Grey's Anatomy boss: Returning to the 9 p.m. timeslot will allow for sexier storylines

Deadline

ABC announced Thursday morning that when Grey's returns from winter hiatus on Jan. 23, it will move back to the 9 p.m. Thursday timeslot it called home from 2006 through May 2014. Grey's moved to the 8 p.m. Thursday timeslot in fall 2014 to make way for Scandal and to lead off Shonda Rhimes' "Thank God It's Thursday" lineup. Station 19 will take over the 8 pm. Thursday timeslot. “There are different rules for a 9 p.m. show than there are for an 8 p.m. show, and we hope to take advantage of those rules,” says showrunner Krista Vernoff. “Grey’s was definitely allowed to be a sexier show when it was on at 9 o’clock. So we are excited by the change back to our original (Thursday) time slot.” Vernoff also explained how Grey's explosive midseason finale Thursday will be resolved with the Station 19 crossover on Jan. 23. "It felt very organic to launch the premiere of Station 19 off this incident that happens on Grey’s Anatomy,” says Vernoff. “We often do catastrophes or disasters in the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, and it felt organic to do that and then allow the Station 19 first responders to be on the scene when we come back in January. There is an incident at the end of the Grey’s episode that requires you to come back in January at 8 p.m. to see how the first responders handle it.” Vernoff, who took over showrunning duties on Station 19 this season, was quick to emphasize the crossovers will only happen every so often. “We don’t want to do it every week, we don’t want to create a mold, we don’t want to fall into any kind of pattern, we don’t want people to ever know what to expect," says Vernoff. "We have found many different, really quite exciting and fun ways to interact between the two shows.” Vernoff adds: "The network hired me to run Station 19 so that Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy could be a more unified world with a more unified timeline and a more unified storytelling." ALSO: Watch a preview of the Station 19-Grey's Anatomy crossover event.