Ellen Pompeo is ready to hang up her scrubs on the long-in-the-tooth series Grey’s Anatomy, where she’s okayed Meredith Grey for 17 years.
Grey’s Anatomy is now in its 18th season. Nearly everyone from the original cast left the show years ago — Sandra Oh bailed after season 10; Katherine Heigl made her final appearance in season six; Patrick Dempsey hasn’t been a series regular since season 11; even creator Shonda Rhimes has moved to streaming — with one exception. Ellen Pompeo is still out there playing Dr. Meredith Grey for 20-something episodes every season, but even she’s ready for ABC’s hospital-set drama to be put out of its misery.
“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.’” That’s also approximately how much money she makes every season.
After a contract renegotiation in 2017, Pompeo is earning about $550,000 per episode for her starring role on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. She reportedly adds about $6 million a year from her share of syndication profits.
It’s in Pompeo’s best financial interests for Grey’s to continue as long as ABC wants to keep making episodes (which is to say, indefinitely), but after nearly 400 episodes, she sounds ready to be freed from the shackles of broadcast television. Let Ellen Pompeo be in a Marvel movie, or whatever. She’s earned it.
If you do the math, Ellen makes about $17 million a year from the 22 episodes she does each season, plus the syndication coin.
If she no longer wants to do the show because she wants to challenge herself with other projects, then producers and writers need to give her a proper send-off.
Let her go from the show, or end the series once her contract is up. 18 seasons is a good run for any show.