★ ABC President, Channing Dungey, says she wants Grey’s Anatomy to continue for several more seasons, and highlights the interest people have in Alex and Meredith’s relationship.

At the Television Critics Association’s press tour, EW sat down with Dungey to get her take on the future of Grey’s Anatomy, which is currently in its 13th season. By comparison, NBC’s stalwart medical series ER ran for 15 seasons, which Dungey hopes the flagship Shonda Rhimes drama can rival.

“That’d be lovely,” Dungey says. “I’ll take even more! Honestly, I think that the show is going to continue as long as Shonda and the gang have a creative passion for telling those stories. At the moment, it feels like we’re full steam ahead.”

In its 13th season, Grey’s Anatomy continues to be one of the network’s longest running and most successful current scripted series, averaging 11.6 million viewers and a 3.7 in the 18-49 demo, slightly down from this time last year (12 million, 3.9), but still making it the fourth biggest entertainment show after The Big Bang Theory, Empire, and This Is Us. Even Derek’s (Patrick Dempsey) death in season 11 didn’t slow the show down, giving it a creative resurgence as Grey’s was able to explore new life for Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).

What does Grey’s need to do next to keep viewers coming back? “What Shonda and the team at Grey’s have really been able to do over time is continue to bring in new characters that give the series additional life and energy while remaining true to the core cast of characters,” Dungey says. “When I’ve been looking at the fan feedback and reaction from this season, people are more interested than ever in the relationship between Meredith and Alex [Justin Chambers], and these are two characters that have been around since season 1. But we’re now experiencing them in a totally different way than we have before. That’s just what the writers do so well; they continually peel back new layers of these characters that we get to expand and explore.”

 
★ Grey’s Anatomy returns tomorrow night on ABC (and CTV for Canadian viewers). Check out the promo for the TGIT lineup which includes Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder.

The People’s Choice Awards were handed out last night in Los Angeles, and the bad news is that Justin didn’t attend the awards this year. 😞

The good news is that Grey’s Anatomy, once again, won the award for Favorite Network TV Drama! Congrats to the entire cast & crew! 🎉

But the absolute BEST news is that Justin won the award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor!!! 👏 🎉
Congratulations, Justin!😊 You have more than earned the award. It’s well-deserved & long overdue! 🎊 🙌 🎉 👍

Justin’s Grey’s co-star, Jesse Williams, who was also up for the Favorite Dramatic TV Actor award, tweeted a congratulatory message.

FACT: @7JustinChambers is your favorite cast member's favorite cast member. CONGRATS to the 2017 #PCAs Favorite Dramatic TV Actor!! #MyGuy

— jesse Williams. (@iJesseWilliams) January 19, 2017

Thanks to the fans who joined me in voting for Justin to win the award. I know I probably got annoying with all the voting posts here at the site, on Twitter and on the Facebook page, but it worked. WE DID IT! 😁

★ Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to return on January 19th. However, ABC announced on Monday that the return of the TGIT lineup has been pushed back a week and will instead be on January 26th. The change in schedule is due to a pre-inauguration 20/20 special. 😒

As Entertainment Weekly explains:

The winter premieres of Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder, as well as the season 6 premiere of Scandal have been pushed a week from Thursday, Jan. 19 until Thursday, Jan. 26 due to a pre-inauguration 20/20 special airing on ABC News.

The one-hour special, America’s First Family: The Trumps Go to Washington, will air at 10 p.m. ET, preceded by repeats of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal at 8 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET, respectively. The move was made to ensure TGIT would return with three original episodes.

TGIT will officially return Thursday, Jan. 26, with Grey’s Anatomy at 8 p.m. ET, Scandal at 9 p.m. ET and How to Get Away with Murder at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

★ A visitor on the set of Grey’s Anatomy this Monday posted a short video of Justin during a break from filming episode 13.15. The video contains a big spoiler, so I’m putting it under a cut. Click on the link if you want to check it out.

