Grey’s Anatomy’s Jason George ‘Thought I Was Getting Fired’ When Shonda Rhimes Offered Station 19 (Exclusive)

Before Jason George was fighting fires, he was convinced his time on Grey’s Anatomy was coming to an end.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive look at his appearance on Getting Grilled with Curtis Stone, the ABC star recalls the fateful moment he was asked to leave his place at Grey-Sloane Memorial on Grey’s and join a rag-tag group of firefighters in a new spinoff series called Station 19.

George tells host Curtis Stone that he and his family were preparing to take a vacation abroad and to Virginia to spend time with extended family. He was pushing his kids into his brother-in-law’s community pool when his wife came to inform him that he was receiving a phone call from series creator Shonda Rhimes’ office.

After making plans to get on the phone with Rhimes in an hour, he turned to his wife and said, “I think I might be getting fired. I think this is the call to be like, ‘Sorry, we’re going to kill Ben off this season.'”

“I picked up the phone, you know, an hour later and they were like, ‘How would you feel about Ben going over to this new show that we’re starting?'” George recalls. “I was like, ‘Are you offering me another job?’ Yeah, that could work! I could roll with that.”

As soon as he shared the news with his wife, he says she joked that he must have done something amazing in a “past life” to be rewarded with the opportunity.

“She was like, ‘Yo just count your lucky stars,'” he adds.

In 2018, George left Grey’s Anatomy as his character Dr. Ben Warren transitioned over to Station 19. Though he ended up trading in his scrub cap for a hard hat, viewers have seen his story continue in both series through various cross-over episodes.

In December 2023, ABC announced that the spinoff series would end after its upcoming seventh season premiering this month.

“Grateful for an unforgettable run,” Rhimes reacted to the news on Instagram. “A heartfelt salute to the exceptional cast whose brilliance brought the characters to life and to the viewers who continued to make it possible!”

“Thank you for the magic, the moments and the memories,” she concluded the post along with the hashtag “station 19.”