What Is the Most Realistic Medical Show? Ranking ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘The Good Doctor’ & More
Medical shows on TV aren’t 100 percent accurate, but some are definitely closer to reality than others.
Thirty years after ER set the tone, doctor-based series are still a top choice for viewers, with established favorites like Grey’s Anatomy and Chicago Med still going strong. So we decided to do a little investigating into which are most true-to-life, including taking a look at ones off the air like the aforementioned ER and The Resident.
From doctors doing the work of nurses to surgeons having an impossibly wide range of specialties, some creative licenses are being taken. Considering these medical inaccuracies, we ranked 10 popular hospital shows on a scale from 1 (totally unrealistic) to 10 (doctor-approved).
Scroll down to find out how your favorite medical show scored!
Grey’s Anatomy (2005-Present)
Score: 3/10
It may be one of the most well-known medical shows on TV, but Grey’s Anatomy is the least accurate when it comes to hospital life. There are the frequent sexcapades in hospital closets, interns performing surgeries and bypassing hospital superiors, and residents routinely making egregious mistakes without repercussions. In other words, Grey’s misses the mark when it comes to realism.
Private Practice (2007-2013)
Score: 3/10
The Grey’s spinoff was just as over-the-top with drama and relationships as the flagship series. Not to mention, there are the extraordinary cases and crazy situations. But in reality, day-to-day hospital life simply isn’t that exciting.
House (2004-2012)
Score: 4/10
The most obvious flaw in House is that, despite his obvious opioid addiction, Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is still able to practice medicine. Sadly, addiction among doctors can be a reality, but Dr. House’s constant pill-popping and inappropriate behavior would certainly lose him his medical license. On top of that, one small group of doctors performs all of the testing, focuses on one patient at a time, and faces one-in-a-million cases every episode.
New Amsterdam (2018-2023)
Score: 6/10
NBC’s medical drama was inspired by one of America’s oldest hospitals, but its inspiration didn’t always translate into accuracy. Sure, New Amsterdam had mostly accurate depictions of medical treatment, but the over-the-top drama knocks it down a few pegs on our scoring spectrum.
The Good Doctor (2017-Present)
Score: 6/10
ABC’s hit does have its fair share of medical errors — walking into an OR without a mask, unnecessarily removal of organs — but compared to other medical shows, it’s fairly accurate when it comes to medical jargon, diagnoses, and treatments. “Some [cases] do seem so outlandish, but the fact is they’re really medical truth,” lead medical consultant Dr. Oren Gottfried shared.
The Resident (2018-2023)
Score: 5/10
On top of the usual medical show mistakes, The Resident featured frequent hospital hookups and even had one character whip out her phone in the OR to take a selfie. With that ratio of realism to entertainment, The Resident lands in the middle of the pack.
ER (1994-2009)
Score: 7/10
ER accurately demonstrated how difficult it is to be an emergency doctor — even if the NBC drama did make some common mistakes. For instance, they frequently showed residents doing the work of nurses, and they often exaggerated how effective CPR actually is.
Code Black (2015-2018)
Score: 7/10
One of the most prominent issues with this show was the name itself. CBS defined “code black” as the term for when an ER is overcrowded and understaffed. However, this term can mean very different things for different hospitals, including bomb threats and personal threats. That said, many real-life nurses have been vocal about the show’s accuracy, which earns it a 7/10.
Chicago Med (2015-Present)
Score: 8/10
Dick Wolf’s Chicago Med is one of the more realistic hospital shows on TV. The series medical advisor, Andrew Dennis, estimates the medicine to be about 85 percent accurate. The writers also follow the rule that only published cases can be used.
Scrubs (2001-2010)
Score: 9/10
Surprisingly, TV comedy Scrubs ranks as the most realistic medical show with an overall score of an 9/10. Though not perfect — no medical show is — Scrubs managed to capture the residency training process and the dynamics of a hospital. Plus, it had realistic cases!
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ER will always rule them all to me!
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I am happy to see how Chicago Med ranked! I love that show. I always start these shows and don't want to get hooked, but it always happens! I am currently enjoying Chicago Med, New Amsterdam, and The Resident. I tried The Good Doctor, but it bothered me how they portrayed autistic people. My son is autistic so it hits close to home. I was thinking about starting Grey's but not sure now.
