Shonda Rhimes Reveals Why She Left ABC for Netflix... And Disneyland Is Involved

Shonda Rhimes is one of the most beloved creators of television right now and she left her longtime home of ABC in 2017 to launch a deal with Netflix.

Rhimes is the producer of such shows as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and Station 19. Her new series Bridgerton will be her first series for Netflix.

In a new interview with THR, Shonda revealed what the final straw was in her decision to leave ABC after so many years with the network.

“I felt like I was dying,” she told the outlet about working in network TV. “Like I’d been pushing the same ball up the same hill in the exact same way for a really long time.”

As an employee of ABC, which is owned by Disney, Shonda was given an all-inclusive pass to Disneyland and since she doesn’t have a partner, her nanny was given her second pass. Her sister was in town and was going to take the kids to Disneyland with the nanny, and since the passes aren’t transferable, she asked an exec for an additional pass.

Shonda was told, “We never do this.” Eventually, she was given the pass, but when the family arrived at Disneyland, one of the passes didn’t work. She called up a “high-ranking executive” to sort out the matter, but the exec replied by saying, “Don’t you have enough?”

THR reports, “Rhimes was beside herself. She thanked him for his time, then hung up and called her lawyer: Figure out a way to get her over to Netflix, or she’d find new representatives.”

Shonda signed a $150 million deal in 2017!