Ellen Pompeo on the possibility of leaving ‘Grey’s Anatomy:’ ‘I’m definitely looking for a change’

While Kaley Cuoco would have stayed on “Big Bang Theory” for 20 more years,

Ellen Pompeo may be looking to end her 13-year tenure on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the actress — one of four stars who have been on

the series since its 2005 premiere — dropped some heavy hints she’s thinking

about wrapping things up with “Grey’s.” “I’m clearly not prepared right now to make

any formal announcement about what my future is on the show,” she said when

asked if she’d stick around after the end of Season 16, “… but I am really feeling like we

have told the majority of the stories that we can tell. It’s about time that I mix it up.

I’m definitely looking for a change.” Celebitchy points out Ellen, who’s now making

about $20 million a year on “Grey’s,” told Us Weekly in May that she and Shonda Rhimes

were thinking about ending the show and planned to make the call as to when and how that

would happen together. “I still am fighting every day for the quality of the show to be good

and for the actors to be happy. I still care very much about the show,” Ellen told EW.

Shonda, meanwhile, told the magazine that she’s struggled to close out the long-running

series the right way. “I have written the end of the show at least six times, but we just don’t end,”

she said. “Every time I thought, ‘This is how the show should end,’ we’ve gone past those moments,

so I’ve stopped trying. I have no idea now.”