Scrubs: Is Sarah Chalke Returning?

The actress chats about her possible return to the hit ABC series and what the finale meant to her

Is the quirky and adorable Dr. Elliot Reid scrubbing back in for the ninth season of the hit ABC series?

The short answer? She's still not sure. But the long answer is more fun anyway, right?

The lovely Sarah Chalke is one busy lady. She's making the rounds promoting her new Lifetime miniseries, Maneater. She's still a shoo-in to drop by CBS's How I Met Your Mother. And, unfortunately, she's also still up in the air about that offer to return to ABC's just-renewed Scrubs.

"I actually don't know yet what I'm going to do, but I will very soon. You guys will be the first to know," says Sarah. "Regardless, I'm excited that the show got picked up again and it's going to go another year."

So there you have it. Nothing set in stone yet, but what Sarah said next about what was presumed to be the series finale of Scrubs and where she might end up next may surprise you...

A big reason Sarah might be hesitant to sign that season nine contract? Her new Lifetime miniseries, Maneater, is already being considered to go the way of Debra Messing's The Starter Wife and be made into a series of its own.

Sarah spills, "I think the setup on Maneater kinds of lends itself to that because you've got the close group of girlfriends, sort of a Sex and the City." (More on Maneater next week.)

Since the eighth-season ender of Scrubs was intended to be the last, the finale finally gave the fans the Jelliot conclusion we always wanted—and Sarah agrees. "I loved the finale. I'm a romantic at heart and I always thought J.D. and Elliot should end up together; I was really happy with how things ended up." Ditto!

What about the series finale as a whole? "It was really cool getting to see a little bit into the future. And I loved that all of the guest stars came back. To have that day where you have a hallway of people who had guest-starred over the years, it really was a walk down memory lane."

We know that many of you have mixed feelings about the show coming back with a new format and different characters in place of our old faves, but Sarah is just grateful that the show we all knew and loved was able to bow out at all.

"After the writers' strike we didn't know what was going to happen. We thought it might just end on some random, middle-of-the-season episode that would just be it for Scrubs forever," the actress explains. "That would have been such a tough way to have it end. The fact that we got to finish up that season and do a whole eighth felt like such a gift. Bill got to really end the show the way he wanted."

And unlike with that show about the town on a hill with one single tree—ahem, we won't name names—Sarah is nothing but grateful for everything Scrubs has done for her. "It was the best job I've had. I got it two months after I moved down here, so a huge piece of my L.A. experience has been on Scrubs. We all felt that we were lucky to have that rare combination of enjoying your character and loving the writing, but also really liking the people you work with."

Sarah's not counting out working with some of her Scrubs costars in the future either, including The Janitor's new ABC series, The Middle. "Neil Flynn is one of the funniest people I've ever worked with. I would love to guest on his show and I'm very excited for him that it got picked up."

Yes, we admit that it sounds as if she's feeling good about finishing up Scrubs and moving on, but we'll just have to wait and see where Sarah ends up on our TV's next season. One thing's for sure, we'll definitely be able to find her somewhere—even if it's not in our favorite fictional hospital.

Now you're up! What do you think of an Elliot-less Scrubs?