Exciting news for all you Grey’s Anatomy fans! Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey have signed another two-year contract with the network, which means they will appear on, at least, two more seasons as Dr. Meredith Grey and Dr. Derek Shepherd.
Pompeo and Dempsey are two of the few original cast members that currently remain on the show. Since the series premiered in 2005, several main characters have departed including Isaiah Washington (Preston Burke), T.R. Knight, (George O’Malley), Katherine Heigl, (Izzy Stevens), Chyler Leigh (Lexie Grey), and Eric Dane (Mark Sloan), but Pompeo and Dempsey have remained loyal to the show.
The most recent cast member to announce their departure is Sandra Oh, who has played the part of Christina Yang. Oh announced in August that she would end her run on the series after the tenth season. There is currently no word on whether Justin Chambers (Alex Karev), Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey), and James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber) will renew their contracts for the coming seasons.
Katie Couric got a chance to interview Oh, after she announced that she would not be returning to the series, to find out why she chose to leave. βI felt like all the avenues that a character that could possibly be explored,” Oh explained at the time. “I feel like we have done that.β Oh also revealed that it would not be easy to leave the show, considering she has been part of the main cast for nearly ten years. βIt makes my heart full and heavy at the same time,” she said. “[There are] so many long-term relationships that I have there. I will be really, really sad.β
While the network hasn’t officially picked up Grey’s Anatomy for an eleventh season, ABC’s Paul Lee believes that the show has many years to come. “[Executive producer] Shonda Rhimes is one of the greatest writers that our generation has seen,” Lee said. “She’s continuing to write an immensely powerful show. It makes you laugh and cry every week, and what season are we now? And by the way, to her enormous credit, it is completely different than Scandal. And I love it. I think it’s going to stay on the network for many years to come.”
Grey’s Anatomy won the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, and had multiple Emmy nominations that included two for Outstanding Drama Series.
Grey’s Anatomy will be returning with new episodes on Thursday, February 27, 2014.
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