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40 January 17th, 2012 Could General Hospital end up as a primetime Summer Series?

Sam-and-Jason

Courtesy/ABC

There is a report out this evening from TV Guide, that is saying that while General Hospital may get the ax later this year in the daytime to make room for Katie Couric’s new syndicated talk show that the alphabet network may be looking into other scenarios to keep the show on the air in primetime!

According to TVG, “One scenario being discussed has the drama continuing as a short-run prime-time summer series, similar to Spanish-language networks’ telenovelas. Even if the cost of production doubled over the typical soap budget (around $200,000 per episode), a nighttime version of GH would still be inexpensive for an original scripted show.”

Perhaps, what they really should be doing is keeping GH on the air in the daytime and doing a summer series to bring more eyeballs to it in the daytime, so the soap doesn’t go away all together? Whatever the case, new creative heads, Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati are plotting big returns for GH with Robert, Anna and Holly and bringing John McBain and the Mannings over from OLTL, be it long or short term to try and drive up the ratings and invigorate the ailing lone ABC soap.

What do you think about a primetime GH telenovela style arc? Let us know!

Tags: abc, Frank Valentini, General Hospital, Katie Couric, Ron Carlivati

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Jon Jensen says:

January 17, 2012 at 10:03 pm

Don’t like it. I want for General Hospital to remain on abc Daytime. Waiting an entire year for a short Summer prime time version doesn’t do much for me.

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Heather replied January 17th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
Although OLTL was by far my favorite soap on ABC, it is now a thing of the past. But GH isn’t and it’s not too late to save it. It’s time for OLTL and GH fans to put their differences aside and to join forces to save General Hospital.

I’m calling out all OLTL fans, GH fans as well as Y&R/B&B/DAYS fans to boycott The Revolution like the plague and to support General Hospital by watching it live on ABC as much as possible (if possible, avoid the DVD or online thing). I know that General Hospital isn’t exactly the best soap right now, but it needs our help and it’s time to save it and prevent this cancellation trend that has completely wiped out the NY soaps to infiltrate itself on the LA soaps.

Because if General Hospital gets canceled, you can be sure that these anti-soap executives won’t stop it there and will go after the three remaining soaps until they have succeeded in fully killing a genre that has existed since the 1930s .

So let us, ALL soap opera fans, join force to save General Hospital and
show these bigwig network executives that soap operas are still a viable business in 2012.

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Gloria replied January 18th, 2012 at 8:47 am
I am with you but HOW does anyone know if we watch live on ABC or on DVR, DVD, VCR or online? HOW DOES ANYONE KNOW THAT? I will gladly watch it live if I know how this matters & will help things! Thanks

Lisa M replied January 18th, 2012 at 9:52 am
unless you are a Neilson home, watching it live means nothing. The best thing right now, as per Raven Beauty’s blog, is to watch it at abc.com on your pc or mibile device. She has heard from a reliable source that abc is monitoring online viewing of GH right now. For what purpose? nobody knows but still-anything to help. DVD watching only counts if the info is requested from the cable company (which it rarely is and still only for a week after airing) I dont know anyone who has a Neilson monitoring system, so I will dvr it as I normally so and also watch online at night, even if it’s just in the background, while I check e-mails.

1loveabcsoaps replied January 18th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Heather: This is a wonderful post but you have to continue to keep posting THIS POST. Because people dont get it. If they don’t stop with which show is better and which should be cancelled, there will be no more GH., period. Please continue to POST this same post. Save it and copy past t in your email so that U can go back to it and re-post it. Hopefully, your post will take fire and people will see that we need to rally together. Continue to fight for the genre by saving GH., at the same time we must still do all the things we were doing before OLTL got cancelled (sending soap, petitions on Facebook, boycotte cable get a Dish, call /write Disney and abc) in hopes of getting it restored elsewhere.

