Shonda Rhimes Says She Left ABC for Netflix After Being Refused a Free Disneyland Pass
When Shonda Rhimes left ABC—where she had produced her mega-hit shows Grey's Anatomy and Scandal—for Netflix in 2017, it sent shockwaves through the TV industry.
The showrunner opened up about exactly what led to that decision in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, as the first projects she's produced for Netflix are set to premiere later this year. (First up is a documentary on Debbie Allen, then Bridgerton. Her original series on scammer Anna Delvey, Inventing Anna, will eventually follow.)
Given how successful her shows have been for ABC, you'd think the network would've treated her like a queen—but according to Rhimes, there was constant pushback over everything, from budgets to a commercial she and her A-list casts filmed for Hillary Clinton. “I felt like I was dying,” she told THR. “Like I'd been pushing the same ball up the same hill in the exact same way for a really long time.”
The final straw came in the form of a free pass to Disneyland (ABC is owned by Disney). According to THR, Rhimes had been given an all-inclusive pass for herself (and one for her nanny) but was in need of a third on one certain occasion for her sister since the passes are nontransferrable. After making a call and much back-and-forth with people telling her, “We never do this,” she got another pass, only to have it not work when her family arrived at the theme park.
Rhimes called a “high-ranking executive” hoping to quickly sort out the matter, only to be allegedly told, “Don't you have enough?” Um, what? Hasn't Shonda Rhimes done enough for your network—like generating millions and millions of dollars—for this to get “handled,” as Olivia Pope would say?
She got off the phone and immediately told her representatives to find a way to get her over to Netflix.
“The reason I came to Netflix is because I wanted to be able to make television without anybody bothering me,” she said. “And as long as I get to keep making television without anybody bothering me, I'm happy.”
Originally Appeared on Glamour
