Shonda Rhimes’ departure from ABC tied to Disneyland tickets

It’s hard to believe that ABC wouldn’t bend over backwards for Shonda Rhimes

There’s a reason that Shonda Rhimes named her production company “Shondaland” and it’s because she created a whole universe of shows and characters that have dominated television for almost two decades. She was the face of ABC for a long time until she signed a deal with Netflix, and now she’s talking about what pushed her to leave ABC…and honestly, we can’t blame her a bit.

In an October feature in THR, Rhymes opened up about her departure from ABC and how hard it was to work with the network even after creating several successful shows for them, including Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19 and How to Get Away With Murder. You might think that ABC would be willing to do anything to keep their star producer happy. She deserves it all.

According to Rhimes, after her ongoing struggles with the network the straw that broke the camel’s back came when she needed an extra ticket to Disneyland. ABC is part of the Disney family, and she has an all-inclusive Disney pass included in her contract. When she needed an extra ticket because her sister was going to take Rhimes’ daughter to the park without her, ABC balked and made it clear this was not something they could do.

When the situation was eventually handled, Rhimes says her sister showed up at the theme park to find that the ticket didn’t work. She called ABC and a high-ranking executive allegedly said “Don’t you have enough?”

Yeah. Excuse us while we pick our jaws up from the ground.

Needless to say, Rhimes called her attorney and put the Netflix deal in motion. She hasn’t looked back since.

After making close to $2 billion for ABC, a ticket to Disneyland shouldn’t even be a blip on the radar. Rhimes is in a much better place with Netflix and she’s free to create whatever she likes, and that’s the way it should be.