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I’ve always said that scrubs is the most realistic hospital based show on television. And the nurses are strong and competent professionals, not just handmaidens and sex objects for the doctors.
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Medically accurate or not, "The Good Doctor" for me.
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me too
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I miss Chicago Hope
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Scrubs is epic! My fave! Best bromance ever
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ER was the best...hands down!
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So a sitcom was the most accurate! I didn't see that coming.
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Just one more reason why Scrubs is THE GREATEST show of all time. Come for the laughs, Stay for the realism!
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A long time fan pointed out there wasn't much medical practice happening in the shows.
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to be honest i think code black is the best med show at least in my opinion and it deserved to continue and not be canceled.
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greys is good if you want to watch a romantic drama.
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C
I would like to have seen St. Elsewhere. I loved that show.
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Me too! The final episode had me sobbing.
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It’s on Hulu
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I watched that it was great. Cool to see things from that era.
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O
Please keep watching the good doctor, after the first season you see how Sean over comes his obstacles and as a social worker who specializes in youth on the spectrum, I love seeing how they show the difficulties many people face as well as the MANY MANY successes. Sean has wonderful strong relationships, and becomes a well respected doctor.
Do you and your son a favour and give the show another try hun.
Hugs from Canada 🇨🇦
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R
And St. Elsewhere! Best character development.
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R
Totally agree with Scrubs. My wife is a Nurse Practitioner who worked in the ER for about 10 years and she's always said her and her co-workers think Scrubs was the most realistic and captures closest to what it's really like. Plus it's brilliantly funny, so that helps too.
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B
ER really was a good show. Just the right mix of medicine, drama, comedy and acting. I appreciated the seriousness of the actors and dedication to the show. Sure would love to see it back on air. Any chance of the original actors picking it up and running with it? Don't have a clue what happened to many except Juliana Margulies and George Clooney.
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B
ersuIn ER diagnoses and treatments are accurate, except for the fact that every other patient gets epinephrine, atropine, and shock paddles. House is quite terrible. Their CT and MRI scanners never show anything in cases that would light them up in real life. House always administers absurdly aggressive, wrong, treatments before making a diagnosis, in the hope that treatment response will clarify the diagnosis. His deductions are often random guesses. For example, tularemia was in the differential diagnosis of a patient because she cooked a rabbit at work, even though her symptoms had little in common with those of that disease. Treatments are often wrong as well. The patient got chloramphenicol for the non existent tularemia, just because they wanted to show House giving a dangerous antibiotic. There are three other antibiotics used for that disease.
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C
ER was the best
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Can someone construe the fact that Doogie Howser M.D. is probably the MOST Inaccurate and WORST of all medical television series?
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O
Grey's all the freaking way
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House. It may be exaggerated but doctors and nurses can and many are flawed humans as are we are.
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O
My favourite will always be House as well.
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O
actually racist depending on where you live the staff can be 80 percent non white and news flash most drs are IMMIGRANTS (non-white)
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R
What about Chicago Hope? Excellent but forgotten!
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B
As an experienced nurse, myy vote goes to MASH. Followed by “Nurse Jackie.” at a distant 2ndplace.
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I'm rewatching ER right now Season 1. Now that I know some stuff (I didn't originally), I Googled why doctors on ER do nurse's work--cleaning wounds is a common mistake. And yes, no gloves touching patients, no wash stations, and throwing gloves and gowns on the ground. And Dr Lewis in S1E15 ordered "Take a 12-lead" and 10 seconds later they produced the print out but no one stopped touching the patient and he didn't remain still. But as mistakes go, I'm fine with these minor things because the romance isn't too thick and the characters are very likable. A very nice balance. So I love it too. 🙂
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Dr Kildare 🤒
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I was 100% addicted to House. I loved the unusual cases and the unorthodox way of coming to the answer. Of course, it is television drama and sometimes we don’t want reality. We want to escape it. The cases can sometimes trigger an aha moment for a difficult case in your own life. Now, I wanted to see one episode of Chicago Med and got got reeled in. It is a very intriguing drama. It makes it especially interesting if one is a fan of Chicago Fire or Chicago PD.
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yesssssss it is the best i love the drama
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ER; still The Standard.
