TV mogul Shonda Rhimes recently appeared on Alex Cooper‘s uber-popular Call Her Daddy podcast. Cooper and Rhimes chatted about Rhimes’ many hit series, including Grey’s Anatomy, which recently returned with an explosive Season 22 premiere.

Grey’s is infamous for killing off major characters, but which death affected Rhimes the most? She found killing off Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hard, but she revealed:

Probably George’s [T.R. Knight]. George was really… That character is so beloved; T.R. is such a lovely guy. That was such a hard thing to do. T.R. was so amazing because he didn’t need to lay on that table, but he was like, ‘I’m gonna do the role, even though you’re never gonna see my face,’ the whole nine yards. He was wonderful.

She added:

It broke me, so I knew that the audience would respond to it. But I really loved it.

Cooper shared that the deaths of Lexie (Chyler Grey) and Mark (AKA “McSteamy”), played by Eric Dane, affected her. She said she was rooting for the couple, then they died.

Rhimes explained she hasn’t really watched the show, but she went on to look back at Lexie and Mark’s demises. She said:

So I recently went back and I started watching select pieces of episodes. I watched that episode, and I was horrified. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is like a freaking snuff film.’ Like, what the heck?

She clarified that her focus is on the stories. Rhimes mused:

During the time when I’m doing it, I’m inside the story. I always think my job is to be keeper of the story, not keeper of the actors, not keeper of the show, not keeper of the fans. My whole job is to just be true to the story. That was the story. But I watch it back now and I was like, I can’t believe that, like, that actually happened and that people survived watching that. That was horrifying.

Check out the full conversation below, with this part of the discussion starting around 27:22.

This story was originally reported by Daytime Confidential on Oct 13, 2025, where it first appeared in the Entertainment Highlights section. Add Daytime Confidential as a Preferred Source by clicking here.