Grey’s Anatomy renewed for season 19 despite Ellen Pompeo ‘trying to convince everybody’ to end it

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Grey’s Anatomy has been renewed for season 19 despite lead star Ellen Pompeo’s efforts to try and convince everybody that the show should end.

ABC has announced that all cast members including Chandra Wilson, James Pickens Jr and Pompeo are set to return in the longest-running medical drama in American television history.

“I couldn’t be more excited that we get to keep telling the stories of Meredith, Bailey, Richard and all of the other doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial for another season,” showrunner Shonda Rhimes said in a statement on Monday (10 January).

“This is a true testament to [showrunner] Krista Vernoff, the cast, the crew and all the writers who keep the audience on the edge of their seat week after week. And it would not be possible without the generations of incredible fans who have supported Grey’s Anatomy for so many years.”

Last month, Pompeo - who plays the role of Dr Meredith Grey in the show - said she’s “been trying to focus on convincing everybody that [Grey’s Anatomy] should end.”

“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’.”

Pompeo made similar comments about the show in 2018, when she said: “I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories we can tell. It’s about time that I mix it up.”

Grey’s Anatomy has been airing on ABC since 2005.