Ask the Romance Doctor - I'm confused. What am I watching Thursday nights with Grey's Anatomy?

March 14, 2024

So it's almost Thursday night - what shows am I watching again?.

Answer from Carina:

You aren't wrong to be confused. The season is starting late because of the writers strike and 9-1-1 moved from Fox to ABC.

Here's your line-up for ABC/Hulu on Thursday nights.

9-1-1: 8pm/7pm central

Grey's Anatomy: 9pm/8pm central

Station 19: 10pm/9pm central

Each show should have about 10 episodes.

Around 10 episodes? Isn't a normal season longer than that?

The writers and actors strike of 2023 delayed writing, and filming didn't start until late fall 2023. Most regular TV seasons around September through May and are usually around 22 episodes. In this case we are getting essentially a half a season of all three shows.

We only get 10 episodes of all three shows?

Gray's Anatomy and Station 19 are both already set up to have 10 episodes each. Station 19 hits episode 100 on episode 5. It is unclear whether or not the big grays crossover episode is going to be that episode or the series finale. No comments thus far if there's going to be a double sized station 19 episode but those are usually counted as two episodes.

9-1-1 is a different beast altogether because they are not connected to the greater Gray's Anatomy universe, and right now they are rumored to be doing 10 to 12 episodes. It is also in season and will hit 100 episodes on episode 4.

Does something special happen at Episode 100?

In the past, it used to be that on episode 100, a show became eligible to go into syndication on another channel like TNT. 100 episodes were useful because it let the channels play one episode a day for 20 weeks. Grey's Anatomy has over 400 episodes and is shown in three hour blocks a day on Lifetime.

It's less important now because shows enter syndication before the 100 episode mark. 9-1-1 entered at 88 episodes.

Okay, I meant on the shows. What can we expect?

Based on how Grey's Anatomy and other shows like ER and Scrubs have done their milestone episodes, you can expect a huge disaster, a marriage, a death.

Peter Krause from Six Feet Under, Jennifer Love Hewitt from Ghost Whisperer, Connie Britton from Nashville, Kenneth Choi from Spiderman: Homecoming. There's a gazillion others including an actress from Fifty Shades Freed, but you might have to catch up on another 100 episodes.

(Rob Lowe is NOT on 9-1-1 - he's on 9-1-1: Lone Star, which is still on FOX if you're confused.)

If I'm not ready for 100 episodes, what do you suggest I do?

Well, TV rots your brain and since there's probably not going to be a tsunami this week, take your time to read a fun bundle of Steamy Happily Ever After Romances!