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It's official: Justin, Chandra, James, and Kevin have all reached new deals.

He basically says the cast was very welcoming, warm, etc. They made him feel part of the family right away. He's heard that they're going to pick up pretty much exactly where they left off when season 13 starts. Otherwise it's generally just fun banter. He talks about being in the Toxic video and making out with Britney Spears.

Just when I think this show can't get any funnier (or more ruthless), it one-ups itself. Salina's takedown of that Colorado congresswoman near the end had me in absolute stitches, I had to rewind. "....you're gonna look like a hair-sprayed asshole in your 1980s Mother of the Bride dress. And If I do win, I will have my administration come to your shitty little district and shake it to death like a Guatemalan nanny. And then I'm gonna have the IRS crawl so far up your husband's colon, he's gonna wish the only thing they find is more cancer... so can I count on your vote, or do I need to shove a box of White House M&M's up your stretched-out six-baby vag?" Jonah's story is great, and it was great to se Patton show up again. I also love everything about the Catherine / Marjorie story.

A friend of mine just started the series on Netflix and I spent some time with her over the weekend and caught a good long chunk of season 2 episodes. I really, really miss the days of George, Izzie, Burke, etc. It also really drove home what I have said about the series for years now: it works best with a tighter cast and when everyone is somehow connected. Now generally I say it works best with Meredith as the anchor, but even beyond that - the earliest seasons, even outside of Meredith, every character had great interactions. George / Addison, Bailey / Mark, Burke / Meredith, Derek / Richard... everyone in the cast got enough screen time to keep their stories and development moving along at an acceptable pace, and everyone had unique relationships with everyone else in the cast. These days it feels like we're just watching a bunch of random doctors in a hospital, and many of the relationships are so contrived (the 'sisters' thing will forever drive me nuts.) I can't remember a single interaction between Steph and Callie, for example. I can't fathom why DeLuca was ever made a regular. I had really hoped that the end of this season would see a few characters departing... unfortunately, much of the dead weight stuck around and instead we lost Callie (which, I know, was out of Shonda's hands.) To me, there's nothing exciting or interesting about DeLuca, Steph, Ben, etc. I also don't really have any vested interest in Maggie or Amelia. I wish that somewhere along the line they took the time to integrate Jo with the cast better, instead of just adding in even more new characters. As much as the writers may try this year, I don't know that I'll ever fully warm up to Jo at this point because the ball has just been dropped for so long. When there are so many storylines going on at once, it always results in the stories either being rushed, too slow, or not given enough development. I miss when every character appeared in every episode for a good chunk of time. I miss when - even if I disliked a character - I understood their motivations and I was down to watch their journey. I know change is inevitable, and I realize new blood is always needed especially in a show like this, but with 4 of the original stars still around, I hope there's a conscious effort in S13 to really give Meredith, Alex, Richard and Bailey some focus. Play off of their history. I really hope we don't get any new regulars this year. The cast is already so bloated and there's more than enough to work with.

I'm not sure what I hope for Arizona at this point. I don't mind that she was 'slutting around' because we know that before Callie she slept around a lot, but it would be nice to see her get into another stable relationship. I hope they don't just show it sporadically, though... these characters only really get stories when they're relationship-based, somehow, so I hope we actually get to see it bloom onscreen (rather than how Callie fell madly in love with Penny before we even knew who she was.) Totally agree about Cross. I've been saying that for a while.... DeLuca served no purpose this season. I thought Cross was at least funny and different from most of the other male presence on the show. I hope we see more of him. Ditto for Steph. I so, so wish her other show got picked up. She just doesn't feel like an important part of the cast. Her story this season seemed so far removed from anything else going on, and it had no real emotional impact. I'm not eager to see what they have planned for her at all.

Ellen Pompeo: Nathan is not another McDreamy Also from TVLine: I hope we don't rush into an Owen / Amelia baby storyline. I know they both want it, but we just had back-to-back seasons with April pregnancies, we've had Meredith pregnant multiple times... maybe hold off on the baby and just explore their relationship for a while. The past two seasons have been so back and forth with them, and the wedding already seemed rushed. A baby can be their happy ending in S15 (or whenever the show ends.)

