Revisiting the Most Shocking Exits

Ellen Pompeo (Dr. Meredith Grey)

After nearly two decades of heartbreak, laughter and a whole lot of medical emergencies, Pompeo hung up her white coat and stepped away from Grey’s Anatomy in 2023 — though not entirely.

In her final episode, “I’ll Follow the Sun,” which aired Feb. 23, 2023, fans watched as Meredith walked through her final day at Grey Sloan Memorial and prepared to move her family to Boston. The episode picked up after Meredith’s decision to leave Seattle for New England, where she accepted a position with the Catherine Fox Foundation to research Alzheimer’s disease.

Ahead of the episode, Pompeo had already stepped back from the series to pursue outside projects, including Orphan. During a December 2022 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Pompeo opened up about her reduced role, saying that she has to “mix it up a little bit.”

“I feel super happy, but listen the show has been incredible to me and I’ve loved a lot of the experience,” she shared. “I’m 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs … I gotta do something new or I’m literally gonna turn into, like, [someone who] can’t do the New York Times crossword puzzle every single day.”

The actress still serves as the series’ primary narrator and is now a recurring guest star. In April 2025, Pompeo told El País that she doesn’t plan to fully exit the medical drama because she is so intertwined with the show’s success.

“That would make no sense, emotionally or financially,” Pompeo said. “If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn’t make any money.”

She added, “To me, it doesn’t make any sense that everybody [else] gets to profit off of my hard work. And emotionally, the show means a lot to people. I want to have an attitude of gratitude toward the show.”

Katherine Heigl (Dr. Izzie Stevens)

After numerous leaves of absence from the show, Heigl exited for good when her character, Izzie, moved out of Seattle in season 6. Her departure followed comments she made shading the creative team, when she withdrew her name from Emmy consideration and told The New York Times that she “did not feel that I was given the material this season” to warrant the nomination.

In a 2016 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Heigl revealed she went to speak with the show’s creator and head writer after realizing that her comments might have offended the writers on the show.

“I went in ’cause I was really embarrassed,” she told Stern. “So I went in to Shonda and said, ‘I’m so sorry. That wasn’t cool. I should not have said that’ … I shouldn’t have said anything publicly, but at the time, I didn’t think anybody would notice. I didn’t know that journalists would see who submitted and who didn’t. I just quietly didn’t submit and then it became a story and then I felt I was obligated to make my statement and ‘shut up, Katie.’ ”

Two years earlier, in 2014, show creator Shonda Rhimes seemingly addressed Heigl’s exit and controversy surrounding the cast of the medical drama, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I don’t put up with bulls— or nasty people. I don’t have time for it,” Rhimes said of what she called her “no a-holes policy.”

Justin Chambers (Dr. Alex Karev)

After starring as Dr. Alex Karev for 16 seasons, ABC confirmed to PEOPLE on Jan. 10, 2020, that Chambers had left the beloved medical drama.

“There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” Chambers said in a statement to PEOPLE. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.”

Throughout the years, fans grew to love Alex Karev — an egotistical medical intern who blossomed into a nurturing pediatric surgeon throughout the seasons. Because Chambers’ last episode aired on Nov. 14, 2019 — he was absent from the midseason finale and it was explained that he was taking care of his ailing mother — the character did not get a send-off episode.

After months of wondering, it was later revealed that the reason Karev left Seattle — and his wife, Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) — was to move to Kansas to be with his ex-wife, Izzie Stevens, and their 5-year-old twins.

T.R. Knight (Dr. George O’Malley)

The medical drama launched Knight’s career, but in July 2009 he left due to an ongoing “breakdown of communication” with Rhimes. After getting only 48 minutes of airtime (versus the 114 Oh’s character received) in the first nine episodes of season 5, he asked to leave the show.

“My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given,” Knight told Entertainment Weekly of his character at the time.

In February 2017, though, he returned to Shondaland in the season 2 premiere of The Catch, and in December 2020, he appeared in an episode of Grey’s during one of Meredith’s dream sequences.