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My mum who just cannot watch any medical dramas (she's been a doctor for nearly 45 years now) really enjoys Chicago Med. So 2 👍👍to them.
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C
My wife loves Grey's Anatomy. It is probably my least favorite show of all time.
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ER is my favourite and always will be!!
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C
You have to watch Grey's it is amazing
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R
I watched 8 of the 9 seasons of Scrubs (9 was lame!). If you do the same, you'll find that there's very little actual medical practice done. Maybe that's why it scored so high. Regardless, it's one of my all-time favorite series.
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P
St. Elsewhere not on this list? C'mon!
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Conclusion: being medically 'accurate' does not preclude commercial success. Most viewers do not care. 🤷🏾♂️
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C
Is this ranked on scientific literacy in hypothetical situations or nursing perspectives?
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O
As a crusty old RN, these shows just don't accurately show hospital life. Nurses run hospitals. It's amazing how many times these shows are devoid of nurses, and show physicians doing tasks that are actually performed by nurses, nurse practitioners or PA's. That being said, absolutely love scrubs. The only medical type show that I can watch without rolling my eyes repeatedly.
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O
What about Transplant? How does it rank?
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R
Started watching Code Black it was an amazing show should never have been
Cancelled.
Messed up when they added Eric Roberts and Rob Lowe too much arrogance.
The black playing chief of staff has no empathy at all
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O
I am glad Chicago Med rated high! It is one of my favorite shows! I also enjoy New Amsterdam and wish it was at least a 7.
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C
Grey's Anatomy is a romantic drama. My wife is an RN. It's unwatchable to her. Small flashlights being held over patients throats, and the dynamic between doctors and nurses is a joke. Everyone is sleeping with everyone in closets. The most egregious is when the interns killed Danny Doucette. They would have been brought up on charges.
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Lol! Hey, at least your reasoning is honest.
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I think everyone will agree on that, even if they like another better. I used to stay up until 2 in the morning to watch Ben Casey when I was in medical school
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Me Three
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The most unrealistic thing about medical shows is how great people look post-op! Lol totally fake!
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LOL I work in an actual hospital and there has never been a hospital show that comes close to being accurate! Sorry but they are all fake and way over the top!
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How do u intend to watch it because it is not on Netflix been trying to watch grey . Kemi from Nigeria
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You clearly forgot “Fraiser.” As a psychiatrist for 40 years I can assure you this is the most accurate show on doctors that has ever occurred.
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After a few seasons of House, I realized that I was watching only because of Jennifer Morrison.
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G
This a terrible ranking to be quite honest.
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O
Forgotten in general or do you mean forgotten by you? This article isn't titled Most Realistic Medical TV Shows in Jena's World.
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O
A single occurrence of a phone being whipped out in OR is a single instance too many, "getting to know" them or not. Or correct me: Was the character we were getting to know in the phone-in-the-OR situation also going to be fired? If not, then it's already over a serious cliff. It happens in the news occasionally where some seriously deluded surgeon takes video, raps, and takes selfies and scandal erupts. There's a reason the person who took a selfie with Joan Rivers on the procedure table got their rear ends handed to them after she died.
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Regarding “The Resident”: The phone was an important part of the scene, so you would get to know the characters. Seems to me that these shows were rated on a single episode...
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I think that Medical Center was the best medical Show and accurate
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T
Just finished The Good Doctor, it was good!
And Scrubs obvs is great.
I wonder MASH would rank? 🤔
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K
What about Nurse Jackie?
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I was a big fan of ER, but I wonder if St Elsewhere would stand the test of time. I believe that it was the first medical drama that portrayed the doctors as flawed/human.
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Greys is okay if you don't mind doctors boffing each other and then running out to treat patients. Who's-doing-who is the focus of this show.
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I gave up on Grey's years ago when Izzy's "boyfriend/patient" (which was a completely unethical relationship in the first place) died and she climbed on top of him, shrieking, while all the other staff let her.
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I 100% agree with this ranking. As a nurse, I've always been partial to how accurate the various dynamics between residents, fellows, RNs, techs, secretaries, and environmental services staff played out. I don't think they missed a beat. The inside jokes are very much on point. The whole political overtones between each other are also very realistic. Kudos to whoever ranked these and whatever formula they used.
