Go Behind The Scenes of 'Scandal'

By
ABC

On Sunday's episode of Oprah's Next Chapter, the former Queen of daytime sat down with the current Queen of Nighttime as Shonda Rhimes opened up about her rise to primetime prominence, headline making work and new show, Scandal.


VIDEO - What's Next For Fitz?

For the Scandal-focused section, star Kerry Washington joined her boss in the Pope & Associates conference room to talk about ABC's white hot drama and everyone's favorite couple, Fitzlivia. Or Olivitz.

After Rhimes calls Fitz and Olivia the central relationship of the show, Washington added, "That doesn't mean easy, that doesn't mean together." A sentiment Rhimes seconded when she said, "They love each other, but they can't be together."


RELATED - Shonda Rhimes Adopts 

And she would know since the showrunner revealed, "I literally start out every season saying, 'Here's the last moment of the season.' I can only write it if we know how it's going to end," adding, "That doesn't mean I know how we're going to get there."


Scandal
fans did get a brief (albeit, not surprising) spoiler when Next Chapter gave us an exclusive sneak peek at the table read for episode 11, which President Fitzgerald Grant was a part of, leading me to conclude his bullet wounds won't be fatal.

And while Rhimes previously opened up about Katherine Heigl's controversial Grey's Anatomy exit, we learned that the experience led to the creation of a new policy. "Shonda Rhimes vetted these actors like we were going to be in the administration," Washington laughed. "She did background checks on everybody to make sure there were no a**holes."

"I learned the hard way," Rhimes concedes. "I learned some very difficult lessons in the past about not vetting people and then finding yourself with groups of people that don't gel."


Scandal
airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC and Oprah's Next Chapter airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on OWN.