Picture: Disney / ABC
One of the longest-running shows on television is back for another season on ABC. Despite a change regarding the show’s streaming availability in the US, every episode of Grey’s Anatomy season 21 will hit Netflix in mid-2025 at the earliest. Here’s what we know so far.
Returning to its regular fall slot after a few years of shifted and changed release schedules (thanks to the pandemic and recent Hollywood strikes) the series began airing new episodes beginning September 26th and is expected to run for 18 episodes at least well into 2025. Ellen Pompeo is back for this season alongside other regulars Chandra Wilson, James Pickens, Jr., Kevin McKidd, Caterina Scorsone, and Camilla Luddington.
In years past, Netflix held the exclusive streaming rights to Grey’s, albeit Hulu and ABC itself had the series available on their platforms in a catch-up capacity. That changed in late 2024 with a new deal that would mean Netflix shares the streaming rights to the past 20 seasons (400+ episodes). That deal also included many big Disney-owned series like Prison Break coming to Netflix throughout 2024 (a dozen plus shows in total). Hulu and ABC will be the only place to watch season 21 until Netflix bags the new episodes next year.
When will season 21 hit Netflix, then? We won’t know the exact date for a while but historically, new seasons have dropped in the US each June. That was the case with season 20 (that dropped on June 29th, 2024), season 19 (June 17th, 2023) and season 18 (June 25th, 2022).
Canadians don’t get new episode drops quite as fast as the US with new season typically dropping in the Fall period (sometime between September and December).
If you’re not in the United States or Canada, your streaming options are mostly limited to Disney-owned services. At the time of publishing, Disney+ was the primary streaming service for all 20+ seasons.
No word on a season 22 just yet, but we wouldn’t bet against it happening. Should season 21 be the final season, Netflix will retain the rights for three years, although that will be pushed back every time the show is renewed. That means the show will be on Netflix in the US and CA through 2028 at a minimum.
Are you looking forward to Grey’s Anatomy season 21 hitting Netflix sometime in 2025? Let us know in the comments.
