When is Grey’s Anatomy season 19 out in the UK? Release date and possible plot details of the long-running medical drama

Shonda Rhimes' medical masterpiece is coming back to the UK for a whopping season 19, and we reveal exactly when fans can lap up the action.

Who can remember back to the long gone days of Meredith, Cristina, George, Alex, and Izzie, sitting on a gurney announcing they had no idea what they were doing, back in Grey’s Anatomy season 1? Now the famous 5 are no more, and Grey-Sloan Memorial - the hospital has even had a name change - looks entirely different. But what hasn’t changed is the banging soundtrack, the intriguing medical storylines, and the excellent acting. If any of that had changed, one of the longest running primetime medical dramas in TV history wouldn’t have that accolade. Grey’s Anatomy is the gift that keeps on giving, and the long lost friend we all want to cosy up with year after year. Here’s when the latest outing will arrive in the UK, and other exciting information about the show.  

For more medical-based TV, The Good Nurse on Netflix is based on a true story, and this fact is leaving viewers reeling. For something similar to Grey's Anatomy, Sky Witness drama New Amsterdam will hit the spot - season 4 is available to devour, and we have major season 5 news. On ITV, Jeremy Paxman's Parkinson's documentary tells all about the presenter's condition and the incredible way he was diagnosed. 

When is Grey’s Anatomy season 19 out in the UK?

Grey’s Anatomy season 19 will air in the UK on Wednesday October 26, 2022. This will be the first season where long running protagonist Meredith Grey has a reduced role on the show.

Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo), is just one of three original cast members remaining, with the other two being Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.). Pompeo is set to continue narrating every episode of the new season 19, but will only physically appear in eight episodes altogether. 

She revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she was looking to shake her career up, saying "I'm clearly not prepared right now to make any formal announcement about what my future is on the show, but I'm really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories that we can tell." Fans wondering how Meredith's absence will be explained will have to wait and see, as the storyline has been kept under wraps. 

Where can I watch Grey’s Anatomy season 19 in the UK?

Grey’s Anatomy season 19 can be watched on Disney+ in the UK. All previous seasons of the show are also available to view on the streamer.

A Disney+ subscription costs £7.99 per month in the UK, or £79.90 for a year’s access. The majority of Disney Plus content is available with the subscription, although Disney occasionally releases Disney Plus Premier Access titles, requiring additional payment. However, such titles are usually added to the catalogue a short time later, where they are free to watch. 

UK subscribers can stream on four screens simultaneously, and register up to 10 devices - the service will support 7 profiles. There is no free trial offered with Disney Plus. When the streaming service launched in 2020, an initial 1 week free trial was offered at the time to celebrate. However, this was discontinued after the first month, and has not been reinstated. 

In a statement about the release of the latest season, Disney said "Grey’s Anatomy is considered one of the great television shows of our time. The high-intensity medical drama, now in its 19th season, follows Meredith Grey and the team of doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial who are faced with life-or-death decisions on a daily basis. They seek comfort from one another, and, at times, more than just friendship. Together they discover that neither medicine nor relationships can be defined in black and white". 

Grey’s Anatomy season 18 recap

A COVID-19 stricken Meredith was unwell for weeks, before recovering enough to return to work. When back on her feet, she worked between Grey-Sloan Memorial and with Dr. Hamilton in Minnesota. 

Hamilton has invited Meredith to innesoata with the suggestion of showing her the new wing named after her mother and his former colleague, Ellis Grey. However, it transpires he really wants her to lead a project finding a cure for Parkinson's - he can no longer undertake surgeries due to his own Parkinson’s diagnosis, and wants someone to operate on him and find a cure.

While in Minnesota, Meredith reconnects with Nick Marsh, and they begin a relationship. Meredith made the decision to move her family to Minnesota to be with Nick, not before making some bad decisions at Grey-Sloan which results in losing even more surgeons and a shortage of blood supplies - the residency programme is cut by the season finale because of her actions. When the announcement is made, Miranda quits instantly, handing Meredith the keys to the chief of surgery’s office.   

Jo Wilson decides to switch specialties, working her first year as an obstetrics and gynecology resident. Link is helping her raise daughter Luna, but their friendship takes a hit when they sleep together and Jo falls in love with him - this realisation causes her to ask him to move out. To try and move on, Jo starts dating other people.

Link had previously been in a relationship with Amelia Shepherd, but when she turned down his marriage proposal, the relationship came to an end. They were co-parenting their son Scout, while Link helped Amelia raise Luna. Link harboured secret hopes of getting back together with Amelia, but these were dashed when she fell in love with Kai. The season ended with Link living alone, working through his feelings for Amelia and trying to be friends with Jo once again. Meredith recruited Amelia Shepherd for the Parkinson's project, with her also working between Seattle and Minnesota, and helping Owen recover from his car accident. 