His character’s exit came in one of the most heartbreaking — and shocking — moments of the show. In the season 5 finale, a John Doe was rushed to the ER following a bus accident while saving a pedestrian. The doctors struggled to identify him until he traced “007” in Meredith’s palm, a nickname that revealed it was George.

Chyler Leigh (Lexie Grey)

Fans were heartbroken when Chyler Leigh’s exit in 2012 meant Lexie Grey being killed off at the end of season 8, in what will go down in history as one of the most tragic episodes of the medical drama.

After she and several of her colleagues were victims of a plane crash that occurred while on their way to perform surgery, Lexie died from her injuries while being trapped.

Following the episode, Leigh told TVLine that after making the decision that season 8 would be her last, she met with Rhimes to work together to “give Lexie’s story appropriate closure.”

“I am very lucky to have worked with this amazing cast and crew for five seasons,” she continued. “My experience on Grey’s Anatomy is something that I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

Much like Knight, Leigh reprised her role in season 17 through a series of dream sequences.

Eric Dane (Dr. Mark Sloan)

Viewers held out hope that Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), aka McSteamy, would survive the injuries he endured from the fatal plane crash that killed his love interest, Dr. Lexie Grey, in season 8. However, early on in season 9, Dr. Sloan died after his best friend Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) — the mother of his daughter — decided to take him off life support.

While that was the reason for his character’s departure onscreen, behind the scenes, Dane reportedly left after being offered a role on the series, The Last Ship, which he starred on until 2018 when the show ended.

“Grey’s Anatomy is a world — it’s not about any one individual actor, and the storylines were sort of … you know, heading in different directions,” Dane told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. “So it was an opportunity for me to go, and I was interested in something different. I loved doing Grey’s Anatomy. I would have done it until the final episode, but this was something I couldn’t pass up.”

At the time, Rhimes also spoke to TVLine about his departure, saying, “After much consideration and conversations, he and I have decided that this is the right time for his story line to end. We’re a big family here at Grey’s with a long history together and Eric will always remain an important part of our family.”

Patrick Dempsey (Dr. Derek Shepherd)

Dr. Derek Shepherd, a.k.a. McDreamy’s, death in a car accident shocked fans of the show — unless they got their hands on an early issue of Entertainment Weekly. Hours before his final episode aired in April 2015, EW subscribers received the week’s issue — containing an exit interview with Dempsey — earlier than planned. Fans erupted over the spoiler on social media, and put together an online petition, which garnered 100,000 signatures, to bring back his character.

“It was clear we were both ready. But we kept it very quiet,” Dempsey revealed to PEOPLE of his and Rhimes’ decision to let the actor go, in 2016. With no table reads, the actor said no one knew how his character would perish. “I knew he was going to be gone, but I didn’t know how she was going to handle it. Shonda just said, ‘I’m going to do it in a really good way,’ and she did her thing.”

Fans were in for a reunion made in heaven, literally, when Dane, Dempsey and Knight made guest appearances during season 17.

Sara Ramirez (Dr. Callie Torres)

Show creator Shonda Rhimes admitted she felt surprised after Ramirez announced their departure on social media in May 2016.

“I found out maybe three days before you guys found out,'” the producer said at Vulture Festival in New York City that year. “This departure, indeed, was different from all the others. It wasn’t a big, planned thing. I had a different plan going and then Sara came and said, ‘I really need to take a break.’ ”

In season 12, their character was written off when Dr. Callie Torres moved to New York with her girlfriend, Penny (Samantha Sloyan).

Jessica Capshaw (Dr. Arizona Robbins) & Sarah Drew (Dr. April Kepner)

Jessica Capshaw, who played beloved pediatrics surgeon Arizona Robbins, and Sarah Drew, who portrayed quirky trauma surgeon, confirmed on X in March 2018 that neither would be returning for season 15.

Drew then shared a message on Instagram reminiscing about her time on the show and thanking the cast and crew.

