ABC Sets ‘Station 19’ Season 3 Premiere Date With Big ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Crossover

Station 19 has set a Season 3 premiere date and after that Grey’s Anatomy cliffhanger, we officially cannot wait until 2020. The firefighter-centered spinoff series will come back with an explosive episode Thursday, Jan. 23, part of a two-hour crossover event with the medical drama to address its fall finale’s tragic cliffhanger. The show will also debut at a new timeslot, taking over the 8 p.m. timeslot from Grey’s as the medical drama series moves to 9 p.m.

Ahead of the Grey’s Anatomy fall finale, Krista Vernoff — who serves as showrunner for both shows — teased the crossover event will bring Station 19 back in the best way.

“It felt very organic to launch the premiere of Station 19 off this incident that happens on Grey’s Anatomy,” Vernoff told Deadline. “We often do catastrophes or disasters in the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, and it felt organic to do that and then allow the Station 19 first responders to be on the scene when we come back in January. There is an incident at the end of the Grey’s episode that requires you to come back in January at 8 PM to see how the first responders handle it.”

Despite both shows being more connected than ever, Vernoff said crossovers will not be a weekly occurrence.

“We don’t want to do it every week, we don’t want to create a mold, we don’t want to fall into any kind of pattern, we don’t want people to ever know what to expect,” she said. “We have found many different, really quite exciting and fun ways to interact between the two shows.”

Vernoff also praised ABC for changing the Thursday night lineup upon Station 19‘s return.

“With Station 19 airing at 8 o’clock and Grey’s Anatomy airing at 9 o’clock there are very organic opportunities for Grey’s Anatomy to, for example, inherit patients we see rescued on Station 19,” she told the outlet.

She said this how she had envisioned the two shows airing from the start.

“Ever since Station 19 premiered, in the writers room we always thought the better progression was from firefighters to the hospital,” she said. “I didn’t think it was going to happen but I was thrilled ABC had made the decision. I literally cheered when they let me know that. It’s really exciting and opens up the storytelling.”

Vernoff also teased the firefighter drama will feel like a “different show” in Season 3.

“It’s messier visually, and it’s messier emotionally than it’s ever been,” se told the outlet. “It was an exciting thing for me to dive into the world of firefighters; it’s very different from the world of surgeons, and to educate myself and talk to these heroes who run towards a fire.”

“I kept coming back to this image of sweat and soot and feeling like that needed to be a thing on this show, that it needed to feel grittier in all ways,” Vernoff continued. “The friendships are really more complicated this season. People are a little less polite this season, a little less kind, a little more competitive and dirtier, literally and metaphorically.”

Station 19 will return for Season 3 Thursday, Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.