‘‘Grey’s Anatomy” is losing one of its core cast members.
Sandra Oh, who’s played Dr. Christina Yang since the show’s 2005 debut, will leave after the upcoming (10th) season of the soapy ABC hospital drama.
“Creatively, I really feel like I gave it my all, and I feel ready to let her go,” Oh told the Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news.
“It’s such an interesting thing to play a character for so long and to actually get the sense that she wants to be let go as well.
“[Christina] wants to be let go, and I am ready to let her go.”
ABC renewed “Grey’s Anatomy” for a 10th season, but the show’s future beyond that remains undecided. The contracts of core cast members Patrick Dempsey (Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd), Ellen Pompeo (Meredith), Justin Chambers (Alex), James Pickens Jr. (Webber) and Chandra Wilson (Bailey) all expire at the end of the upcoming season, according to the report.
Oh said she first thought about leaving the show in May 2012.
“I’ve gone through a lot of therapy over this,” she said. “I started thinking about it because I had to prepare myself.
“I gave myself two years to emotionally let go. At the end of last season, [series creator] Shonda [Rhimes] took me aside and aid, ‘What are you thoughts?’
“I said, ‘I’m ready.’ ”
Oh broke the news of her end-of-season upcoming departure to her cast mates yesterday, at a read-through for the show’s upcoming 200th episode, according to the report.
“We have to start the process, story-wise, for the ‘Grey’s’ writers to think of why she’s going to go,” Oh said.
“Grey’s,” once one of ABC’s top-rated shows, has been losing steam the past few seasons but is still considered one of the network’s prime-time anchors.