The ABC medical drama’s midseason premiere saw Meredith’s exit, but remained steady in viewers and the demo
The ratings for ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” farewell episode for Ellen Pompeo’s titular doctor last Thursday were steady compared with the ABC procedural’s winter finale in November in both viewership and the advertiser-coveted 18-49 key demographic, according to live plus same-day Nielsen ratings data.
After 19 seasons and more than 400 episodes, Meredith Grey performed her last surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial, though the midseason premiere episode left plenty of hanging threads and Pompeo is already set to return for the season finale. Debuting at 9 p.m. after the midseason premiere of “Station 19,” the medical drama averaged 0.49 in the demographic and 3.6 million viewers. That was fairly similar to the ratings for its midseason finale Nov. 17, which drew 0.51 in ratings and 3.7 million average watchers. Prior to the winter finale, “Grey’s” nabbed nearly identical figures of 0.5 in the demo and a viewership of 3.7 million for the Nov. 10 episode.
The logline for the main character’s final episode is as follows: “On Meredith’s last day at Grey Sloan, the doctors plan a goodbye surprise and Nick confronts her about the future of their relationship. The interns compete to scrub in on a groundbreaking procedure and Richard asks Teddy an important question.” You can read a full recap here.
On social media, many fans complained of a lackluster ending for the mainstay doctor, disavowing the show’s avoidance of flashbacks, calling it the “worst episode of TV” and admonishing the series for not devoting more screentime to the character. “Such a disappointment for such an iconic role,” one Twitter user wrote.
Following the announcement of her departure from the series, Pompeo has repeatedly shared her excitement at beginning a new chapter in her career, which includes starring in and executive producing a forthcoming Hulu true-life limited series.
“I mean 19 years — that’s more than people keep their kids in their house, like people keep their kids in their house until they’re 18 and then they send them off to college, so this is like me like going away to college,” the actor said during a recent appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show.” Earlier in November, Pompeo teased that she’ll “definitely be back to visit” the show, which is still pending a Season 20 renewal.
All new episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” continue Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The next episode will follow Teddy as she makes a challenging decision. Meanwhile, Maggie and Winston aren’t on speaking terms, and Link leans on Jo for emotional support as he preps for a surgery on a well-known athlete. Simone and Lucas are surprised by an unlikely visitor.
Natalie Oganesyan
Prior to becoming a TV reporter at TheWrap in 2022, Natalie served as a general entertainment news reporter. She has covered film, television, music and business beats for two years, beginning her career as an intern at Variety, where she continued to freelance as a TV features reporter. Since then, Natalie has been a Celebrity News Writer at BuzzFeed and contributed to such publications as Metacritic and Vox Media, where she was part of the company's inaugural Writers Workshop.