‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 17 Return Delayed

Grey’s Anatomy fans will have to wait a little longer to learn what’s next for Meredith Grey. The hit medical drama, currently on its mid-season hiatus, will return a week later than initially planned, ABC announced Monday. The 17th season of Grey’s will now resume on Thursday, March 11 at 8 p.m. ET instead of March 4 as originally scheduled, although there was no reason initially given for the delay. The Grey’s Anatomy firefighter spinoff, Station 19, will also resume its 4th season that day at 9 p.m. ET, followed by the return of A Million Little Things, which will then move to Wednesdays starting April 7.

Grey’s fans are currently waiting in limbo after the dramatic cliffhanger of the fall finale. While Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) seemed to be recovering from her battle with COVID-19, she soon took a turn for the worse, and the finale episode ended with her life hanging in the balance. In December, executive producers Andy Reaser and Meg Marinis told Entertainment Tonight they wanted to be “as realistic as we possibly could” when portraying the coronavirus pandemic, which includes the “COVID high or happy hypoxia,” a phenomenon in which someone showcasing positive signs of recovery “just on a dime, completely crashes.”

“It’s not something that we take lightly and we don’t want to feel like Meredith is being let off the hook too easily,” Reaser said. “The virus keeps everyone guessing and it’s relentless, so it’s going to take relentlessness to fight it.” While in her coma this season, Meredith has been visited by a number of beloved characters from Grey’s past, including late love Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and friend George O’Malley (T.R. Knight).

While the show has given no indication that Season 17 would be the end of its run, in October, Pompeo told Variety it was a possibility as she runs up on the end of her contract. “I’m constantly fighting for the show as a whole to be as good as it can be. As a producer, I feel like I have permission to be able to do that,” Pompeo said of her role both on- and off-screen., “I mean, this is the last year of my contract right now. I don’t know that this is the last year? But it could very well could be.” Grey’s Anatomy returns for the second half of Season 17 on Thursday, March 11 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.