Eleven years later (yes, eleven!), Grey’s Anatomy will once again be at PaleyFest on March 19th at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

PaleyFest panels feature a discussion with the casts and producers of today’s hit shows, including questions from the audience. There’s no confirmation as to who from Grey’s will be present, but it’s a great opportunity to see and hear cast/producers.

Tickets sales are as follows:

🔸 PRESALE Jan. 9: For Paley Supporting/Patron Members and Citi cardmembers
🔸 PRESALE Jan. 11: For Individual Members
🔹 Jan. 12 – open to the General Public

For more information and to purchase tickets, click on this link: PaleyFest LA 2017

TV Guide posted previews for returning Winter shows including Grey’s Anatomy. Read below what awaits when the show returns on January 19th.

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)

Premieres: Thursday, Jan. 19 at 8/7c

Where We Left Off: Convinced she didn’t want to try having more children, Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) left Owen (Kevin McKidd) and told him via a note not to come after her. Jo (Camilla Luddington) finally confessed to Alex (Justin Chambers) that she’s married to an abusive man and changed her name so that she could escape him, and Alex contemplated turning himself in to spend two years in prison for assaulting DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti). And newcomer Eliza Minnick (Marika Dominczyk) got flirty with Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) and indicated that she’s prepared to take over from Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.), causing the Grey Sloan staff to rally behind their longtime leader.

What’s Next: According to Kevin McKidd, Owen will ignore Amelia’s request and go after his wife – though whether they’ll be able to reconcile remains up in the air. “There comes a time where enough’s enough,” McKidd notes. “She was almost a runaway bride at the wedding, and now she’s running again. … This kind of on-again-off-again thing can’t go on forever.” Meanwhile, at the hospital, battle lines are drawn as Minnick faces off with Webber, and no one feels more caught in the middle than Arizona, who continues to struggle with her feelings for Dr. Minnick and her loyalty to Webber. “As long as Eliza represents Richard Webber in any way, shape or form being ousted or compromised, then [Arizona’s] not going to be able to wholeheartedly jump into something that feels fresh and new exciting without feeling sort of apologetic about it,” Jessica Capshaw explains. “[She’s] feeling like, ‘Man, really, I’m going to have to pass this up? … This stinks.” And, though no one will know what decision Alex comes to until the show returns, Capshaw promises that the repercussions from his actions won’t end with him choosing whether or not to go to jail. For starters, will he ever be able to work at Grey Sloan again? “A lot hinges on whether or not he’s going to be able to disentangle himself from this mess,” Capshaw says.

Grey’s Anatomy returns in a little under two weeks! Check out the synopsis and the promo for the midseason premiere on January 19th below.
The rest of the TGIT lineup (Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder) returns that night as well, and the TGIT promo is also below.

THE DOCTORS FROM GREY SLOAN MEMORIAL ARE FACED WITH AN EMERGENCY SITUATION WHILE VISITING A MAXIMUM-SECURITY PRISON WHEN AN ALL-NEW EPISODE OF ABC’S ‘GREY’S ANATOMY’ RETURNS THURSDAY, JANUARY 19

“You Can Look (But You’d Better Not Touch)”- Bailey, Arizona and Jo go to a maximum security women’s prison to treat a violent, 16-year-old pregnant girl and her unborn baby, on the midseason premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy,” THURSDAY, JANUARY 19 (8:00-9:01 p.m. EST), on the ABC Television Network.

This will be the final voting reminder for the People’s Choice Awards 2017 because it ends tomorrow: Thursday, Dec. 15 at 11:59 PM, ET.

Voting is unlimited so let’s vote as much as we can for Justin to win the PCA for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor. 💪😎 Link to vote is below.

Grey’s Anatomy is also up for the Favorite TV Show and Favorite Network TV Drama awards. Justin’s co-star Ellen Pompeo is up for the Favorite Dramatic TV Actress award. I’ll leave links for the Grey’s-related categories below, too.