How will ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘The Resident’ and other medical shows address coronavirus?

Several popular medical TV dramas plan on incorporating storylines related to the coronavirus pandemic into their next seasons.

Seasons for some shows were cut short last spring when COVID-19 halted production. Some shows edited portions of episodes as the pandemic began.

The Resident

Fox’s Season 4 premiere of “The Resident” will tackle the “early day of the outbreak,” series co-creator Amy Holden Jones told Us Magazine.

“Long-term, sadly, the after-effects of COVID-19 will go on, even after we have a vaccine, and we’ll be there to show that as well,” Jones said.

Coronavirus was mentioned during the show’s Season 3 finale earlier this spring. The episode about a “superbug” was edited to include a note about its differentiation with the coronavirus, executive producer Todd Harthan told TV Line.

“By the time we were doing the final edit on that particular episode, (the coronavirus) was becoming very much a global issue,” Harthan said. “There were a a lot of conversations about how we were respectfully differentiate between the two.”

Grey’s Anatomy

Entering its 17th season on ABC, “Grey’s Anatomy” will “for sure” address the coronavirus pandemic, executive producer Krista Vernoff said earlier this week, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Vernoff said a coronavirus storyline will involve the character Dr. Owen Hunt, who is a former U.S. Army trauma surgeon, CBS News reported. Writers of the show are consulting with real doctors to figure out how best to address the subject, according to CBS News.

“It’s really important to reflect what’s going on in our society right now in our show,” Kevin McKidd, who portrays Dr. Hunt, said in a panel, CBS News reported. “It really puts up a mirror sometimes to what’s happening in America and in the world.”

New Amsterdam

The NBC series based out of New York will also take on the pandemic for its third season, Us Magazine reported.

“The target of ‘how’ is constantly moving. New York City was once the epicenter of the outbreak and now it’s one of the few cities in the country headed in the right direction,” executive producer and showrunner David Schulner told Us Weekly. “What will it look like when we start shooting? What will it look like when we air? We don’t want to depict a reality that has already passed, nor do we want to predict a future that never comes.”

NBC pulled an episode titled “Pandemic,” which was about a fictitious flu and scheduled to air April 7, according to Hollywood Reporter. Schulner said in an essay the episode, written before the coronavirus pandemic began, will run at a later time, Hollywood Reporter said.

“We shot a fictional pandemic episode right before a real pandemic hit. People are dying in real life,” Schulner said at the time, Deadline reported. “Do we really want to watch fake people die too? Some would say yes. It’s not for nothing ‘Contagion’ and ‘Outbreak’ are at the top of the iTunes chart. The reason we engage with fiction is to watch our heroes battle the monsters we can’t and to learn from their struggle. There’s hope in that. Hope is the reason fiction exists.”

Other shows

The next season for “Chicago Med” will feature a time jump to a post-coronavirus world, according to Us Magazine. The publication said plans are up in the air for Fox’s “9-1-1.”

Production for most TV shows is still halted due to the pandemic and a rising number of COVID-19 cases.

According to the California government, “workers supporting the entertainment industries, studios and other related establishments” are considered essential workers as long as they follow COVID-19 health guidance and practice social distancing.

Safety protocols for film and TV production are still being worked on by Hollywood unions and guilds, according to Deadline.

“Main obstacles to a deal between the studios and the unions include testing, the status of COVID on-set coordinators and should crew members who test positive be paid,” Deadline reported.