Yahoo Lifestyle Shondaland’s Betsy Beers On ‘Bridgerton’ Season 4, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘The Residence’, Shooting In LA & Expanding Into Non-Fiction
Shondaland, the company behind hits such as Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton and upcoming murder mystery The Residence, is turning 20 this year.
Shonda Rhimes and her production partner Betsy Beers have been responsible for hundreds of hours of scripted television in that time.
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At a Deadline-moderated panel session at NATPE in Miami, Beers talked about the past, present and future of Shondaland as it readies its latest show – The Residence starring Uzo Aduba. She also talked about the fourth season of Bridgerton, the future of Grey’s Anatomy and hopes to expand the company’s non-fiction slate.
Beers, who is being feted at NATPE as a “Shift Disturber” didn’t give too much away about season four of its steamy rom-com, which recently started production. “It’s about Benedict Bridgerton,” she joked when asked to tease the upcoming season, which will focus on Luke Thompson’s character and his love interest Sophie Baek, played by Yerin Ha.
“Every season is its own story. Every season has got Bridgerton tones but they’re all different. What is wonderful about this is it’s an entirely different set of obstacles than we’ve seen before and everybody in the Bridgerton family right now is in there. They’re all in different stages,” she added.
Season one launched in 2020, season two dropped in 2022 and the third season premiered last spring. It’s not clear when season four will drop but 2026 is a pretty good guess.
Grey’s Anatomy, which is ABC’s longest running primetime show, is currently in its 21st season, which is expected to feature 18 episodes. This season has seen the return of Jason George and Kali Rocha, the introduction of Sophia Bush and the departure of Jake Borelli.
A move to Thursday nights at 10pm had some fans worrying that the show may be winding down. But Beers is confident that it can continue on for some time, buoyed by the fact that it was the second most popular streaming show of 2025, per Luminate, after Bluey.
“People always ask, ‘Do you think about this in terms of how long something will run?’ All we love to do is work on things that we love or are interested in, and that we would watch. That was sort of the key. I still think it’s a really fun show to watch. The great thing is, it’s a situation where you can bring people in and people leave, and people come back, and new people come in, and there’s always an engine for new personalities, new conflicts. The great thing and the sad thing about medicine is it’s always changing, and there are always new cases. As a setting, it’s great,” she said.
“As long as people want to watch it, we’re excited about making it,” she added.
Grey’s was responsible for two spinoffs – Private Practice, which ended in 2013, and Station 19, which concluded in May 2024. Beers, like Rhimes, admitted that she misses Private Practice.
She said that she “sometimes” thinks of rebooting such shows. “The way I feel about it is you always try to do something new, and you have something new to bring to it, then it’s a way of looking at it. But one of our rules or mantras, is we only want to do things that we want to watch, and we want to expand and explore into worlds that we have not worked before,” she added.
Premiering on Netflix on March 20 is Shondaland’s next show – The Residence – which stars Aduba as detective Cordelia Cupp, who is investigating a murder in the White House. It was created by Paul Williams Davies.
“It is incredibly unique. It is an amazing ensemble of talent, it’s just incredibly funny, and it’s incredibly novel, in terms of the storytelling,” she said.
It marks a move into the comedy world, which is something Beers has long wanted to do more of with Rhimes, who wrote The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. “I started as a pretty bad comic actress, so it’s great to be actually able to participate and work on something which is this funny,” she added.
The show was shot in LA, which is rarer these days, with the team building a replica of The White House on sound stages. Beers called this a “terrific” opportunity. It comes as the Stay in LA campaign gathers pace.
“Grey’s Anatomy shoots in Los Angeles, so many things we have filmed have been shot in LA and we’re all very supportive of the idea of making sure that there’s work for the folks. LA has got so much to offer,” she said.
Beers acknowledged that it’s been a tough few years for the television business with Covid, the strikes and the wildfires. “There’s obviously been a contraction, which we all know. Things are definitely getting smaller. But I have a lot of faith in talent and a lot of faith in the work that people do and the resilience of artists. During periods like this, people are very inventive and creative about figuring out ways of telling stories. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I believe that great shows and great movies and great projects are going to continue to be made… [even if] the way they’re going to be made is going to have to evolve,” she added.
Shondaland has moved into the documentary space over the last few years with Dance Dreams in 2020 and Black Barbie last year.
Beers wants to do more in the unscripted world. “It’s something that we haven’t done a lot of, and I think we’re really excited about getting involved in it. There are a couple of things that we’re talking about doing right now. I’m a big unscripted documentary person, a gigantic HGTV fan. I also love any show that involves real estate and I love relaxing with unscripted,” she said.
“We’ll do everything from soup to nuts because we’re all interested in a lot. I can’t be more specific because honestly we’ll do anything we feel like is the Shondaland brand, which means that it’s something we haven’t done before, that’s something that we want to watch, that’s inclusive, that there’s an aspect to it that is somewhat aspirational and is hopefully addictive in the best way,” she added.
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