These days, anything above a 1.5 in the demo (with live viewers) is good, honestly. Which is sad, because that would mean automatic cancelation just a few years ago. But young people aren't watching TV live anymore. The Catch got picked up solely because it's a Shonda property, it seems. The ratings were bad, especially considering it was heavily promoted and part of TGIT. I think S2 may get pushed to summer '17 or just be used to fill gaps in the schedule. I doubt it will return to TGIT until Notorious bombs. When you look at the decline of Empire compared to Scandal / HTGAWM, it's not so big at all (-10% VS. -24% & -30%). I don't think the decline would have anything to do with a gay storyline, considering Empire was focusing on a gay character right from the pilot episode and told those stories throughout S1. The first season was an anomaly: it increased in ratings every episode after the pilot, which has never happened in the age of Neilson ratings tracking. It had nowhere to go but down. -10% is, like I said, quite good considering. It had the 2nd smallest rate of decline among top 10 scripted shows behind only Grey's.

I suppose that could be why Lexi ended up crushed under an airplane engine rather than getting a Preminger grant...

So, the 2015 / 2016 season is officially over. TvLine has listed the top-rated shows with Live+7 DVR playback data. TOP RETURNING DRAMA | 18-49 DEMO 1 | Empire, FOX (6.4, including any available Live+7 DVR playback) 2 | The X-Files, FOX (4.8) 3 | Grey’s Anatomy, ABC (3.6) 4 | How to Get Away With Murder, ABC (3.5) 5 | Scandal, ABC (3.4) TOP 10 OVERALL BY DEMO NBC Sunday Night Football, NBC (7.5, +3% year over year) Empire, Fox (6.4, -10%) The Big Bang Theory, CBS (5.8, -11%) Thursday Night Football, CBS/NFL (5.7, -3%) The X-Files, FOX (4.8, NA) The OT, FOX (4.4, -4%) Grey’s Anatomy, ABC (3.6, -8%) How to Get Away With Murder, ABC (3.5, -30%) Modern Family, ABC (3.4, -37%) Scandal, ABC (3.4, -24%) Grey's Anatomy was the 4th highest rated scripted show on television in the demo overall this year behind only Empire, The Big Bang Theory, and the X-Files limited run revival. Kudos.

It's on there... near the bottom with an 0.8

Grey's had the highest rated season finale on ABC this year (!!!!). The major draw of this season was certainly Meredith's story: I don't think Grey's could continue on without her, especially now that Callie is gone as well. Certainly a number of fans don't love Meredith, but this series has (since its inception) been her story at its core. Again, I get that many fans watch specifically for other characters or couples (April / Jackson, Alex, Callie / Arizona, etc.), but without Meredith I think it all falls apart. She is the title character and the main POV of the show. Anyway, here is a rundown of how ABCs finales did this year, for reference. I believe Grey's is the only ABC series to rise from last years' finale. Drama series are bolded: - Grey's Anatomy: 2.3 -Modern Family: 2.1 -The Goldbergs: 1.9 -Scandal: 1.8 -The Middle: 1.6 -Black-ish: 1.5 -HTGAWM: 1.4 -Castle: 1.3 -Fresh Off The Boat: 1.2 -Once Upon a Time: 1.2 -The Real O'Neals: 1.1 -Last Man Standing: 1.0 -Quantico: 1.0 -Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 1.0 -Dr.Ken: 0.9 -American Crime: 0.9 -The Muppets: 0.9 -Nashville: 0.8 -The Catch: 0.8 -Blood & Oil: 0.8 -Agent Carter: 0.7 -Galavant: 0.6 -Of Kings & Prophets: 0.5 -Wicked City: 0.4

As @pennben pointed out, we didn't get a whole lot of spoilers this season, so I didn't want anyone coming in here to speculate the day before the finale and being surprised by reading anything that they didn't want to (even though it IS the spoiler thread.) I figured since the spoilers were coming from me rather than an actual media source or the cast, it was best to just exercise an extra bit of caution. I've worked with the media for a few years and Grey's screeners are VERY rare - this is the first I've gotten in 4 years, and ABC gives out basically every episode of nearly every other show. I tried my best to tease without giving anything away. I especially didn't want the Callie spoiler leaking out to Twitter.

That's why I said Meredith / the stories (i.e. the fact that Derek was killed and that she is moving on.) Certainly many of those complaining were Meredith/Derek fans, no doubt, but there's an equal amount of people out there who dislike the Meredith character and tweet equally vile things. Sadly people do the same to many other actors on the show, too. What I mean is that people are misdirecting their anger at the storylines and characters and focusing it on the actors and Shonda, which is wrong. I agree 100% that it's time for the media to move on and let them all stop talking about the Dempsey thing. I do get it - this entire season was bound to be the 'post-McDreamy' season. I think what you pointed out was exactly what frustrated Ellen and Shonda... when Sandra left, there wasn't a similar out-cry of 'the show must end now!' People acted like without Dempsey, Grey's was dead. I hope that by the time press for S13 starts they've moved on.

