Grey's Anatomy has been a phenomenally successful series for ABC over the last 13 years, and it has already produced one hit spinoff. Now, ABC has given an order for a brand new spinoff of Grey's, and it sounds pretty promising. The spinoff will follow the lives of a group of Seattle firefighters. The network has ordered the project straight to series.
The new show will chronicle the lives of the folks in one Seattle firehouse. The brave men and women who risk everything for the good of others must try to balance their lives and loves with their duty. We'll see characters ranging from a seasoned captain to a new recruit as they attempt to keep going against nearly impossible odds. Basically, it sounds like Grey's Anatomy, just set in a firehouse.
The straight-to-series order is a big show of faith from ABC in the new project, which does not yet have a title. That said, the order doesn't come as a huge surprise. The spinoff hails from Shonda Rhimes, who has launched some of ABC's most successful series, including Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. Throw in the fact that Rhimes already proved capable of launching a successful spinoff thanks to Private Practice, and a straight-to-series order is a relatively safe gamble. Rhimes is on board as executive producer, along with Betsy Beers and Stacy McKee, who will also write for the show.
The straight-to-series bodes well both for the new show and for Grey's Anatomy. Spinoffs are often tested via backdoor pilots that introduce audiences to characters and plots, and those backdoor pilots don't always work all that well as the new characters take over from the leads. The spinoff may be able to avoid a clunky backdoor pilot since nobody needs to worry about whether or not it will move forward. The transition could be pretty seamless.
The firefighter series is definitely going to be a different kind of spinoff than Private Practice, which took an established character from Grey's and shipped her off to a different city far away from Seattle, making crossovers relatively rare. This new spinoff will be set in the same city as Grey's and probably feature a lineup of brand new characters, unless one of the good doctors of Grey Sloan suddenly decides to pursue a career in firefighting. Given how often things tend to explode into chaos in and around Grey Sloan, I'd say that crossovers between the spinoff and Grey's could happen somewhat regularly, even if only by virtue of character cameos.
We'll have to wait and see. ABC hasn't announced when the spinoff will debut, and it doesn't appear on the new 2017-2018 fall schedule. Of course, considering last week's insane Grey's Anatomy cliffhanger, there's a chance we'll get to see folks from the spinoff's firehouse in this week's Season 13 finale. Only time will tell.
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