Shonda Rhimesis one of television’s biggest moguls, whose name is most associated with popular network dramas. Rhimes is best known as the creator, showrunner, head writer, and executive producer of ABC’s massively successfulmedical dramaGrey’s Anatomy, which premiered in 2005. Though Rhimes stepped down in 2015, the series is still airing to this day, currently in its 21st season, following the personal and professional lives of surgical interns, residents, and attending physicians at a hospital in Seattle.
Rhimes also created theGrey’s AnatomyspinoffPrivate Practice, which ran for six seasons from 2007 to 2013, following Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh), who leaves Seattle Grace Hospital to join a private practice located in Los Angeles. Outside medical dramas, Rhimes also createdScandaland, as the founder of Shondaland, has producedHow to Get Away with Murder, Netflix’sBridgerton, its spinoffQueen Charlotte,Inventing Anna, andThe Residence. In 2011,Rhimes produced another medical drama that was canceled after just one season.
Shonda Rhimes Reflects On Off The Map 14 Years Later
The Medical Drama Was Canceled After One Season
Shonda Rhimes reflects onOff the Map, which was canceled after just one season. Created byGrey’s Anatomywriter Jenna Bans, with Rhimes serving as an executive producer, theABC medical dramapremiered in 2011, followinga group of doctors from the United States who practice medicine at a remote clinic in the Amazon junglein an attempt to rediscover their true reasons for becoming doctors. The show’s cast included Martin Henderson, Valerie Cruz, Caroline Dhavernas, Jason Winston George, Zach Gilford, Mamie Gummer, Rachelle Lefevre, and Jonathan Castellanos.
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During a recent interview withEntertainment Weekly,Shonda Rhimes reflected onOff the Map’s cancellationover a decade later. She says it was a strong show with a great cast that she believes would have succeeded if it had premiered at a different time, since it didn’t fit the era’s demand for “super appointment television,” but she personally loved it and wishes it had lasted longer. Read her full comments below:
When I think about that, I definitely think aboutOff the Map.Off the Mapwas such a great cast. It was a really, really good show that I think if it started out five years ago, it’d still be running. But it was that particular time. Remember how every single thing had to be super in television because everybody was trying to catch up withLostandDesperate [Housewives]andGrey’s? So it wasn’t super appointment television enough, but it would’ve been a show that I would’ve made an appointment with television for myself, and I would’ve watched it. It was so good. I wish it had gone much further than it did.
What Shonda Rhimes' Comments Mean For Off The Map
Why Was It Canceled?
Off the Mapactually enjoyed decent ratings, as it debuted with an audience of 7.57 million viewers, making it ABC’s most-watched broadcast in the time slot at the time since the first two episodes of the Ashley Benson-led John Updike adaptationEastwickin 2009. However, by the end of season 1, which ran for 13 episodes,Off the Maphad already dwindled to 3.8 million viewers. Thus, it also followed in the footsteps ofEastwick, as that show had a similar dropoff after premiering with 8.53 million viewers and was cancelled after one season.
Eastwickwas based on the novelThe Witches of Eastwick, which had previously been adapted into a Jack Nicholson movie in 1987.
Additionally,Off the Mapreceived bad reviews, as indicated by its 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics called it “dreadfully painful in its efforts to be dramatic and earnest.” While audiences were kinder to the series, giving it a 67% score that is somewhat above the 60% threshold past which a project can be considered “Fresh,” there nevertheless does not seem to have been enough enthusiasm to maintain strong ratings. As Rhimes admits,Off the Mapwasn’t appointment television like theABC sci-fi dramaLost, though it did use many of the same production facilities in Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
Our Take On Shonda Rhimes' Off The Map Comments
Her Assessment Of The Medical Drama Landscape Is Accurate
Though this is not unexpected considering her link to one of the most popular examples of the genre in television history, Shonda Rhimes' assessment ofOff the Mapcoming at the wrong time is borne out by history. Of the more than a dozen new medical dramas that premiered on American television between 2010 and 2014,the majority ran for only one or two seasons. The longest-running shows to debut in that period were the four-season series Hart of Dixie,The Night Shift, andMasters of Sexas well as the three-season seriesBody of Proof.
Other medical dramas that were cancelled after one season during that period includeMiami Medical,Combat Hospital,Do No Harm, andBlack Box.
This streak continued unabated from 2010 until the 2015 debut ofChicago Med. TheOne Chicago universeshow is still running and is currently airing season 10.The amount of long-running medical drama debuts slowly increasedafter that.iZombie, a supernatural spin on the genre which premiered in 2015, ran for five seasons, thoughChicago Medwas not truly rivaled by a straight medical drama until the late 2010s, whenThe Good Doctordebuted in 2017, kicking off a seven-season run that was followed by the 2018 debuts of the six-seasonThe Residentand the five-seasonNew Amsterdam.
The number of popular medical dramas continues to climb…
As Rhimes says, this makes it seem very likely thatOff the Mapcould have thrived if it had been released half a decade ago. However, the number of popular medical dramas continues to climb, to the point that the show could have thrived if it had debuted in the past year. After all, since September 2024,American television has seen the debut of the buzzy medical dramasDoctor Odyssey,Watson,Doc, andThe Pitt, the latter three of which have already been renewed for second seasons.
