The ABC hit medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy has been on television since 2005. With 18 seasons already on air, star and producer Ellen Pompeo is finally ready to say goodbye to Meredith Grey. In an interview with Insider, Pompeo explains why she’s ready to end the series.

“I’ve been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end,” Pompeo said. “I feel like I’m the super naive one who keeps saying, ‘But what’s the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?’” she continued. “And everyone’s like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars.’”

Pompeo even told Entertainment Tonight on the Emmys red carpet in September 2021 that she’s “been trying to get away for years.”

“I have been trying. It’s not because I haven’t been trying,” she said. “I have strong relationships at the network, and they have been very, very good to me and incentivized me to stay.” “Miraculously, we keep coming up with ways to have a reason to stay,” Pompeo added. “And if there’s a reason, that warrants it.”

Despite the many calls for cancellation by Pompeo, there’s only one person who decides to pull the plug on the show and that is none other than the creator, writer, and executive producer of the show, Shonda Rhimes.

“Am I the person who decides when the show is over? Yes. And I take full responsibility for that when or if everybody gets mad at me,” she said. “I’ve written the end of that series, I want to say, a good eight times,” she said. “I was like, ‘And that will be the end!’ Or, ‘That’ll be the final thing that’s ever said or done!’ And all of those things have already happened. So I give up on that, you know what I mean?”

Many fans believe that the series should’ve ended after the demise of Derek Shepherd played by Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey played Pompeo’s love interest and husband on the show. According to an excerpt from How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, published by The Hollywood Reporter, Dempsey leaving the show had a lot to do with his alleged infighting with Costar Ellen Pompeo and creator of the show Shonda Rhimes. Before the departure of the famous McDreamy, many other favorite cast members had already exited the show such as Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Eric Dane, T.R. Knight, Chyler Leigh, and more. Out of the original cast members, only 3 still remain on the show including Pompeo.

Critics have also accused the show of having weak storylines that have derailed the plot more than once. One viewer went as far as to call the show “dumpster [fire] trash.”

“Seventeen seasons we can’t please everyone all the time. It’s definitely not easy keeping it going and keeping it great... I get it,” Pompeo responded in a tweet.

As a show that immediately became a success overnight back in 2005 and has created characters that are beloved all over the world, it can be hard to create a long-lasting goodbye that encapsulates 18 seasons worth of relationships, drama, failures, hardships, and more. However, if any show can do it, it’s this one.