Grey’s Anatomy has already stood the test of time, as its 22nd season will resume on the 2026 TV calendar on January 8, with no indication that the end is near. However, if the medical drama had gone by a different name, would it still be this successful? I'm asking because it turns out that was almost the case. ABC tried out several different titles for the medical drama, including one creator Shonda Rhimes allegedly hated.
As a longtime Grey’s fan, I personally love that the title of the series is a play on both its main character’s name — Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey — and the revered textbook Gray’s Anatomy. However, in the book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, one of the higher-ups at ABC hated that name, and the show was changed to Complications, the title of another nonfiction book. According to former show writer Eric Buchman:
