I don’t know what’s going on at “Grey’s Anatomy.” It certainly seems like they’re preparing fans for the end of the series run. The ABC publicist plants stories all week saying so. Maybe it’s true.
Thursday night’s episode was the lowest rated of all time as the show dipped below 5 million for the first time in the 17 years it’s been on TV.
The drop was from 5.1 to 4.9 million, which isn’t a lot but it’s significant in that they don’t seem to care if the audience leaves now. Two Thursdays ago they killed off a popular leading man, and the fans threatened to exit the show. Obviously 200,000 did.
Star Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey is STILL in a coma, mixing it up on Malibu beach with dead characters. This, Patrick Dempsey returned as Dr. McDreamy, her dead husband. It’s unclear if the two actors were even shot on the same day, or if Dempsey’s redux was shot separately. They didn’t look they there actually together in the scenes.
Pompeo wants more money or something to stick around. ABC may renew the show even if they kill her off. But the beach is a metaphor for contract negotiations.
All the whiny interviews with show EP Krista Vernoff about who’s appearing on the beach, or what will happen to Meredith didn’t stoke the ratings. It had the opposite effect. But I do love it when people still employed on a show seem concerned about the people they’ve killed off. “We’ll still meet for coffee,” they declare, maybe after the fired actor finishes at the unemployment office.