Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes revealed in an interview with TVLine that not even she's aware of what's happening on in the negotiation room, and how not knowing who'll come back for another season has affected her plans for the season 8 finale:
“I have figured out how the season is going to end, which was the most complex puzzle I’ve had to put together — ever,” Rhimes tells TVLine. ”We have all these moveable pieces of who’s coming back and who’s not, and finally I just decided to focus on what was going to be best creatively for the show and figure out a way to make it work REGARDLESS of what is happening [off screen].”
That’s a change from Rhimes’ initial goal, which was to wait and see how negotiations with core castmembers (Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Justin Chambers, included) played out and then solve the finale conundrum — a plan she now admits made her rather anxious.
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Rhimes insists she doesn’t “know anything about what’s happening” with regard to the contract talks. “I write the scripts,” she notes, “I don’t negotiate the contracts.”
More on the cast's contract negotiations: Ellen Pompeo speculates, Kevin McKidd's gut feeling, TVLine's Michael Ausiello guesses.
