Shonda Rhimes Still Feeling Good About Firing Isaiah Washington

As Isaiah Washington continues to unleash a tsunami of silence-breakings upon a public that has long since ceased to care about the vast, gay-winged conspiracy responsible for his dismissal from Grey's Anatomy, one key player who has succeeded in not speaking about the controversy was series creator Shonda Rhimes—that is, until yesterday's press-tour panel for Grey's spinoff Private Practice, when the EP was cornered by a pack of quote-hungry reporters who wouldn't take "no comment" for an answer. According to an interview with, the weary showrunner was on the same page as her ABC overlords when she made the fatal call:

How difficult was it for you to let Isaiah go, on a personal level? Shonda Rhimes: It wasn't. It was a decision that was a long time coming, and it felt like it was the right decision for all of us. [...]
So you agreed with the decision? Rhimes: Of course I did. When was the moment when you realized, 'You know, we're going to have to make a change here?' Rhimes: Again, I feel like this is stuff that happened in our family, and I don't want to give specifics on sort of how and what happened. But there was a moment when I was sure and felt good and comfortable about the decision and that it was the right decision to be made for everybody.

Rhimes's own version of events make her seem far less conflicted about the firing than initial reports—which had described her as having "wept" while delivering the news—had suggested. Call us eternal optimists, but we can't help but feel that when a showrunner manages to find deep, inner peace in her shitcanning decisions, order has once again begun to be restored to an unruly TV universe.