Katherine Heigl is either a genius or an idiot, or perhaps a little bit of both. Either way, it's hard to see what she's angling for here.

Her direct slap at Grey's Anatomy writers by withdrawing her name from Emmy Award consideration due to the "insufficient material" given her character has renewed speculation that the blonde bombshell wants off the ABC medical drama STAT.

She's under contract for two more seasons of Grey's Anatomy, though, and most likely can't make her departure happen because she feels like it.

Unless Heigl burns so many bridges and becomes such a liability that the show's writers decide to eliminate her from the series of their own volition.

Amazingly, Heigl makes about $200,000 per episode of Grey's Anatomy, an absurd amount of money by any measure. The potential to make even more money through movie roles is certainly there, but it's also more fleeting.

One can't help but wonder why Katherine Heigl would be so quick to turn her back (publicly no less) on Grey's Anatomy, the show that made her a household name.

Admittedly, it's been a rough stretch for Katherine Heigl and her character, Izzie Stevens, on Grey's Anatomy. The writers' strike did not help matters.

Even before that, though, the writers may simply be running out of news things for Izzie to do. Once she got together with George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) and that didn't work out, her character seemed to be drifting a bit.

Which brings us to an issue that such a large, ensemble cast is bound to run into once a show stretches into its fourth season ... and beyond.

With so many characters and so many interpersonal relationships, the show runs the risk of running out of plausible and entertaining plot lines.

That, in turn, causes frustration among its audience, but perhaps even more among the actors themselves. The day may come Grey's Anatomy will feel the need to write in new characters and write out old characters.

What do you think? Would the Grey's Anatomy cast be better or worse without Katherine Heigl - and what should be done with her character?

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.