You'll Never Recover from These Seriously Devastating TV Character Deaths

The days of good guys winning and bad guys meeting their grisly demise have long since passed. As it turns out, TV writers are no longer afraid to destroy your soul. Killing off a beloved character is a bold decision—sometimes it's necessary for the plot, sometimes it has to do with what's happening off-screen. Either way, when a good guy dies, you can't help but clutch your pearls and mourn their passing. Here is your official SPOILER WARNING—read on at your own risk.

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Derek Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy prepared as best they could for McDreamy’s departure from the show, but no one was ready to witness the painfully tragic death of Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). The finale of Season 11 was tense with dread—audiences held their breath as they watched Shepherd rescue the victims of a fiery car crash just before suffering his own fatal accident. Worse yet, the only staff available at the nearest hospital was trainees. Shepherd narrated his own demise in a crushing voice-over until Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) decided to take the doctor off life support. In typical fashion, Grey’s Anatomy never fails to devastate.

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The More You Know

  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Valerie Harper almost didn't get the part of Rhoda because she was too "attractive." Apparently the producers had someone more "unkempt" in mind.
  • Super Bowl XLIX was the most-watched TV event
  • Netflix spent roughly $12 billion developing original television shows and movies in 2018, a figure that increased to roughly $15 billion in 2019.
  • Kelsey Grammer made $1.3 million per episode of the hit show Frasier.
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