Judith Sekscenski replied January 20th, 2012 at 11:51 am
Absolutely! I couldn’t agree more. I am also not watching ANY ABC shows, except for GH. In the morning, I now watch the Today show on NBC instead of GMA that I watched for years. The afternoons I turn to CBS, as they still have two soaps Y&R, BB, then turn to ABC for GH. I autotune my satellite, so the channels will change even if I’m not at home ( I keep the tv on for my cats when not at home). I’m only watching shows on networks that still run soaps in the daytime. I think we soap fans need to give our support to the remaining soaps on the air even if we never watched those soaps before. That’s what I’m doing even though I never watched BB or Days before now. I too urge you all to do the same if you can.
Kimberly says:

January 17, 2012 at 10:09 pm

I’d prefer it to stay in the daytime as is, but at this point, I’ll take my stories any way I can get them.

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Erin replied January 17th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
That’s true, I’d rather have it part time than never.

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Judy replied January 18th, 2012 at 12:19 am
Why did not think of this for AMC and OLTL?!!!

Stacy A replied January 18th, 2012 at 8:46 am
For me, GH was the targeted soap to save in the first place and the save AMC & OLTL was a smoke screen and slap in the face to fans who participated.

Lisa M replied January 18th, 2012 at 9:52 am
same here-better some of the time, than not at all!

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Emily says:

January 17, 2012 at 10:16 pm

Why not bring OLTL back as a primetime summer run show while they’re at it.

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Erin says:

January 17, 2012 at 10:28 pm

I wish they would just leave our soaps alone, they have done more than enough damage! Let us recover from our latest losses…seriously!!!

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Luke says:

January 17, 2012 at 10:29 pm

So after all the whining about how expensive Soaps are and that is the reason they have to go – now they say Soaps are cheap compared to Prime Time shows? I always thought the expense excuse was a lot of bunk.

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Robert in Jersey City says:

January 17, 2012 at 10:37 pm

Yes, but will there be as many Virgin Marys hanging on the wall? I like my novellas authentic.

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Joann in Chicago says:

January 17, 2012 at 11:07 pm

Right now I need the patience to wait for Frank & Ron to work some magic. Today’s GH was awful !
It has gotten so bad that when the scene was going on with Tracey & Anthony I was gringing at his voice & demeanor…. Hate this. Hurry up and dump these awful storylines. Then advertise on prime time who’s back, especially on Wednesday & Thursday nites with their best lineups. I cannot believe not having
One life today I turned off GH. Do we really need to deal with a new messed up kid thrown into the mix……really?

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Gloria replied January 18th, 2012 at 8:53 am
Oh how I agree. Every day I turn GH on & TRY to watch, every day I turn it off in disgust. I cannot stand Anthony & Tracy, I mean really. And I when I saw the new angry kid, I turned it off then.

Another example-Friday, I think it was, I turned it on at 2:00-first thing was Ethan kissing that girl, I turned it off-it is hard to invest in a story when you know the character is leaving.

At 2:30 I checked again-there is Sam with big tears in her eyes & Jason looking sick-what’s new here-turned it off.

At the end of the show checked again & there is Sonny getting either shot or blown up AGAIN. Turned it off. I am trying but this poor show needs a total overhaul-I mean clean house & start over, it is so bad. And to think OLTL is gone.

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Heather says:

January 17, 2012 at 11:24 pm

I would rather for The Revolution to tank so that GH takes its timeslot in September.

Although OLTL was by far my favorite soap on ABC, it is now a thing of the past. But GH isn’t and it’s not too late to save it. It’s time for OLTL and GH fans to put their differences aside and to join forces to save General Hospital.

I’m calling out all OLTL fans, GH fans as well as Y&R/B&B/DAYS fans to boycott The Revolution like the plague and to support General Hospital by watching it live on ABC as much as possible (if possible, avoid the DVD or online thing). I know that General Hospital isn’t exactly the best soap right now, but it needs our help and it’s time to save it and prevent this cancellation trend that has completely wiped out the NY soaps to infiltrate itself on the LA soaps.

Because if General Hospital gets canceled, you can be sure that these anti-soap executives won’t stop it there and will go after the three remaining soaps until they have succeeded in fully killing a genre that has existed since the 1930s .

So let us, ALL soap opera fans, join force to save General Hospital and
show these bigwig network executives that soap operas are still a viable business in 2012.

