Chris O'Donnell had the unenviable job of playing Meredith's first boyfriend Finn after she broke up with McDreamy. Fortunately, O'Donnell knew his time at Seattle Grace would be short and sweet.

"It was always supposed to be an in and out thing," he recalls. "They kept asking me to stay for some more episodes. At a certain point they wanted me to stay even longer, but having been in the business long enough I knew it was never going to be my show. I was going to be so far down the totem pole. TV can be a great business but you need to participate in it. From a business standpoint, it wasn't going to be a success for me.

But what it did for me was incredible. It gave me an enormous boost. I was blown away by how many people were watching that show. Everywhere I went, people were watching that show! I'm very grateful to Shonda Rhimes and the team for the run. It opened up a lot of doors for me and kind of brought me back."

https://ew.com/movies/chris-odonnell-role-call-ncis-la/