ABC'S MEDICAL DRAMA SERIES "GREY'S ANATOMY" PREMIERES SUNDAY, MARCH 27 AT 10:00 P.M., ET

"Boston Legal" to Resume on April 24

"Grey's Anatomy," a new drama series which focuses on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors, will premiere SUNDAY, MARCH 27 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. The new series will initially run for four weeks in place of repeat episodes of "Boston Legal," which will return Sunday, April 24 with all-original episodes for the remainder of the season.

In its Sunday 10:00 p.m. time period, "Grey's Anatomy" will air following "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Desperate Housewives." Sunday at 8:00 p.m., "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is drawing an average audience of 15.8 million viewers and a 6.5 rating, 16 share in Adults 18-49, ranking as the second-highest-rated program on Sunday night, behind only "Desperate Housewives." Sunday at 9:00 p.m., "Desperate Housewives" is drawing an average audience of 23.1 million viewers and a 10.2 rating, 22 share in Adults 18-49, ranking as the No. 1 new show of the season.

"Grey's Anatomy" follows the lives of first-year surgical interns Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) at Seattle Grace Hospital, the toughest surgical residency program west of Harvard. Though they were students yesterday, today they're doctors and, in a world where on the job training can be a matter of life and death, they're all juggling the ups and downs of their personal lives.

The interns are guided by an established team of doctors who are determined to shape them into skilled surgeons or break them: Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), a senior resident responsible for training them, is so tough that she's nicknamed "The Nazi"; Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) is the flirtatious but very capable surgeon who shares a forbidden but undeniable sexual attraction with Meredith; and Preston Burke's (Isaiah Washington) arrogance is second only to his skill with a scalpel. Overseeing them all is Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.), Seattle Grace's paternal but no-nonsense chief of surgery.

"Grey's Anatomy" stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd, James Pickens, Jr. as Richard Webber, T.R. Knight as George O'Malley, Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang, Katherine Heigl as Isobel "Izzie" Stevens, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, Isaiah Washington as Preston Burke and Justin Chambers as Alex Karev.

Shonda Rhimes ("Introducing Dorothy Dandridge") is creator and executive producer. Mark Gordon ("Saving Private Ryan"), Betsy Beers ("200 Cigarettes") and Jim Parriott ("The American Embassy") are executive producers. Peter Horton is co-executive producer. "Grey's Anatomy" is a Touchstone Television Production.