If medical shows are your thing, the 2025 TV schedule has you more fully covered than your health insurance. From St. Denis Medical becoming a fast favorite in its first hilarious season to Grey’s Anatomy cruising after two decades, there’s a doctor to fit every preference. In fact, that kind of competition — and one show in particular — has piqued Grey’s showrunner Meg Marinis’ interest, and I’m wondering if she might have to effect some of that change that Ellen Pompeo has apparently been asking for.
ER vet Noah Wyle is back in scrubs for The Pitt (available to stream with a Max subscription), with each episode depicting an essentially real-time hour of a 15-hour shift. The fresh concept has caught the attention of Meg Marinis, who couldn’t help but compare her own medical drama Grey’s Anatomy to the freshman series, as she told the L.A. Times:
You can’t help but think, ‘Oh, what kind of stories are they telling? Are they telling cooler stories than we are?’ I really want to watch The Pitt. I’m waiting until hiatus because I do love medical shows, but I try not to watch them when I’m writing just to stay completely focused on Grey’s. I don’t want to compete or compare. They’re all different. The interest means that people still like medical shows. They’re still relevant.
It’s pretty undeniable that medical shows are still doing it for TV viewers, considering all of the options out there. In addition to The Pitt and the mockumentary-style St. Denis Medical, you’ve got Fox’s Doc breaking ratings records and Doctor Odyssey taking over Grey’s Anatomy’s timeslot on ABC Thursdays. Joshua Jackson’s high-seas drama is the only one of those freshman series that has not already been renewed for a second season.
Meg Marinis might not want to compare Grey’s Anatomy to what newer shows are doing, but is it possible the longtime series could be in an evolve-or-die situation? The shift to a later timeslot has not been good for ratings, and I can’t help but think of Ellen Pompeo’s recent comments about the “repetitive nature” of their stories.
The Grey’s Anatomy star and executive producer spoke with People recently and said one of the challenges of doing the show for so long is “doing the same thing over and over.” She continued:
There’s a familiarity that people love, so we can’t change it too much. I’m always like, ‘Let’s do this and let’s do that.’ And they’re like, ‘Shut up, Ellen. We’re not doing that.’ So, people love the familiarity, and familiarity breeds contempt.
I’m really curious about what those drastic-sounding changes might be that Ellen Pompeo has pitched.
I’m one of the Grey’s Anatomy fans who has stuck around since the beginning, and I can’t say I’d be opposed to Meg Marinis and co. mixing things up a bit. I want to see Grey’s take risks and show big character arcs with wild medical cases. I don’t need 47 seasons of Teddy and Owen getting jealous over one dumb thing or another, or 25 seasons of Lucas being a nepo-baby.
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What’s more, I wonder if the showrunner will be forced to try something new in the face of more competition within the medical show genre, not to mention lower ratings due to the timeslot and budget cuts.
It will be interesting to see how many of the plethora of medical series continue to soar or if the over-abundance will lead some to the 2025 TV cancellation list. In the meantime, though, tune into Grey’s Anatomy at 10 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC and streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription, and find The Pitt with new episodes also on Thursdays on Max.
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