Owen and Teddy got married, and Owen discovered a group of veteran soldiers suffering severe lung damage from spending time around burn pits. One soldier, Noah, convinces Owen to help him die. He obliges, and also helps other soldiers with the same condition die also, in an illegal euthanasia side line. 

Owen is severely injured in the car accident with Teddy and Cormac and thinking he won’t survive, tells them of his mission so they can continue it in his absence. Someone reports what Owen has been doing to Bailey, and she forces him and Teddy to reign - fearing repercussions, they go on the run. Earlier in the season, the couple fell out over their son identifying as a girl - Owen was fine with it, but Teddy was quite upset.

The car crash happened when Cormac, Owen, and Teddy were retrieving a heart for Megan’s son Farouk. Cormac was furious that Owen told him about the illegal euthanasia, and could no longer face working with him. He left Grey-Sloan to move back to Ireland to be with his family, and escape the whole mess. 

Bailey struggled to keep the residency programme running, and also adopted a daughter in the midst of all the chaos. She quits when her mental health and well-being are in shreds. Richard Webber decides to allow residents to perform operations with no attending present, but when Schmidt loses a patient because of this, the learning method comes under fire. Questioning his neurological stability, he undergoes tests, but is found to be of sound mind. His wife Catherine is also diagnosed with cancer. 

Maggie is one of the first to voice concerns about the Webber teaching method, causing tension between the pair - who later work out their differences. She also finds a letter addressed to her from biological mother, Ellis Grey, requiring support for how it makes her feel. Maggie’s husband Winston’s estranged brother Wendell turns up causing unrest - he tries to sell faulty medical equipment to Grey-Sloan. With considerable debt hanging over him, Wendell accepts money from his brother to pay them off, and leaves.  

Grey’s Anatomy season 19: Possible plot

Although most plot details have been kept secret, it has been revealed that the residency programme is reinstated, and five new residents join Grey-Sloan. 

In a statement, Disney said "Picking up six months after the season 18 finale, season 19 sees five new interns join the staff at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, with Harry Shum Jr., Adelaide Kane, Alexis Floyd, Niko Terho, and Midori Francis joining the cast". With Meredith's research going well and wanting to be with Nick in Minnesota, this could be the way her character is partially written out of the series, and she possibly won't take up the position of head of surgery following Bailey quitting.

With Chandra Wilson also slated to be returning, Bailey will no doubt be striding the corridors of the famous hospital, we just don't know in what capacity. With Owen and Teddy on the run following some very dubious happenings, this could pave the way for exciting cat and mouse scenes, where they could potentially risk getting caught. However, they will surely have to face consequences for their actions - especially Owen - and those could be pretty grave.

The official synopsis for the opening episode reads "After a long six months, Grey Sloan Memorial has reinstated its residency program. A group of talented and striving young interns has been recruited as the attending surgeons work to rebuild the program to its former glory. Meredith, still functioning as the interim chief, sees Nick for the first time since she rejected his offer to move to Minnesota. Meanwhile, Bailey tells Richard she is not ready to return to work; Levi works up the courage to break disappointing news to Jo, and things turn awkward when Link realizes he has met one of the interns already. With Amelia and Maggie's help, the new doctors are thrown into their first day on the job dealing with injuries from a recent tornado".    

Who will be in season 19 of Grey’s Anatomy? 

• Ellen Pompeo as Dr Meredith Grey
• Chandra Wilson as Dr Miranda Bailey
• James Pickens Jr. as Dr Richard Webber
• Caterina Scorsone as Dr Amelia Shepherd
• Camilla Luddington as Dr Jo Wilson
• Kelly McCreary as Dr Maggie Pierce
• Kim Raver as Dr Teddy Altman
• Jake Borelli as Dr Levi Schmitt
• Chris Carmack as Dr Atticus "Link" Lincoln
• Anthony Hill as Dr Winston Ndugu
• Alexis Floyd as Dr Simone Griffin
• Niko Terho as Dr Lucas Adams
• Midori Francis as Dr Mika Yasuda
• Adelaide Kane as Dr Jules Millin
• Harry Shum Jr. as Dr Daniel "Blue" Kwan
• Scott Speedman as Dr Nick Marsh

According to E! Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) will both be returning for season 19, for those nostalgic for the old days of the show. However, Dr. Winston Ndugu actor Anthony Hill argued that fans should let go of nostalgia, and embrace new changes. He said "The vibe is great on set. It feels like a little bit like a passing of the torch. Not just from [Ellen] to this new intern class, because that's what everybody is talking about, but also a little bit of a passing of the torch to the rest to the attendings and the people who have been there for a long time, and the people who are just getting started like myself." 

On the arrival of the new interns, he added "It's a cool energy. It's an energy that I think everybody is excited about. Those interns bring an energy that is so realistic to what interns would actually bring to a hospital—this excitement and this youthful joy. I don't want to say exuberance, but that's really what it is."

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