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Olivia Wilde please
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i absolutely love the good doctor and i’m glad it is somewhat realistic
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That's awesome. I actually went to school with one of the scrubby actresses brother. (Eliza Coupe). We were in a few school plays together.
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Did you rank each show? I know General Hospital is considered a soap, but theres medical stuff there. And I didn' see St. Elsewhere. And what aboyt older shows that people still stream like Ben Casey or Dr. Kildare?
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I feel BBC's "Casualty" (1986-present) should have got an honorable mention...
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And it's spin-off "Holby City" (1999-present)
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I can agree lol
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Agree! The selfie in the pilot was used to show that the nurse (a side character!) was immature and she ended up deleting the photo because it wasn't a good idea anyway. This article was nice but seemed a little like it jumped to conclusions
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It's at the end of the article. Did they add it? I don't see an edit timestamp. Maybe they did though.
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I started liking Private Practice in 2012 but got distracted away by life. Meant to watch the final season, but never did. TRIED to get into Grey's and saw some interesting drama (the bomb for instance) but the romance drama was just too gross for me. Couldn't do it. Yuck. I personally don't think you missed much.
ps. Yeah, Private Practice had romance. But for some reason I could stomach it whereas for Grey's I could not.
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My favorite will always be House. I love how intelligent he is. This article completely misses the point about House. He is a genius, and the whole Diagnostics Department was created AROUND him. Such a thing doesn't normally exist. They deal with one-in-a-million cases every day because that is ALL they deal with: cases other doctors can't figure out.
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C
No Chicago med? Disappointing
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Zoanne clack is not a resident
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As a nurse , Chicago Med is the least accurate on medicine. They were putting VADs in, in the ER. Plus several inaccurate things. For medical reality, Grey's Anatomy is the most accurate
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There are only 18% non-white US citizens, and only 25% of them have a college degree, and yet, NBC's "the good doctor" managed to come up with a 80% non-white staff ER... Pure liberal propaganda... Dog, I miss the 70's and 80's... Todays TV is pure crap!
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"Such a thing doesn't normally exist."
But that exactly explains how it's not realistic. They got the point about House. You didn't get the point about the article. By the way, I watched House back in the day. My memory is fuzzy but if I recall correctly, a lot of these 1/1,000,000 cases came from local people, so that the team can go investigate their homes for clues. That many rare cases being local is extremely unrealistic. But if I'm inaccurate about that, the point still stands about "doesn't normally exist" necessitates a rating of unrealistic.
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In retrospect maybe I would have liked Scrubs. But Zach Braff annoys me for some reason and all the rabid fans quoting Scrubs at the time made me steer clear. Oh well. Not going to go back to cover it. Too much to do elsewhere.
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O
Should include St. Elsewhere, 1982-1988. Very realistic.
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J
How often do they rerun this article? Some of these show have been forgotten by now, and some new ones aren't on here.
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B
The main problem I have with Chicago Med is the ER attending physicians are always scrubbing in for surgery which is where a lot of the inaccuracies occur. Most OR surgical physicians are on call or in the OR not in the ER, If all of those doctors are in surgery who the hell is the doctor in the ER!? I also wish more of the medical shows focused more on the supporting staff such as the nurses, as they are the one's who are usually in the rooms doing everything. I know most shows don't have the budget for that kind of staffing! Also, Dick Wolf reuses story lines of relationships between characters throughout all of his shows, and if you watch all of them. You start telegraphing everything that will happen in each show, and it makes them start to become boring. I would say Scrubs and Grey are probably better examples of reality in the hospital environment, although in the hospital I used to work at Doctors more often dated nurses and not other Doctors, LOL.
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O
Sex objects for docs? Really? Get on some meds..
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Are you attributing your undesired feelings/ thoughts to the physicians? I think so.
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I love ER but the way went from 1 room to the next with emergencies was crazy. Never washing their hands, the way they took off their gloves, and the way they took off their gowns, lol , made me think all of the infections and diseases that would have been shared in real life. I'm only speaking on this series because I am watching it starting at season 1. I love ER series like I love Grey's Anatomy!!!!
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HANDS DOWN GREY’S ANATOMY IS THE BEST!
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greys anatomy is the best out of all... i have watched all 16 seasons, and every episode makes me want to be a surgeon.
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