Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Takes a Surprising Turn With New Premiere Date

Just a couple of months before its fall TV shows start rolling out, ABC decided to shake up its schedule by moving up the release dates of several of its high-profile series. One of them was Grey’s Anatomy: the long-running medical series, originally set for an October 16 debut, will now kick off its landmark Season 22 a week early. Fans of the show will return to the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital on October 9. The new season will be spread across 18 episodes, per Deadline.

Even though one week might not seem like much, for fans it makes all the difference in the world. Season 21 of the show ended — in true Grey’s Anatomy fashion — on a major cliffhanger. A patient, played by Yellowstone‘s Piper Perabo, went haywire inside the hospital and threatened to detonate the gas tank. The season ended in an explosion, and so far, we don’t know who has survived and who died. However, it all points to long-time cast members Chandra Wilson (Station 19), Kevin McKidd (It Ends with Us), and James Pickens, Jr. (The X-Files) returning for another run.

Additionally, Ellen Pompeo (Good American Family) is set to guest star once again. Earlier this year, series’ showrunner Meg Marinis commented that the team wanted Meredith Grey to be back for at least seven episodes, just like she did in Season 21. The showrunner also revealed that the series has an “open door policy” with Pompeo, suggesting that the actor is allowed to return whenever she wants. Furthermore, Pompeo continues providing voice-over narration for almost every episode of the series.

Who Survived the End of Grey’s Anatomy Season 21?

Marinis indicated that the idea for the Season 21 finale was to have pretty much every character inside the hospital when the bomb went off, so that fans would be desperate to find out who died and who survived in Season 22. The showrunner gave a few hints earlier this year and mentioned that the only ones who weren’t in the hospital were Meredith (Pompeo), Ben (Jason George), and probably Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington). Aside from the trio, no one else is safe until the October 9 episode debuts.

Even Shonda Rhimes hinted at the explosive season finale in a lengthy interview earlier this year. The series creator and former showrunner revealed that she is as surprised as everyone else that the show has been running for this long and teased the Season 21 finale. She stated:

“Meg has really earned the right to end the show, so I don’t know. I’m always excited to see what she comes up with. She just pitched me the finale of this season and I was so excited by it. I was so proud of her. It’s such a good one.”