Grey’s Anatomy Season 22: Cast Exits, Streaming Guide, New Cast and Everything to Know 2026

Twenty-two seasons in and Grey’s Anatomy is still finding ways to shake things up.

That is not a small thing. Most network dramas collapse under their own weight by season six or seven. Grey’s Anatomy has been on ABC since 2005, survived losing Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, and a dozen other major cast members, and remained the kind of show that still generates real headlines in 2026. Season 22, which premiered October 9, 2025, and wraps with its finale on May 7, 2026, has two of its longest-tenured cast members walking out the door, one beloved character returning from an extended absence, and a newer face who has quietly become the emotional center of the whole show.

Let’s get into all of it.

Is Grey’s Anatomy Still On?

Yes. Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 is currently airing on ABC on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. The season has 18 episodes total. Production wrapped earlier this year and the finale date is confirmed: May 7, 2026.

ABC has not officially announced a Season 23 as of this writing. Given the show’s consistent performance on streaming, where it regularly appears on Nielsen’s top 10 charts, another renewal is a real possibility. But nothing is confirmed.

Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver Are Leaving Grey’s Anatomy After Season 22

Confirmed on March 25, 2026: Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver are both exiting Grey’s Anatomy at the end of Season 22. Their final episode is the May 7 season finale. Three episodes remain before that: March 26, April 2, and April 30.

Is Kevin McKidd Leaving Grey’s Anatomy?

He is. McKidd joined the show in Season 5 in 2008, playing Dr. Owen Hunt, an Army trauma surgeon who arrived at Seattle Grace as a quietly intense presence and spent eighteen seasons becoming one of the show’s most layered characters. Owen became a husband, a father, a man working through what war does to a person over time.

He also became one of the show’s go-to directors. After his directorial debut in Season 7, McKidd went on to direct 48 episodes. He directed his own farewell episode too, the Season 22 finale, pulling double duty on his last day at Grey Sloan.

In his statement, McKidd said the show had been a huge chapter of his life creatively and personally. He credited Shonda Rhimes for creating Owen and for pushing him toward directing. He called the exit the start of a new chapter, not the end of anything.

Is Kim Raver Leaving Grey’s Anatomy?

Yes. Raver first appeared in Season 6, which premiered in 2009, in a recurring role that was upgraded to series regular during that same season. She left voluntarily at the end of Season 8, returned briefly in Season 14 in 2017, then came back as a full-time series regular from Season 15 in 2018. Over that time she also directed three episodes of the show, starting in Season 19. Debbie Allen, the executive producing director of Grey’s, mentored her into the director’s chair, something Raver specifically called out in her farewell statement.

Both departures were creative decisions tied to the characters’ storylines having reached a natural conclusion. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the door remains open for either to return in a later season. That has been the standard arrangement for departing Grey’s cast for years.

What Happens to Owen and Teddy?

Owen Hunt and Teddy Altman met in the Army, spent years circling each other across other relationships, eventually married in Season 18, had two children together, and then fell apart. Season 22 opened with their divorce finalized after a failed open-marriage experiment.

Shonda Rhimes gave fans a clear signal in her official statement. She said the two characters always find their way back to each other and that giving them the happy ending their story deserves was the intention behind the finale. After fifteen-plus years, that is the send-off most fans had been hoping for.

What Happened to Amelia Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy Season 22

Dr. Amelia Shepherd, played by Caterina Scorsone, has had a significantly reduced presence this season.

Here is the exact situation, by the numbers. Scorsone has 11 total appearances in Season 22 out of 18 episodes. Her character announced a sabbatical in the second episode of the season and was then absent for seven consecutive episodes, returning in episode 10 in January 2026.

The reason is budget. Grey’s Anatomy has been reducing the minimum episode guarantees for its veteran cast members from 18 down to 14 episodes per season as a cost-cutting measure. Scorsone’s deal went further, bringing her down to 10 guaranteed appearances, with the writers building Amelia’s sabbatical into the storyline to cover the gap.

The plot gave the absence real weight. The Season 21 finale ended with a hospital explosion caused accidentally by the mother of one of Amelia’s patients. That explosion killed Dr. Monica Beltran, played by Natalie Morales. The guilt and grief gave Amelia a reason to step back from Grey Sloan that felt earned rather than forced.

Scorsone has played Amelia on Grey’s Anatomy as a full series regular since Season 11. She originated the character on the spinoff Private Practice in 2010. Amelia is Derek Shepherd’s younger sister and Meredith Grey’s sister-in-law, and her recovery from addiction, her neurosurgical career, and her personal relationships have made her one of the show’s most followed characters over the years.

She is not leaving the show. Her return confirmed she remains a series regular and is expected back in Season 23 if there is one.

Who Is Adelaide Kane?

If you have been watching Season 22 and most drawn to the intern who is simultaneously the most capable and the most reckless person in the building, that is Dr. Jules Millin. The actress behind her is Adelaide Kane.

Adelaide Victoria Kane was born on August 9, 1990, in Claremont, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. She has been working as an actress since she was 6 years old. In the United States, she built her profile playing Mary, Queen of Scots in the CW series Reign, which ran for four seasons. Before that she appeared as Cora Hale in Season 3 of MTV’s Teen Wolf. She also had roles in Once Upon a Time on ABC and SEAL Team on CBS, along with a guest arc on NBC’s This Is Us.

