Grey’s Anatomy Season Finale Guns Down Rivals; Why The SWAT Team Didn’t Take a Second Shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSlO8bkn2I4

Variety reports that Grey’s Anatomy’s season finale was a hit. [NOTE: to see the initial gun violence, click on the link and skip to 7:44] The show wasn’t as big a hit as last year’s finale, but what do you want, blood? Well yes, obviously. Before I share the viewer stats, a quick heads-up to TV producers: portraying the hearing damage caused by a gun shot / shots opens up tremendous acting possibilities. It would also serve the public interest: showing another “consequence” of gun violence. How civic-minded would that be? After the numbers, an answer to the question plaguing gun-aware viewers: why didn’t the SWAT team take out the gunman after their first shot?

The two-hour season finale of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” in which a revenge-minded gunman shot and killed several members of the hospital staff, dominated the final Thursday of the television season. ABC won the night with ease in all key demos, while CBS held the advantage in total viewers.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Grey’s Anatomy” averaged a strong 5.3 rating/15 share in adults 18-49 and 15.0 million viewers overall — rising about 35% above its recent range, growing with each half-hour and hitting a six-month high; from 10:30 to 11, the veteran drama doubled its closest competitor in 18-49 (6.2 to 3.1). Despite the strong performance, “Grey’s” still came in down some vs. its year-ago finale.

ausiellofiles.ew.com has an “exclusive” interview with Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes. Love, babies, yada yada yada. Guns!

Let’s shift gears to the actual crisis itself. I get that there’s a certain suspension of disbelief that comes with stories like this. But I don’t get why the SWAT team didn’t take the gunman out after they shot him the first time. It looked like they easily could have gotten a second shot in there.

RHIMES: They didn’t have a clear shot of him again.

But he was just laying there on the floor.

RHIMES: But Lexie was in between them. And then she got up and was still in between them. And she’s running away and he’s running away at the same time. So I don’t see that they could have gotten a clear shot.

Fans are joking that Seattle has the worst SWAT team in the country.

RHIMES: That’s a shame because we have these super awesome SWAT guys who talked us through everything. And we had a meeting in which I said, “Seriously, it would be five guys in a group searching [the entire] hospital? That sounds crazy to me.” And they said that’s how it works. And for me, it made it so much more horrible because that hospital is enormous. And the idea that just five guys are going to save them is ridiculous on so many levels, and yet, that’s how it works. When you’re looking for a shooter, you don’t have a bunch of people all spread out apparently.