June 01, 2025: Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers aren’t just creative powerhouses — they’re friendship goals, too. Over the past 20 years, the dynamic duo has teamed up to deliver bold, inclusive stories that have reshaped television, from Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder to Bridgerton.
To mark their two-decade milestone, Rhimes and Beers sat down with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts to look back on their groundbreaking work, beginning with their first hit series, Grey’s Anatomy. Reflecting on the early days, Rhimes admitted, “I feel like we made a lot of mistakes… but whatever came from those mistakes turned out to be fantastic.”
Beers recalled how Grey’s Anatomy, which premiered in March 2005, faced uncertainty as a mid-season pickup. “We were the last show picked up… What did we have to lose? Because no one was paying any attention,” she said, noting that the TV landscape at the time was dominated by megahits like Desperate Housewives and Lost.
Despite their initial apprehension, Grey’s Anatomy became the longest-running medical drama in American TV history, changing the careers of its stars and inspiring audiences worldwide. “For me, it’s a really personal feeling to feel like I’ve made something up and people are embracing it in this way,” Rhimes shared, adding that fans have told her the show helped them save lives or inspired them to pursue careers in medicine.
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Rhimes and Beers said their collaboration stemmed from a shared frustration with the lack of authentic, complex female characters on TV. “We didn’t see anything that looked or acted like us,” Beers said. Rhimes added, “There were no women who felt like real women on television at that point.”
With Grey’s Anatomy rewriting the primetime rulebook, the pair expanded the “Shondaverse” with series like Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Station 19, Bridgerton, and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story — all with strong women at the forefront.
As for what’s next, Rhimes said timing is key, emphasizing the need for joy: “I feel like people want to escape a little bit from the realities of eggs being too high and all kinds of other things.” Beers added that their next project will definitely bring “fun” and surprise audiences: “They’ll say, ‘Why do you wanna do that?’ And we’ll say, ‘Cause we love it.’”