ABC's New Medical Series Delay Is Fantastic News For Grey's Anatomy

Published Nov 9, 2026, 3:00 PM EST Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. The news that the medical drama’s as-yet-untitled Texas-set spinoff has been delayed is surprisingly good for Grey's Anatomy, ABC’s long-running medical drama franchise. Even if the more recent HBO medical drama The Pitt might be getting more critical acclaim right now, it is tough to beat Grey's Anatomy when it comes to sheer longevity in the genre. The show has outlasted two of its biggest inspirations, E.R. and St. Elsewhere, by a long stretch. St. Elsewhere lasted six seasons, while E.R.’s 15-season run seemed impressive until Grey’s Anatomy managed a commanding 23-season run. Admittedly, the anarchic animated comedy The Simpsons might have stopped the show from coming close to being crowned the longest running scripted series ever, but Grey’s Anatomy is still the longest running scripted primetime show on ABC right now. Grey's Anatomy has also spawned not one, but two spinoffs in its time, Station 19 and Private Practice. Both shows have since finished their runs, but the upcoming Texas-set spinoff of Grey's Anatomy is set to expand the show’s fictional universe even further. However, one delay in production means this expansion won’t arrive on screens quite yet. The spinoff show has, like Bugs Bunny infamously didn’t, taken a turn to Albuquerque. Grey’s Anatomy's Texas Spinoff Delay Explained ABC Grey’s Anatomy's Texas-set spinoff was set to premiere in mid-season 2027, but the show has since been pushed back to the 2027-2028 season to facilitate a change in shooting location, according to Deadline. The spinoff was originally set to shoot in Los Angeles, but two failed California tax credit applications led the creators to uproot the spinoff and opt to instead shoot the show in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This marks the first time that the franchise has left the state of California, as noted by producer Betsy Beers during her testimony at an Assembly Committee hearing in North Hollywood. Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, and Station 19 were all filmed in Los Angeles, as were two unrelated shows produced by Beers and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, even though these series were set in Washington DC. This loyalty to the shooting location evidently didn’t pay off for the creators, prompting the spinoff to move to New Mexico to avail of the state's tax credits for productions. This means that Grey’s Anatomy's Texas spinoff will arrive later than planned, and the show’s premise proves it was already set to be a major departure for the franchise. The series, set in rural West Texas, follows the lives of the team running a medical center that acts as the last available hospital in this remote, isolated setting. Grey's Anatomy's Texas Delay Allows For A Proper ABC Medical Block MovieStillsDB Although it might seem like bad news for Grey's Anatomy’s spinoff to face this delay, this could ironically improve the show’s chances. Unless ABC cancels Grey's Anatomy in the intervening year, which seems vanishingly unlikely given its longevity and popularity, the delays mean that flagship and spinoff can go back-to-back for fall next year, an approach already taken by the 9-1-1 franchise with some of its spinoff shows. This would provide ABC with a proper substantial block of medical drama, bolstering the spinoff’s chances by tying its fate to the original show while also reminding viewers that Grey's Anatomy is still going strong after all these years. By bringing back viewers who might have dropped off following Grey's Anatomy or forgotten about the drama throughout its two-and-a-half decade existence, the spinoff can strengthen the franchise as a whole and gain a fan base of its own. All of this would have been trickier if the spinoff was a mid-season replacement, as was originally planned. From the early and infamously divisive departure of Katherine Heigl to the later exit of Grey’s Anatomy heartthrob Patrick Dempsey, who now stars in Fox’s thriller Memory of a Killer, the long-running series has been subject to countless cast upheavals over the decades. While this hasn’t exactly helped its ratings, the medical drama remains remarkably popular considering its longevity. While the popularity of Grey’s Anatomy peaked around 2006’s seasons 2 and 3, when the show was regularly pulling in an audience of over 12 million, the show’s viewership dropped to below 10 million by 2010. However, the average number of viewers never slipped below 5 million in the decade and a half since, and even increased from an average of 5.2 in 2022’s season 19 to an average of 6.9 million in 2024’s Grey’s Anatomy season 21. Grey's Anatomy Franchise Crossovers Will Be Tricky To Pull Off However MovieStillsDB Admittedly, this isn’t as healthy as the NCIS franchise, another long-running network TV hit with numerous spinoffs and episodes that number in the hundreds. However, it is arguably unfair to compare a military police procedural to a medical drama, and the already strong performance of the Grey’s Anatomy franchise could well be improved by the arrival of its first spinoff since Station 19 ended in 2024. However, there is one problem with the show’s future plans, and it is the main drawback of shooting in New Mexico. Since the new spinoff is filming in picturesque Albuquerque and the franchise’s flagship show is shot in LA, it won’t necessarily be easy to pull off cast cameos or crossover episodes between the two shows. This could be a bigger problem than it might initially seem. It is pretty widely understood that, without original cast cameos, spinoffs run the risk of feeling like retreads at best and cheap carbon copies at worst. Characters from Grey’s Anatomy need to show up in the Texas-set spinoff to give the new show a sense of legitimacy and to make it feel like the series takes place in the same established fictional universe. This is doubly true since the Texas-set spinoff has such a drastically different setting from its predecessor, meaning the new show will already feel and look very different from Grey’s Anatomy. While there is nothing wrong with these changes, the new setting and radically different storyline does mean that Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff should attempt to build a clear in-universe link early on. This could prove very tough when Grey’s Anatomy cast members already struggle to find time to shoot other projects without having to leave Los Angeles in the process. As such, only time will tell how much this radical relocation proves to be a blessing or a proverbial albatross around the neck of Grey’s Anatomy’s upcoming spinoff. Source: Deadline Release Date March 27, 2005 Network ABC Showrunner Meg Marinis Cast Ellen Pompeo Dr. Meredith Grey Chandra Wilson Dr. Miranda Bailey Directors Rob Corn, Kevin McKidd, Debbie Allen, Chandra Wilson, Allison Liddi-Brown, Jeannot Szwarc, Tony Phelan Writers Shonda Rhimes, Julie Wong, Jen Klein, Tameson Duffy, Meg Marinis, Jase Miles-Perez, Jess Righthand, Sandra Hamada Creator(s) Shonda Rhimes