The longtime medical drama is staying put through season 17.
Meredith Grey is saving lives for at least two more years.
Grey's Anatomy has been renewed for seasons 16 and 17 by ABC, the network announced Friday.
Ellen Pompeo, who also serves a producer, inked a two-year deal in 2017 that kept her on the show through season 16. According to reports, Pompeo extended her contract through 2021, paving the way for the two-season pickup.
News of Grey's renewal isn't surprising as ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke tipped her hand in February of her plans to keep the medical drama at the network for the foreseeable future when she jumped the gun and said that there was at least one more season of the show.
Burke, who was promoted to the top ABC job last November, revealed earlier this year that the network was "in conversations" about continuing Grey's past the upcoming 16th season, expressing confidence that "we will be planning more."It's been a landmark 15th season for Grey's, which surpassed ER as the longest-running primetime medical drama in February.
"It's pretty extraordinary, and a little surreal. ER is such a television legacy and was such an extraordinary program. If ER didn't exist, Grey's wouldn't exist. So, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to ER, and to [executive producer] John Wells, and we are so grateful," showrunner and executive producer Krista Vernoff told ET in February. "This is exciting and monumental and a little crazy, and we're all just sort of walking around here looking at each other like, 'What?'"
"With the 300th episode, we looked backward. It was a very nostalgic episode. It paid tribute to the whole length of the series. With this episode, we made the decision to look forward, and to celebrate how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go," Vernoff said of the record-breaking 332nd hour, adding at the time that she didn't see an end date just yet. "It seems like it could go on forever and I think that's our hope."
Pompeo addressed the future of Grey's and was candid about when she'd hang up her scrubs as Meredith.
"It's something Shonda [Rhimes] and I will decide together," Pompeo told ET's Denny Directo last October. "I've been doing it a long time and I do get restless, but the fans are just still so passionate about the show."
"I think the fans will let us know," she added. "When the numbers start to drop and people aren't watching the same, people aren't as passionate about it... it's time to call it."
Additionally, Grey's firefighter spinoff, Station 19, has been renewed for a third season and the Viola Davis-led How to Get Away With Murder will return for a sixth. Grey's showrunner Krista Vernoff will also run Station 19, following the departure of showrunner Stacy McKee.
“I’m thrilled to continue at the helm of Grey’s Anatomy, and I’m honored and energized by the opportunity to run Station 19, as well. To expand upon the world Stacy McKee created, and further merge it with the world of Grey’s, is an exciting challenge,” Vernoff said.
“Everyone at Shondaland is thrilled that our fans’ commitment to TGIT continues,” said Shonda Rhimes and producing partner Betsy Beers in a joint statement. “We are so proud of Krista and Pete [Nowalk] and the work they do. Making the choice to have Krista oversee Station 19 was easy -- the creativity she brings to the Grey’s Anatomy universe continues a tradition of storytelling we hold dear.”
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