EXCLUSIVE: ABC‘s biggest 2026-2027 pickup news is coming a week after the network unveiled its fall schedule last Tuesday: Grey’s Anatomy is getting a new spinoff co-created by the original series’ creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes.
ABC has given a straight-to-series order to the untitled medical drama, co-created, written and executive produced by Rhimes and Grey’s Anatomy showrunner/executive producer Meg Marinis, from Shondaland and 20th Television. Grey’s Anatomy star/executive prdoducer Ellen Pompeo also is executive producing the new offshoot, which will premiere in midseason 2027.
This marks the fourth series in the Grey’s Anatomy franchise after the mothership and spinoffs Private Practice and Station 19, and the first that is not set on the West Coast, or in a big city. It is described as an edgy drama about a team at a rural West Texas medical center — the last chance for care before miles of nowhere.
This also would be the first Grey’s offshoot that is not spinning off a series regular character from the mothership the way Kate Walsh’s Addison headlined Private Practice and Jason George’s Ben led Station 19.
“I am incredibly excited to expand the Grey’s Anatomy universe,” Marinis said. “This opportunity will bring new characters and stories to life that will embody the same heart, emotion and connection audiences have loved from Grey’s for more than two decades — all set in my home state of Texas. I am so grateful to Shonda Rhimes for creating this dynamic world and feel so fortunate that I get to be a part of it.”
While the spinoff will be built around a new group of doctors, it will likely be connected to the world of Grey’s Anatomy via one or more characters, possibly Debbie Allen’s Catherine Fox, I hear.
Rhimes and Betsy Beers executive produce the new series with Marinis and Pompeo, who also exec produced Station 19 with Rhimes and Beers. Shondaland and 20th Television are the studios. It has not been determined whether Marinis will serve as showrunner across both Grey’s series but that is doable — her predecessor Krista Vernoff ran both the mothership and Station 19.
The size of the order for the untitled spinoff is TBD. It will probably be in line with recent ABC midseason entries like R.J. Decker and the Scrubs reboot, which both launched with nine-episode first installments.
As Deadline has reported, the order for Grey’s Anatomy‘s upcoming 23rd season already was expected to be trimmed for budget considerations alongside other ABC scripted series after the network opted to increase its scripted slate for a second consecutive year by adding a new series, The Rookie: North, while renewing all existing ones. (Grey’s produced 18 episodes in each of the last two seasons.)
Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff would likely share a time period, which requires limited-run orders for both — the mothership in the fall, followed by the spinoff in midseason. They would be airing in Grey’s Anatomy‘s Thursday 10 p.m. slot behind 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville, which are believed to have full-season orders. It is too early to tell whether an episode of the mothership will be used to help set up the offshoot the way the venerable medical drama did for Private Practice and Station 19.
Marinis, a Houston native and University of Texas at Austin graduate, has remained close to the Lone Star state. Last fall, she shared with Deadline that she knew a couple of the Texas families who had lost children in the Camp Mystic tragedy and, overcome by emotion, she rewrote Link’s goodbye call speech in the Season 22 premiere of Grey’s Anatomy.
With its setting, the Grey’s spinoff draws parallels to another untiled medical drama, which has been in the works at CBS. The project, from Walker creator Anna Fricke, centers on a headstrong, devoted doctor, played by Jared Padalecki, who, alongside his young new protégé, operate a mobile clinic and heal the bodies and souls of their underserved community in the medical desert of rural Texas.
The CBS drama received a development room order in November is is still delivering scripts, with a decision on its future expected this summer. It is unclear whether that decision would be impacted by the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff.
The new offshoot will mark the first episode in the Grey’s Anatomy franchise that Rhimes has written or co-written since the fateful Season 11 episode “How to Save a Life,” in which Derek (Patrick Dempsey) died. In addition to the Grey’s Anatomy pilot, she also wrote the backdoor pilot and first episode of Private Practice, which relocated the franchise to Los Angeles from Seattle where the mothership and Station 19 are set.
Both offshoots had respectable runs on ABC, six (Private Practice) and seven (Station 19) seasons. The latter staged frequent crossovers with the mothership series in its final years before bowing out in May 2024.
Disney/ABC
As a spinoff from a preexisting series, the new ABC Grey’s offshoot falls outside of Rhimes’ exclusive overall deal with Netflix where Shondaland has been based since 2017, producing popular series such as the Bridgerton franchise.
With the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, ABC has expanded its three longest-running dramas into franchises over the span of a year — 9-1-1 was joined by 9-1-1: Nashville this past fall, with The Rookie: North joining The Rookie next season, which also will feature the two Grey’s Anatomy series.
Grey’s Anatomy, ABC’s longest-running primetime scripted series, ended its 22nd season on a high note with 5.99 million total viewers in MP+7, rising 9% over the prior week and more than doubling the show’s initial Live+Same Day audience (+123%) with its best performance in three months, since January 29, 2026. The show also rose week to week in the adults 18-49 demographic (1.26 rating vs. 1.17 rating).
Marinis began her career as a writers assistant during Grey’s third season and has spent two decades working her way from PA and medical researcher to executive producer and showrunner.