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The Uncategorized Archiveslast time we saw Mellie Grant on Scandal, she was waiting to hear whether she would be the next president of the United States.

But the storyline of the fictional First Lady -- played by Bellamy Young -- is not driven by real life, creator and EP Shonda Rhimes said at ABC's Television Critics Association presentation Tuesday.

"I don’t think the candidates have any similarities to the candidates in real life. I don't really equate the two," Rhimes said of comparing the characters on ABC's popular show and former Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton and President-Elect Donald Trump.

"That’s not really the goal. The goal was to tell the story we had been telling the entire time."

The Trump-related remarks -- or lack thereof -- come just one day after ABC said Rhimes' TGIT line-up, which includes Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and Grey's Anatomy, will be delayed one week because of a 20/20 Inauguration special.

Rhimes said she has nothing to do with ABC's programming scheduling decisions.

"I honestly don’t have anything to do with programming or scheduling, and don’t pay attention to it or spend very much time caring about it," Rhimes told reporters.

The cast echoed the showrunner in insisting that the show isn't solely driven by current events. In fact, five of the six episodes in this first half of the season were written and shot months before the election results.

"Our world is a complete fiction," Young said.

Tony Goldwyn, who plays outgoing President Fitzgerald Grant, said Rhimes is taking the show in a "whole fresh direction" meant to be emotional and entertaining for the Scandal world.

"The fact that it’s in counterpoint to this crazy political world is interesting, but they are not the same and we aren’t in reaction to that," he said.

"That's what makes the show compelling," Joe Morton, who plays Papa Pope, added. "Politics are kind of driving force, but what's at the heart of it is being human and American.

When asked about whether Rhimes is nervous about ratings, the showrunner simply said:

"I don't, and haven't for I would say seven to eight years paid attention to ratings because that's something I can't control. "Ratings are not -- as far as I'm concerned -- real or true anymore.”

Season 6 premieres Jan. 26.