Shonda Rhimes pushed back and "declined" ABC's Standard and Practices' notes on Thursday's "powerful" Grey's Anatomy episode

The Hollywood Reporter

Hours before Grey's Anatomy aired Thursday's episode on consent inspired by Christine Blasey Ford's testimony, showrunner Krista Vernoff tweeted for parents to "please heed the viewer discretion warning. Consider watching before your kids do, or at least, watch with them. It’s heavy and different than what we have been doing and could be too much for a 12 or 14 year old to process." Vernoff and writer Elisabeth Finch decided to do a graphic episode inspired by the Brett Kavanaugh accuser's testimony after visiting UCLA's Rape Treatment Center. But Vernoff says the show received pushback from ABC's Standards and Practices department, prompting Rhimes' to decline the feedback. "Shonda wrote back a pretty passionate response of the myriad ways that networks are willing to show actual violence but that what we were doing here was the medical process that happens in the wake of violence and they were trying to tell us we couldn't show it," says Vernoff. "She said, 'Respectfully, I decline these notes.' That ultimately ABC understood that she was right. I really give them credit that they came back and said, 'You're right. You can proceed as scripted.' We then extended the invitation to that ABC Broadcast S&P executive to be part of the wall of women and she came."