LAST RITES FOR ‘GREY’S’ AS SCANDALS SCAR
Star Pompeo gives show Do Not Resuscitate order
FEEBLE “Grey’s Anatomy” is on life support as scandals keep undermining the medical drama and dragging its ratings down to just over 4 million, its lowest ever! Even series star Ellen Pompeo has hinted she wants to pull the plug!
In March, one of the show’s top writers, Elisabeth Finch, took a leave of absence after questions arose over whether the personal storylines she contributed — a cancer diagnosis and an abortion during chemotherapy — were from her own life, her estranged wife Jennifer Beyer’s history — or entirely made up! Through her lawyer, Finch, who is in the midst of a brutal divorce, insisted she will not talk about her split or her health. But she wrote about her medical issues in magazines and TV scripts before the scandal broke, say insiders. “It’s a huge black eye for ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’” snitches a source.
Meanwhile, “Grey’s” creator Shonda Rhimes’ company Shondaland says, “Only Elisabeth can speak to her personal story.”
Another headache for the long-running hit series centers on Ernest Simon Jr., a 31-yearold Black crew member who has accused a pair of
Los Angeles cops of racially profiling him. He claims the lawmen forced him out of the production van he was driving on March 18, 2021, and tried to bust him in front of his co-workers, believing he had stolen the vehicle. The suit says more cops swarmed on the scene, along with an LAPD helicopter, even though security guards on the lot had vouched for Simon, who was ordered “to lay face down and spread eagle on the hot asphalt.”
“The show’s producers and network execs could be dragged into this case even though it’s clear they had nothing to do with it!” says a show insider.
At one time, “Grey’s Anatomy” was red-hot, pulling in 16.25 million viewers in March 2005. When it came on right after the Super Bowl one year, it got nearly 38 million pairs of eyeballs.
But last year, season
17 brought in just over 4 million viewers.
“The show appears to be plodding along now, waiting for ABC network execs to put it out of its misery,” TV critic Bill Mann tells The National ENQUIRER. “It’s running on fumes!”
And Pompeo, 52, who has spent nearly two decades playing sexy Dr. Meredith Grey, thinks the show’s prognosis is bad — and sources say she’s ready to hang up her scrubs!
In an interview last December, the actress said she’s “been trying to focus on convincing everybody” that the show “should end.”
She added: “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.’”
Nevertheless, the show looks like it will go on with season 19.
“Ellen wants to leave. She’s said it before, but this time she really means it,” dishes a network source.
“And what would ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ be without Meredith Grey? If Ellen left, I think that would be it!”