She joined Grey’s Anatomy in the fall of 2022 in Season 19, playing Dr. Jules Millin, one of a new class of surgical interns. Jules was raised by drug-addicted artist parents, which meant she functioned as the responsible adult in her household from a young age. That background left her organized and occasionally bossy, with a tendency to break the rules when she thinks following them will cost someone their life.

In Season 22, Kane appears in all 14 guaranteed regular episodes. Her storyline took a serious medical turn when Dr. Amelia Shepherd, fresh off her sabbatical, discovered a brain tumor in Jules that had been growing due to pregnancy hormones. The two women, connected by that case, drove one of the season’s most gripping storylines.

Beyond the show, Kane came out publicly as bisexual in February 2021 and has spoken about living with generalized anxiety disorder on multiple occasions. Her character Jules is also bisexual, a detail the show has woven into her relationships across multiple seasons.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Full Cast

Season 22 is the first season without Jake Borelli and Midori Francis as series regulars. Trevor Jackson, who guest starred as Dr. Wes Bryant at the end of Season 21, was promoted to a series regular role from the start of this season.

Current series regulars:

• Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
• Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
• James Pickens Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
• Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
• Caterina Scorsone as Dr. Amelia Shepherd
• Camilla Luddington as Dr. Jo Wilson
• Jason George as Dr. Ben Warren
• Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman
• Chris Carmack as Dr. Atticus “Link” Lincoln
• Anthony Hill as Dr. Winston Ndugu
• Alexis Floyd as Dr. Simone Griffith
• Harry Shum Jr. as Dr. Benson “Blue” Kwan
• Adelaide Kane as Dr. Jules Millin
• Niko Terho as Dr. Lucas Adams
• Trevor Jackson as Dr. Wes Bryant

Ellen Pompeo appears in seven episodes and narrates the season, the same arrangement she had in Season 21. Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr. are the only original cast members confirmed for all 18 episodes.

A note on James Pickens Jr.: in November 2025 he publicly shared that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. His character Dr. Richard Webber revealed a cancer diagnosis in the Season 22 midseason finale. Pickens has since announced he is cancer-free. The parallel between what was happening on screen and off gave the midseason finale a weight the cast and fans both felt.

Where to Watch Grey’s Anatomy Season 22

New episodes air on ABC on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. Hulu has them available to stream the next day. For watching live without cable, Hulu + Live TV, fuboTV, YouTube TV, and Sling TV all carry ABC. Episodes can also be purchased individually on Amazon Video and Fandango At Home.

All previously aired Season 22 episodes, along with all 21 prior seasons, are currently on Hulu.

Watch Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode 1

Season 22 opened with “Only the Strong Survive” on October 9, 2025. The premiere picks up immediately after the Season 21 explosion cliffhanger, with the Grey Sloan staff dealing with casualties and the death of a colleague. It is streaming right now on Hulu.

Is Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix?

Seasons 1 through 19 of Grey’s Anatomy are on Netflix in the United States right now. That is where the catalogue ends on Netflix, because Season 20 and everything after moved to Hulu under a multi-season contract between ABC and Hulu. Season 20, Season 21, and the current Season 22 are all exclusive to Hulu in the US and are not coming to Netflix under the current arrangement.

Season 21 arrived on Netflix in June 2025, about a month after the Season 21 finale aired. Based on that, Season 22 is expected to land on Netflix around June 2026 once the season is fully over.

So: if you want to start from the very beginning, Netflix gets you through Season 19. Season 20 onward requires Hulu.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode Air Dates

• Episode 1, “Only the Strong Survive”: October 9, 2025
• Episode 2, “We Built This City”: October 16, 2025
• Episode 3, “Between Two Lungs”: October 23, 2025
• Episode 4, “Goodbye Horses”: October 30, 2025
• Episode 5, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”: November 6, 2025
• Episode 6, “When I Crash”: November 13, 2025
• Midseason break
• Episode 7: January 8, 2026
• Episodes 8 through 14: January through March 2026
• Episode 15: March 26, 2026
• Episode 16: April 2, 2026
• Episode 17: April 30, 2026
• Episode 18, season finale: May 7, 2026

The Angle No One Is Really Talking About

Owen Hunt spent eighteen seasons as one of American network television’s only extended portraits of a military veteran navigating civilian life. That is a genuinely unusual thing. The show did not treat his Army background as backstory or a single-season arc. It stayed with him, shaped him, affected his relationships in ways that came back around years later. His exit is the end of a long, patient piece of writing that did not get the credit it probably deserved.

Meanwhile, James Pickens Jr. playing a cancer patient on screen while managing an actual cancer diagnosis off it turned the show’s familiar dramatic mechanics into something different this year. Richard Webber has been the moral center of Grey’s Anatomy since the pilot in 2005. Watching that storyline land differently once people knew what Pickens was personally going through said something about what a long-running character can carry.

And then there is Jules Millin. Adelaide Kane plays someone who grew up absorbing chaos and turned it into precision and decisiveness. It is not the loudest character arc on the show, but it has been one of the most consistently interesting ones over the last three seasons. Season 22 gave her a medical storyline that put her at the center of the show’s best episode of the year.

Grey’s Anatomy does not get called a prestige drama. Fair enough. But it has spent twenty-plus years paying attention to certain things other shows move past, and Season 22 is not the year it stopped.