Shonda Rhimes & Casts of Hit ABC Series Set for First-Time Ever Editorial Event

Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly, ESSENCE, and PEOPLE are partnering for the first time in a star-studded event and cross-title editorial package honoring television's preeminent creator and producer, Shonda Rhimes, and the casts of ABC's hit shows --Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER - in celebration of the season premieres of the network's TGIT lineup. The three Time Inc. brands and ABC will co-host a celebrity event presented by Toyota in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sept. 26.

EW, ESSENCE, and PEOPLE will each feature a landmark group photo of Rhimes together with the casts of Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder, which will be revealed simultaneously on each brand's website on Sept. 2. EW will also feature a roundtable discussion between Rhimes and the show's three leading ladies, Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington, and Viola Davis. In addition, both EW and ESSENCE will roll out multiple covers featuring various Shondaland cast members, which will be revealed exclusively each Thursday on ABC's Good Morning America, kicking off on Sept. 3 and leading up to the Sept. 24 TGIT season premieres:

Entertainment Weekly: Four (4) covers hit newsstands 9/4
ESSENCE: Six (6) covers hit newsstands 9/10
PEOPLE: Feature story hits newsstands 9/4
"The powerful collaboration of EW, ESSENCE, and PEOPLE provides an audience reach of more than 116 million to celebrate the TGIT season premieres of the incredibly popular Shondaland programming. Like these three Time Inc. brands, the high-quality storytelling of Shondaland is a cultural force," said Norman Pearlstine, Chief Content Officer, Time Inc.
For more exciting news about the season premieres of ABC's TGIT lineup, including behind-the scenes video from each photo shoot, visit EW.com, ESSENCE.com, and PEOPLE.com.

About ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Entertainment Weekly is your all-access pass to Hollywood's most creative minds and most fascinating stars. The magazine was launched by Time Inc. in 1990 and is America's leading consumer publication in the entertainment category, with a guaranteed circulation rate base of nearly 1.8 million and a combined audience of almost 27 million loyal, engaged fans. Each day, EW.com publishes a myriad of featured stories, blog posts, TV-recaps, original videos, film reviews and photo galleries. In April 2015, the PEOPLE/Entertainment Weekly Network reached #1 in its competitive set with 56.4 million unique visitors and during the same month, EW.com desktop, tablet and mobile growth hit an all-time high of 19.9 million combined unique visitors. Entertainment Weekly is the first to know about the best in entertainment. With sharp insight, unparalleled access and a trusted voice, EW keeps readers plugged into pop culture. This is where the buzz begins.

Entertainment Weekly is also available on the iPhone®, iPad®, NOOK Color™, HP Touchpad, Kindle Fire, and select Android™ devices.

About ESSENCE COMMUNICATIONS INC.:
ESSENCE Communications Inc. (ECI) is the number one media company dedicated to African-American women, with a multi-platform presence in publishing, live events and online. The company's flagship publication, ESSENCE magazine, is the preeminent lifestyle magazine for African-American women; generating brand extensions such as the ESSENCE Festival, ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood and Black Women in Music, Window on Our Women and Smart Beauty consumer insights series, the ESSENCE Book Club, ESSENCE.com, and ventures in digital media (mobile, television and VOD). For 45 years, ESSENCE, which has a brand reach of 14.2 million, has been the leading source of cutting-edge information and specific solutions relating to every area of African-American women's lives. Additional information about ECI and ESSENCE is available at www.essence.com.

About PEOPLE
Time Inc.'s PEOPLE revolutionized personality journalism when it launched as a weekly in 1974 to celebrate extraordinary people doing ordinary things and ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Ubiquitous and still at the center of pop culture more than 40 years later, the PEOPLE brand is accessible on all surfaces (print, digital, video, mobile, social) bringing more than 75 million consumers a unique mix of breaking news, exclusive photos, video, and in-depth reporting on the most compelling newsmakers of our time. In addition, comScore ranks the PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly Network No. 1 in the entertainment news category.

Each year major media across the globe anticipate the cover reveal of PEOPLE's most famous franchise, the Sexiest Man Alive (which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2015) sparking a lively debate on social media. With a trusted reputation and unparalleled access to the red carpet, celebrities, and entertainment, an essential component of PEOPLE's editorial vision remains human interest stories, which touch and often mirror the lives of our passionate audience. PEOPLE is an award-winning 24/7 news organization headquartered in New York City with reporters across the globe. For more information visit PEOPLE.com and Timeinc.com, and follow @people on social media.