Kim Raver Joins 'Grey's Anatomy' Cast -- What Does This Mean for the Show?

With the death of George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) greeting 'Grey's Anatomy' fans at the beginning of this season, Seattle Grace has experienced a void ... or should we say vacancy? According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kim Raver will be stepping into the job opening left by Knight's departure, starting with episode 9. And the plot thickens -- Michael Ausiello reports that Raver will be playing a surgeon and possible new love interest for Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd).With the death of George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) greeting 'Grey's Anatomy' fans at the beginning of this season, Seattle Grace has experienced a void ... or should we say vacancy? According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kim Raver will be stepping into the job opening left by Knight's departure, starting with episode 9. And the plot thickens -- Michael Ausiello reports that Raver will be playing a surgeon and possible new love interest for Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd).

Joining 'Grey's' is clearly a coup for Raver, whose prior credits include '24' and 'Third Watch.' She was last seen alongside Brooke Shields in NBC's 'Lipstick Jungle,' which was canceled after 20 episodes, yet had a surprisingly vocal cult following.

The addition of a known actor like Raver could be an effort to bolster the show's audience, which has shrunk over the last few seasons. After peaking in season 3 with an average of 21.3 million viewers, ratings for 'Grey's' have tapered off and now hover in the 13 to 15 million range (typically depending on who is about to die on the show).

It's likely, however, that Raver won't have that much screen time with two of the show's biggest leading ladies, as this move is probably also meant to counter the fact that Ellen Pompeo will be out on maternity leave this season and Katherine Heigl will be on hiatus shooting 'Life as We Know It,' opposite 'Mad Men''s Christina Hendricks. With those two literally out of the picture, Raver's task will be to continue the show's tradition of strong female leads ... or to make up for the fact that the name "Izzie" has become synonymous with eye-rolling and yelling (both on her part and ours).

The Raver casting also comes on the heels of the news that 'Greek''s Jesse Williams and veteran actress Martha Plimpton will join the cast for multi-episode arcs. Is 'Grey's' having a resurgence, or are these just preventive measures to try and keep more viewers from being tempted by 'CSI' over on CBS? Given the intriguing Owen-Cristina love triangle storyline, Raver's surgeon could serve as an antidote for a show that might be suffering from a bit of character fatigue.

What do you think? Is 'Grey's' hitting its stride again? Will Raver's addition make up for the absences of Pompeo and Heigl? Or is 'Grey's Anatomy' a lost cause?