Reply
Jenna says:

January 17, 2012 at 11:34 pm

A primetime summer series? Sounds to me like an even easier way to get rid of GH once and for all. I can see it now. Well we took it from daytime and put it on primetime, but the ratings were not what we would like. Might as well cancel it in favor of another reality show … after only a handful of episodes. That is what ABC does.

What GH, and while we are at it, OLTL, AMC, GL, ATWT, PC, Loving/The City, etc., all the cancelled shows and those remaining need is to go to their OWN network, like the CW, or even HULU – they just started their own original programming. I would be willing to pay a subscription fee to watch QUALITY television again.

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JustSaying says:

January 17, 2012 at 11:38 pm

What sort of damage control is this? We can all see through this. The show is getting cancelled, one way or another.

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Mark F says:

January 18, 2012 at 12:41 am

As soon as Ron’s material starts airing, I’ll be watching GH. Not before.

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aria says:

January 18, 2012 at 1:04 am

how would it work? i just can’t see it.

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Betty D says:

January 18, 2012 at 1:58 am

I’m almost done with GH, so boring lately, how dumb is this ghostly gal running around, to broad of storylines, get back to the main players and thier issues, the more you add the less focus. I would rather read this then watch GH now.

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toscanti says:

January 18, 2012 at 5:43 am

ABC needs to STOP with the insanity!!!! Enough is enough, leave GH alone and get rid of these stupid live talk shows that air on every channel everyday all day. Cheap Cheap Cheap is what ABC has become and I’m ready to boycott all together. They can afford the one last soap on the network and put alot into it to make it successful. Kaitie Couric wasn’t successful as a primetime news anchor and she won’t do any better as a talk show host. Wake Up ABC before you lose all of your remaining viewers to other networks.

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Hillary replied January 18th, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Amen! KC is not the deal!!
I’m being driven to whatever it is that my mother watches on TNT all day.

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Lisa Kane says:

January 18, 2012 at 6:03 am

Ron should hit the ground running. Entice the OLTL viewers to want to give GH a try. He is already alienating the Jolie fanbase by ignoring Melissa Archer going over with Michael Easton to GH. Wouldn’t take much for die hard fans to follow. Instead of treating GH’s cancellation as a done deal, do what it takes to save it!

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angela says:

January 18, 2012 at 6:15 am

They tried this format (televovelas) with Port Charles. 13 week story arcs. So where is Port Charles now?

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Torrey replied January 18th, 2012 at 10:50 am
Exactly! Why would they do this, when they’ve tried it before? And why wasn’t this an option that was even considered for OLTL……which is my opinion was the best soap on tv, and deserved to be saved. Although, putting a daytime soap in the primetime line-up is a sure fire way to make sure it gets cancelled. If the 2.5 – 3 million viewers isn’t enough in daytime, then why would it be enough for primetime? Not to mention, as of March 2012, Soapnet will be a thing of the past. Running the soaps exclusively on Soapnet would have been better than canceling all of the soaps. Hell, the network is called Soapnet, so why not just feature AMC, OLTL & GH on that network? That way the fans get to see their shows, and the network can run their lousy talk shows during the day on the regular network channel. Soapnet should have been a ground-breaking network that featured all the shows that we love, and also could have been the forum to start up new original soap series. Instead of running repeats of O.C, Beverly Hills 90210 & Gilmore Girls. Ryan’s Hope, Generations, Another World, As The World Turns, Santa Barbara, Guiding Light, Sunset Beach…..I mean, it’s not like they didn’t have a bevy of shows to run on the network. We soap fans our fanatical about our shows, and I know that if they were to run all of the programs that I listed above, they would surely have an audience to tune in. I for one, miss Generations & Sunset Beach….and they haven’t been on for years.

Seems to me, they don’t have the right people in charge….cause the people in charge don’t know how to think outside of the box.

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Deb says:

January 18, 2012 at 6:38 am

I am confused. Should the ratings jump for GH, and they will, why move it anywhere? Is Katie, Revolution, Chew that high in ratings??
If the show is good, bringing in viewers, can’t another network pick it up?