I was generalizing about the reactions - mostly on Twitter - than Ellen and Shonda received after Dempsey was killed off. If I was speaking directly to you I would have quoted you. I believe a great deal of the reaction they received was indeed insane, as is a lot of what "fans" put out on Twitter when they're unhappy. Sending death threats because you're unhappy that a character was killed off is outrageous. I didn't mean to single you out because of your stance in this thread. Apologies if you felt offended.

I think Shonda has said that when it ends, it will be because her and Ellen mutually decide to end it. There's no Grey's Anatomy without Meredith Grey - if she had left back in S6 or even S8, maybe... but not now.

It's ridiculous for people to be so upset with Ellen and Shonda... over what? Things get taken out of context all the time. Let's not forget that we're all here on a message board discussing a show that Ellen has worked hard to deliver to us for 12 years now. And a show that Shonda created. I think a little bit of respect is warranted for both of them. People are so full of faux outrage. Seems to me like they're taking a dislike for Meredith / the stories out on the actress and Shonda. Neither of them has had anything but kind things to say about Dempsey. Shonda at one point said something to the effect of 'he didn't have much to do' in the later seasons, which was true. I believe it was born out of frustration at how insane cruel people were being. He was a major part of the shows success, no one denied that, but he hadn't been driving the story for years. Both Shonda and Ellen have gone on and on praising Dempsey and his contributions to the show since his exit. Like @windsprints said, it seems like some fans wouldn't be happy until Ellen quit or essentially called Shonda a demon for her decision. It's ridiculous. The conspiracy theories people come up with regarding Shonda and how she treats cast / characters is verging on lunatic, and it's disheartening. By all accounts, Grey's is one of the happiest sets on TV. The cast all seem to love their job and love going to work for Shonda.

But Cristina WAS at the funeral (they even had a stand-in holding Meredith's hand who they confirmed was supposed to be Cristina) and Alex said they didn't talk after Cristina left.

Of course she knew fans would be upset, but it was a better option than having him leave Meredith or just continue working away off-screen. They needed to finish their story with a way for Meredith's story to continue on.

For one, this season was a lot lighter and more fun. People continue to catch up on Netflix and fall in love with the characters. I don't think Shonda is trying to make fans unhappy, that's silly. PD + SR exiting is out of her control. April / Jackson got a happy ending this season, as did Owen / Amelia, Ben / Bailey. There has to be drama... this is a soap. I've never watched for only one character, nor do I take the show too seriously, so I guess that's why I've enjoyed this season a lot. I've liked seeing Meredith navigate her life post-McDreamy and I'm ever more looking forward to a possible relationship with Riggs next year.

Grey's did 2.3 and 8.12 Million viewers. That means it's UP from the finale last year (2.2) which is virtually unheard of these days. It managed to go all season without going below a 2.0 (last season it hit 1.9) It may have been the only drama on broadcast to NOT hit a series low this year, which is incredible. Huge kudos to the cast & crew for working so hard and entertaining so many people this year :) Also - it bested Modern Family and was ABCs highest rated series this week!

Thanks for this - I was wondering if when the series ended, were Amelia and Addison still very close?

I hope they really dig into this next season, honestly. At this point I don't see how they could gloss over it. They've never given Jo / Alex a season-ending story like this before... it's always been something sort of romantic. This is an actual STORY so I have some hope. Is it sort of soapy and a bit over-the-top for my taste, but I'll take it. I hope that with Callie gone (sigh) we get some real focus on them next year. I didn't watch PP closely, just caught the odd episode after Grey's. I could never really get into it. If I'm right, the sisters live in different areas (someone correct me?) I think it seemed to mostly have to do with the idea that Amelia is a junkie and her family thought she was rushing into this so they didn't want to support it... that's what I got from the phone call at the beginning. It probably has a lot more to do with the actors who play her sisters + mother lol.

Perhaps, but she didn't have to do that. A terrible person would have said "you're right, I don't like you." Meredith offered to be there for her. Her family wouldn't even be there, but Meredith was. She was by Amelia's side all day when no one else was.

Mer was definitely a bit out of line last week... but the worst person ever? Amelia wanted to run - that isn't on Meredith. She offered to walk her down the aisle or go with her if she wanted to leave. Amelia chose to leave. She also didn't engage in any type of love triangle... she slept with a guy who her sister later revealed she had a crush on.