The sixteenth season of the American television medical drama Grey's Anatomy was ordered on May 10, 2019, by American Broadcasting Company. The season premiered on September 26, 2019. The season is produced by ABC Studios, in association with ShondalandProduction Company and Entertainment One Television; the showrunners being Krista Vernoff and William Harper. The season's main storylines include the recently fired Dr. Meredith Grey 's impending trial to fight for her medical license and her on-off again love-life with surgical resident, Andrew DeLuca, who begins to spiral into bipolar mania. Alex Karev and Richard Webber also begin working at Pac-North after being fired by Chief Miranda Bailey. Other storylines include Teddy Altman 's affair with Tom Koracick in the wake of her engagement to Owen Hunt, Amelia Shepherd 's surprise pregnancy, with the baby's paternity brought into question, Jackson Avery and Maggie Pierce 's break up and Jo Karev 's emergence from the psychiatric ward after treatment. This is the final season to feature Dr. Alex Karev, portrayed by Justin Chambers as a series regular, whose announced departure was made in January 2020. His final physical appearance was the milestone 350th episode "My Shot" in November 2019. Following this, he abruptly left the series. However, Vernoff was able to bring him back for voice-over in a farewell episode, explaining where the character ended up. This episode "Leave a Light On" became the season's most discussed and analyzed episode, with Chambers' character's departure after fifteen years receiving a polarizing response from audiences. However, it drew an uptick in ratings, shooting up its best ratings in six weeks since its mid-season premiere. It also re-visited Katherine Heigl's character, Izzie Stevens who departed mid-way through the sixth season. On March 12, 2020, the production of the sixteenth season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Twenty-one out of the original twenty-five episode order were completed before production was suspended. On March 27, 2020, it was announced that the twenty-first episode would serve as the season finale. The season finale ended with 7.33 million viewers, an improvement from the previous season's 5.99 million viewership, and became the first season to not end in May in all of its fifteen years. The pandemic incidentally made it one of the shortest seasons, with only the first and fourth seasons having a shorter episode count.
Episodes
The number in the "No. overall" column refers to the episode's number within the overall series, whereas the number in the "No. in season" column refers to the episode's number within this particular season. "U.S. viewers in millions" refers to the number of Americans in millions who watched the episodes live.
On May 10, 2019, with the renewal announcement it was revealed that Chris Carmack, Greg Germann and Jake Borelli had been promoted to series regulars. In October 2019, it was announced that Richard Flood had been cast as the new head of Pediatric Surgery at Grey Sloan, replacing Karev, who was fired in the previous season. On January 10, 2020, it was announced that Justin Chambers would be leaving the series, with his last episode being the 350th.
