover at the beginning and end.
Along with the development she’s shepherding at her production company Calamity Jane, Pompeo is starring in and executive producing an as-yet untitled limited series at Hulu about a couple who adopt a child they think is an 8-year-old with dwarfism — but then things begin to go awry within their family. “She has so many projects in development as a producer, and the Hulu project as an actress,” said “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner Krista Vernoff in an interview. “And she’s really excited to spread her wings, and we want to support her in that — while she will always be in the fabric of our show.” Vernoff learned last spring that Pompeo wanted to reduce her role on the show’s 19th season, which was when she and the writers’ room decided to inject “Grey’s Anatomy” with a slew of actors — taking “a big, bold swing,” as Vernoff put it — who are new to the show as series regulars.
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