Grey's Anatomy's TV Reunion With Original Cast Will Include One Unexpected Star

A Grey's Anatomy season 1 cast reunion is coming to television soon, and it features one surprising original cast member from the medical drama.

Summary

• Grey's Anatomy season 1 cast members will have a reunion at the 75th Emmy Awards.
• Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, James Pickens Jr., and Chandra Wilson will be presenters.
• Katherine Heigl will also be part of the reunion despite leaving the show under a haze of controversy midway through season 6.

A Grey's Anatomy season 1 reunion is coming soon. The long-running medical drama, which was created by Shonda Rhimes, originally premiered on ABC in 2005. Since then, it has continued uninterrupted and so far spanned 19 seasons with a total of 420 episodes, also spawning the spinoffs Private Practice (which lasted for six seasons) and Station 19 (which has also run for six seasons, with a seventh coming in March).

Per Deadline, ahead of the release of Grey's Anatomy season 20, quite a few members of the original season 1 cast have been set for a reunion. The 75th Emmy Awards, which air on Monday, January 15, will include Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey), Justin Chambers (Alex Karev), James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber), and Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey) as presenters. Katherine Heigl (Izzie Stevens) will also be part of the group, despite her controversial exit from the show in the middle of season 6.

Grey's Anatomy's Major Cast Exits Explained

Of the five cast members who will be appearing on the Emmys stage, only Wilson and Pickens Jr. will remain part of the main cast of the show in season 20. Pompeo was the most recent of the reuniting stars to leave the show, as her character moved to Boston to pursue a better education for her gifted child midway through Grey's Anatomy season 19. However, Pompeo has remained on board as the show's narrator in addition to her role as executive producer.

Wilson and Pickens Jr. have been series regulars for all 420 episodes of Grey's Anatomy so far.

Heigl, on the other hand, was the first of the five to leave. Her controversial exit during the filming of season 6 came in the wake of a controversy where she had withdrawn herself from consideration for an Emmy nomination for her performance in season 4 on the grounds of not having been given enough material that season. Though she apologized both privately and publicly, a rift between Heigl and Rhimes culminated in her eventual exit, though both have implied that the door may now be open for the possible return of Izzie.

Related

Grey's Anatomy: Why Katherine Heigl's Izzie Left In Season 6

On Grey's Anatomy, Katherine Heigl played Izzie Stevens, one of the medical drama's most popular characters. Why did the actress leave the show?

Of the five, Chambers was the next to leave. The star exited the show in season 16 to seek more diversity in his acting roles, at which point Karev had an offscreen reunion with his former wife Izzie in Kansas. While the Grey's Anatomy cast looks quite different going into season 20, the fact that this reunion is being held in the form that it is shows how much the core cast from the original seasons of the show has shaped its success, even now.

Grey's Anatomy season 20 premieres on ABC on Thursday, March 14.

Source: Deadline

Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is considered one of the great television shows of our time, winning several awards and four Emmys. The high-intensity medical drama follows Meredith Grey and the team of doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial, who are faced with life-or-death decisions on a daily basis. They seek comfort from one another, and, at times, more than just friendship. Together they discover that neither medicine nor relationships can be defined in black and white.

Release Date

March 27, 2005

Cast

Kelly McCreary , Patrick Dempsey , Kevin McKidd , Chandra Wilson , Jesse Williams , Jake Borelli , camilla luddington , Ellen Pompeo , Chyler Leigh , Eric Dane , Caterina Scorsone , Giacomo Gianniotti , Anthony Hill , Kate Walsh , Justin Chambers , Sarah Drew , Greg Germann , Martin Henderson , Katherine Heigl , T.R. Knight , Sara Ramirez , Jerrika Hinton , Richard Flood , Sandra Oh , Kim Raver , Jason George , Tessa Ferrer , Isaiah Washington , James Pickens Jr. , Gaius Charles , Chris Carmack , Brooke Smith , Jessica Capshaw

Seasons

19

Story By

shonda rhimes

Writers

Shonda Rhimes , Julie Wong , Jen Klein , Tameson Duffy , Meg Marinis

Directors

Rob Corn , Kevin McKidd , Debbie Allen , Chandra Wilson , Allison Liddi-Brown , Jeannot Szwarc , Tony Phelan

Showrunner

Meg Marinis