“My nine years on Grey’s Anatomy has forever shaped and changed me. I grew as an actor and as a human. I developed beautiful life long friendships,” Drew wrote. “I found my voice and learned how to collaborate creatively with our incredibly talented group of writers and with our leadership.”

Capshaw shared her own tribute on social media, specifically highlighting the significance of her character, Arizona Robbins.

“For the past 10 years, I have had the rare privilege of not only playing Arizona Robbins, but also being madly in love with playing her,” Capshaw wrote on X. “She was one of the first members of the LGBTQ community to be represented in a series regular role on network television. Her impact on the world is permanent and forever. Forever.”

She added, “I am sad to see her go, but I am consoled by the idea that she will continue to live on and on in all of our consciences and our imaginations.”

April was written off after a near-death experience that inspired her to leave Grey Sloan and focus on volunteering at a clinic for the homeless, while Arizona’s exit was framed by her moving to New York with her daughter, Sofia, to be with her newly single ex-wife, Callie Torres (Ramirez).

However, Drew later reprised her role in a 2021 episode, while Capshaw made a guest appearance as Arizona in a 2024 episode.

Isaiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke)

Isaiah Washington left the show after using a gay slur to refer to costar Knight during an on-set spat in the fall of 2006, prompting Knight to come out as gay. Though Washington apologized, he used the term again in January 2007 to deny the incident to reporters at the Golden Globes.

That June, after his character broke off his engagement to Dr. Cristina Yang and didn’t appear in the season 3 finale, ABC confirmed that Washington wouldn’t return to the series.

In 2014, Washington returned following Oh’s decision to leave the show. The reason for his comeback, according to Grey’s Anatomy creator Rhimes, had to do with closure for the actors’ characters.

“I feel like there have been a lot of people that have been like, ‘How can you do this?’ And I feel very strongly and fully believe in people’s ability to grow and change and learn from their mistakes and when they know better, to do better,” Rhimes told Entertainment Weekly. “If people don’t think that, over the course of seven years, it’s possible for a human being to change, then there really is no future for the human race at all.”

Sandra Oh (Dr. Cristina Yang)

Oh played fan-favorite Dr. Cristina Yang — a surgical intern turned cardiothoracic surgeon, and of course, Meredith’s “person” — for 10 seasons before announcing her exit in 2013. Her character left Seattle after accepting a prestigious job running a cardiothoracic department in Switzerland, which was offered to her by Burke, her ex-fiancé.

Although Oh’s character has been kept alive and mentioned throughout the show since her exit, the actress has been adamant about not returning for a cameo.

“I love that, I love that people are still [fans],” she told Entertainment Tonight in April 2024 of viewers wanting her to reprise her role. “I love that you asked me that, because Cristina Yang is, of course, near and dear to my heart. [But] I will say, not anytime soon, my love.”

Oh explained that she hopes fans “feel like I did my job, which is that I brought to life a character and she had a growth over 10 seasons, and that it was true.”

“She was ready to move on, and so have I,” Oh said.

Giacomo Gianniotti (Dr. Andrew DeLuca)

After first appearing as Dr. Andrew DeLuca in season 11, Giacomo Gianniotti left the show in season 17 when his character died on the operating table after being stabbed while trying to expose a sex trafficker.

“As tragic and as sad as that is, it was a way to have him highlighted as a noble character,” he told PEOPLE in March 2021 after the episode aired. “[He] went down fighting for what he believed in.”

The actor explained to Entertainment Weekly that it wasn’t necessarily his decision to leave. Instead, showrunner Krista Vernoff and executive producer Debbie Allen called him into their office and proposed the story line to him.

“They’re like, ‘Look, we’ve worked it a million different ways and we love you so much, you’ve given so much to the show — especially with this mental health story that we’ve been through with this character who’s so beloved by fans, and it’s helped so many people who are suffering mental illness — but this story line just keeps coming back to us,’ ” he recalled.

Gianniotti added that Vernoff felt that as a storyteller, she had a responsibility to “tell the story,” even though it made her “sad to say goodbye” to one of her “favorite actors on the show.”