‘Everyone Gets to Make Money from My Hard Work But Me’: Ellen Pompeo Says ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Still Profits Off Her Work — And She’s Not Walking Away Without Her Cut
Actress Ellen Pompeo is clear on her reason for not leaving “Grey’s Anatomy” after 20 years of starring in the medical procedural drama created by Shonda Rhimes. And it has everything to do with not leaving money on the table.
The ABC success is currently in its 21st season. Pompeo has played physician Meredith Grey since the series debut in 2005. In 2022, she renegotiated the terms of her contract, allowing for her to appear in fewer episodes as she explored new career endeavors.
Four years earlier, in 2018, she successfully negotiated a massive pay raise earning her a reported $575,000 per episode, in other words, $20 million annually.
She is currently the lead of the limited series “Good American Family.” In an April feature for EL PAÍS, a daily newspaper in Spain, Pompeo shared, “I was just looking for something that was very different from Meredith Grey” when she accepted the latest gig.
“I’ve been doing it for 20 years, so it was time to step away,” she added. But her definitive departure has no date. “That would make no sense, emotionally or financially. The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024. More than a billion times. The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces,” she told the publication.
Furthermore, Pompeo, 55, 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. 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.”
A fan on X supported her stance. They wrote, “She said: the show ends with me or it doesn’t end at all. and i respect it.” A second person wondered if the actress’ motive was selfish. “Is she prioritizing profit over creativity and the show’s legacy?” read their assessment.
A third user tweeted, “I stopped watching years ago. George left the show then they killed her character’s sister and McSteamy. When he died that was the last episode I watched. They made Derricks character boring. Got tired of Meredith whining.”
Rhimes revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she prepared a series finale for the first eight seasons. “I have zero endings for ‘Grey’s’ now,” she said in the article published in March 2025. Years prior, though, her thoughts were different.
she said: the show ends with me or it doesn’t end at all. and i respect it pic.twitter.com/v2D8fpFrdw
— eri˚❀*·ꕤ. (@eternalcumslimz) April 15, 2025
The Emmy-nominated writer-producer recalled, “I was like, “This could be the finale, this could be it,” but it wasn’t. So after a while I just started writing those things that I thought would happen at the end into the show, because it wasn’t ending.”
In 2015, she stepped down as showrunner, making way for Meg Marinis to become her successor and potentially the person who will be tasked with giving the program a proper sendoff whenever the day comes.