ABC has given a straight-to-series order to an untitled Grey’s Anatomy medical drama, pushing the long-running franchise into rural West Texas and setting up a midseason 2027 launch. The new offshoot comes a week after the network unveiled its fall schedule, and it will be the first Grey’s Anatomy series not set on the West Coast or in a big city.
The series is being co-created, written and executive produced by Shonda Rhimes and Meg Marinis, with Ellen Pompeo also executive producing. Rhimes and Betsy Beers are executive producing with Marinis and Pompeo, and the project is described as an edgy drama about a team at a rural West Texas medical center. ABC has not said which night the show will air, but the network expects it to share a time period with Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday at 10 p.m., behind 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville.
The order makes the show the fourth series in the Grey’s Anatomy franchise, following Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Station 19. Unlike the earlier offshoots, it is not spinning off a series regular from the mothership, a sign ABC and the creative team are trying to widen the franchise rather than simply extend it through a familiar face. Marinis said the new stories will be set in her home state of Texas, and she called the chance to expand the Grey’s universe one she was incredibly excited about.
Her comments also framed the new series as a continuation of what has kept the brand alive for more than two decades. She said the show would bring new characters and stories to life with the same heart, emotion and connection audiences have loved from Grey’s for more than two decades, while adding that she felt fortunate to be part of the world Rhimes created.
The timing matters because ABC is building out its scripted slate while also renewing older franchises, and Grey’s Anatomy is expected to return for a 23rd season with a trimmed episode order for budget reasons. The medical drama has produced 18 episodes in each of the last two seasons, and the network is planning limited-run orders for both Grey’s Anatomy and the new spinoff.
That could put the two shows on the same network schedule in the 2026-2027 period, with Grey’s Anatomy likely back in the fall and the Texas spinoff arriving in midseason. It also leaves open one key question inside the franchise: whether Marinis will run both Grey’s series if they overlap, something ABC has not yet determined. For now, the clearest answer is that Grey’s Anatomy is no longer just a coastal hospital story; it is moving into a new part of the country with a new cast, a new setting and a late-season debut already on the calendar.
