Station 19 is set to hit its 100th episode in the 2023-24 season after ABC renewed the first-responders drama series for a seventh season.
The network also has confirmed that Zoanne Clack and Peter Paige will serve as showrunners and exec producers after Deadline revealed that Krista Vernoff was stepping down from Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy, with the pair likely to step up.
Over the past few years, the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff has been getting renewals alongside its mothership series. However, Grey’s was renewed for its 20th season last month, and Deadline understood that the holdup on Station 19 was the size of the order, which ABC has not revealed. Previous seasons have generally been 16-18 episodes.
Helping this renewal was the fact that the main cast have contracts that cover next season and beyond.
Clack had added exec producer and head writer duties on Station 19 under Vernoff, and this marks her second promotion in eight months. She joined the show in August amid an upheaval in the series’ writers room following an incident involving racial slur used by a racist character in a draft of an outline, which exposed long-simmering racial issues on the show.
Clack will share the role with The Fosters and Good Trouble co-creator Paige, who joined the show in 2020 during Season 4 as a director and became an exec producer in Season 6.
Stacy McKee, Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers and Paris Barclay serve as executive producers on the series. It is produced by Shondaland and ABC Signature.
Station 19, which was created by McKee, is set in Seattle and focuses on the lives of the men and women at Seattle Fire Station 19. It stars Jaina Lee Ortiz, Jason George, Grey Damon, Barrett Doss, Alberto Frezza, Jay Hayden, Okieriete Onaodowan, Danielle Savre, Miguel Sandoval, Boris Kodjoe, Stefania Spampinato, Carlos Miranda, Josh Randall, Merle Dandridge, and Pat Healy.
The Season 6 finale will air on May 18.
It is the latest renewal for ABC as we head into May Upfronts; earlier this week it renewed The Good Doctor for season seven, Will Trent for its second season and The Rookie for its sixth season as well as hit comedy Abbott Elementary for its third season in January and Grey’s last month. With The Goldbergs ending with its tenth season and A Million Little Things also coming to an end, this leaves The Connors, The Rookie: Feds, Big Sky, The Company You Keep, Not Dead Yet, Alaska Daily and Home Economics waiting on decisions.
“I feel incredibly honored to be entrusted with this dynamic and relevant show alongside Peter,” Clack said. “The diversity of the cast, writers, and crew in addition to their enormous talent and dedication to their craft makes this a thrilling adventure to undertake. We are excited about the stories we get to tell using this worldwide platform and both understand the responsibility of being able to share them as we reach into millions of homes weekly. Many thanks to Krista and Shondaland for this opportunity and their faith in us.”
Paige added: “I’m beyond honored to be handed the reins to Station 19 – a show I love, full of incredible, complex characters, and resonant, important stories. To get to partner with a talent like Zoanne as showrunners truly makes it all the more exciting – we share a similar vision for the show, and we’ve got some incredible twists and turns planned for the coming season. A huge thank you to the entire team at Shondaland, and everyone at ABC for their faith in us. And eternal gratitude to Krista Vernoff, for bringing me into the 19 family, and for modeling conscious leadership in such a powerful and deliberate way.”
Clack is represented by CAA, Circle of Confusion and Felker Toczek Suddelson Abramsib McGinnis Ryan LLP and Paige is represented by Anonymous Content and Jackoway, Tyerman, Wertheimer, Austen, Mandelbaum, Morris, & Klein.