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Iakovos says:

January 18, 2012 at 7:08 am

I am not a telenovela fan. I like daytime drama and its legacy characters and histories. Seems as though B&B is that sort of telenovela with its stop-and-start plotting and character assassinations. Just not my thing.

Would love the focus to be on daytime and keeping that genre special and unique. Moving GH to summer primetime does not solve a problem. The strongest primetime offerings seems to languish during summer months so I would expect GH to do the same.

One day someone decided daytime drama was beginning to fail and ignored warning signs or failed to do right the ship. As a result, we have lost so much wonderful entertainment in favor of glossy personalities who offer self-improvement hints my parents and vets like Heloise have shared for years.

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angela replied January 19th, 2012 at 6:27 am
That someone was Brian Frons. Several actors have spoken of his dislike of the genre and how it’s fans meant nothing to him. So he is leaving abc come the end of January. Big deal. The damage has been done. He is also responisble for the mess SoapNet has become. Before his reign SoapNet had great original programming; like Soap Talk, One Day With in addition to running old soaps like Another World, Ryans Hope, Dallas, Dynasty etc. etc… He took over and gave us The OC twice a day, 90210 three times a day and Gilmore Girls. The same stuff over and over. But that seems to be the way Disney does things as anyone who has kids will tell you. (How many times have you seen the same episodes of Good Luck Charlie or Wizards of Waverly Place?) It was the fans of abc daytime who pushed Oprah to the top. She ran after GH and I for one as I know many others would not have watched her had she not had a great lead in like GH. (I have a few choice words for her as well but that is for another time.) OLTL is gone and tha’s it. GH is on it’s way and there is no one who can convince me otherwise. Katie Couric is washed up. No one wants to see her yet again. You know TNT is doing a reboot of Dallas. If that fares well in the ratings then maybe some cable channel may step up and buy the rights to OLTL.

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Tyriana says:

January 18, 2012 at 7:19 am

Why not bring back OLTL in that form?

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heidi says:

January 18, 2012 at 7:23 am

Don’t like it at all… unless it is all we get! Let’s keep GH on daytime in whatever slot it is in… frankly it could be the morning as long as it is on and we can get it on abc.com or hulu or wherever. There is one nice aspect to primetime and that is increased viewers. I like the idea of doing it with OLTL and if the viewers like it someone thinks about spinning off a new network for OLTL and GH if it has to move and then eventually B&B, Y&R and DOOL all go there too. I still like the notion of an all soaps network with maybe some shows or movies that use the soap actors for fun new ways to use their talent. Sort of like one big rep group with any type of vehicle (plays, movies, shows, musical concerts, talk shows with the stars with Michael hosting and interviewing and etc.)

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Joe says:

January 18, 2012 at 7:36 am

I would rather see the genre evolve than go away. If done the right way I think it could work. Let’s give it a shot.

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aria says:

January 18, 2012 at 10:56 am

put it on anytime, any place but it has to be on 5 days a week and 52 weeks a year. I need my GH fix daily, not just for the summer.

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Vanessa says:

January 18, 2012 at 11:08 am

Bringing it to prime time is another way to let it die. If it doesn’t attract more than it’s current viewers it will be cancelled after one season, and a summer series is what, 8-12 episodes? No, we need to get the ratings up and keep it online.

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Karleigh says:

January 18, 2012 at 7:00 pm

what is a primetime all? I love My GH

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Hillary says:

January 18, 2012 at 7:25 pm

Honestly, I’ll watch whenever it’s on. Daytime, primetime, online, infomercial-only-time, makes no difference to me. What I will not watch, ever, never in a million years, is Katie Couric talking about anything.
Zzzzzzzz
Gimme a break already!

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Allie says:

January 18, 2012 at 9:53 pm

Still do not understand why ABC is wasting money on Katie Couric. Does anyone remember that, a former “The Today Show” co-host, Jane Pauley had a talk show? Will anyone want to watch Katie Couric listening to herself babble on and on?

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DENISE says:

January 20, 2012 at 1:23 pm

I love GH!! If it is taken off, I might as well sell my TV….

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