ABC President says killing Dempsey’s McDreamy ‘was great’

“What were the options?” Either Derek walks out on Meredith and leaves her high and dry and what’s that going to mean? At the ongoing TCA press event, ABC president Paul Lee talked about Dereks brutal exit and had nothing but positivity for Rhimes and her decision.

Chatting with TV critics Tuesday, the “Gray’s” creator stated she was confronted with both having Shepherd depart Pompeo’s Meredith Gray and taint their love story, or be killed off, holding it intact. “And so as painful as it was for me as a storyteller, because I never really thought it could happen, the only way to preserve what felt true to me was that Derek was going to have to die in order for that love to remain honest”, Rhimes said.

The writer and producer said that the show’s upcoming 12th season will be a “rebirth”. “Miracles from Heaven” actor has joined the show as a main cast member and he is said to be playing the role of a new male lead after Patrick Dempsey’s character Derek Shepherd’s death.

“There had been a lot of discussions and we had been working for a long time, so those choices weren’t easy for us”, added Rhimes.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” star said that it’s a story worth telling if it can provide even one person comfort.

When McDreamy died last season in a vehicle crash on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, it just drove some fans mad. “That’s why I’m saying it’s some classic Bailey about to come out”, she said in the interview.

“Scandal’s” success is belived to have given rise to more empowered African American characters on television (see: “Empire”), but Rhimes declined to comment on that being her legacy.

Grey’s Anatomy fans received some exciting words of encouragement from ABC’s president Paul Lee. “Husbands and wives of soldiers, victims of senseless violence and parents who have lost children”, Pompeo wrote on Twitter in April, breaking the silence after her TV husband’s death.

“Grey’s Anatomy” Season 12 will premiere on Thursday, September 24, at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC.

“I think the next season is all about hope, and we saw a taste of that at the end of the season 11 finale”. And so to tell that story about how life does go on after what you think is impossible is something that so many people can relate to. “It was great to see “Grey’s Anatomy” so relevant and taking the national conversation”, he said. “[Rhimes] really is a remarkable showrunner and we have no reason to expect that Grey’s Anatomy won’t go on for many years to come”.