News that ABC plans to further commingle the Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 universes has drawn a strong rebuke from fans (TVLine included), but the network’s top exec is now clarifying the merger plan.
Last May, shortly after announcing that current Grey’s showrunner Krista Vernoff would also be taking the helm of Station 19, ABC’s entertainment president Karey Burke revealed that when the spinoff returns to its post-Grey’s at midseason there would be a weekly “crossover event” between the two shows.
Burke now concedes that she misspoke. “I did not intend to say that every week there would be a crossover [event],” the exec tells TVLine. Instead, Burke says there will be “several [Grey’s/Station 19] crossover events” throughout the coming season, adding, “To do a crossover every week would dilute the special nature of them. I think it’s going to be three or four peppered throughout the season.”
That said, Burke says that under Vernoff the two shows will — generally speaking — feel “more blended.” To that end, she reveals that an inter-show romance will blossom this season between a Grey’s character and a Station 19 character, although she did not reveal the identity of said characters.
The decision to more closely merge the two series makes sense seeing as how every time ABC staged a Grey’s/Station 19 crossover the ratings for both programs ticked up. But some fans worried that weekly doses of Station 19 on Grey’s would dilute the mothership. “Don’t bring Grey’s down!” bemoaned TVLine reader Grace. “I’m not a fan of Station 19. I’ve tried but just can’t get into it. I don’t think trying to force Grey’s fans to watch Station 19 is the way to go at all.”
Burke stresses that Grey’s fans need not worry, explaining that “Station 19 will likely feel more like Grey’s” but not the other way around. “The goal is not to have Grey’s feel more like Station. The goal is to extend the DNA of Grey’s to Station in a more significant way.
“It’s so smartly constructed,” Burke declares. “Both shows will absolutely stand alone. But fans of both shows will get that extra gravy of knowing they are watching crossovers.”
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