If you are an American prime time tv sequence with 20 years or extra on the air, you are in uncommon firm. Only eight shows in historical past have reached that milestone, with Grey’s Anatomy being one in every of them.
Twenty-one years in the past tonight, March 27, 2005, Grey’s Anatomy premiered on ABC. Since then, the Shonda Rhimes-created medical drama has captured loyal viewership, which explains why the present remains to be is presently in the course of its twenty second season.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ had an instantaneous influence
The pilot episode, “A Hard Day’s Night,” posted 16.25 million viewers, and the present continued incomes robust rankings by way of its Season 1 finale (“Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”), which recorded over 22.2 million viewers. If you have been unaware, sure, each episode is titled after a track.
In the following 21 years, Grey’s has introduced and eliminated numerous main characters. Nine core present members appeared within the premiere episode.
Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo)
Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh)
Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl)
George O’Malley (T. R. Knight)
Alex Karev (Justin Chambers)
Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey)
Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson)
Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.)
Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington)
Only Pompeo, Wilson and Pickens stay on Grey’s as of final night time’s episode, which was the 477th in sequence historical past.
“What I remember about those first days was sort of knowing that we all felt like we didn’t know what we were doing, and that was exactly what we were playing,” Pompeo told Shondaland in 2025. “I thought, ‘Well, this is either going to work, or it isn’t, but we truly don’t really know what we’re doing. We’re playing a bunch of interns who don’t really know what we’re doing.’ So, I knew I felt comfortable in our ability, and we were having a lot of fun.”
A long-lasting–and ongoing–legacy
Since its debut, Grey’s Anatomy has received dozens of main awards and spawned numerous spinoffs and crossover episodes.
It is presently the sixth-longest working scripted primetime TV sequence in U.S. historical past, trailing solely The Simpsons, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order, Family Guy and NCIS.
(*21*) Rhimes stated in 2021.
This story was initially printed by Men’s Journal on Mar 27, 2026, the place it first appeared within the Entertainment part. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
