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ABC Rep on what Katie Couric Show could mean for GH! Half-hour version?

Photo Credit: JPI Studios

Photo Credit: JPI Studios

As we announced early this morning, the deal between ABC and Katie Couric has become official and that Couric will be launching her own syndicated talk show in September of 2012.  It is widely known now that ABC is giving the 3PM slot which houses General Hospital in most markets back to it’s affiliates a year and half from now.

So with the ‘read- between-the-lines’ statement issued earlier today in the official Couric press release that “the network continues to support GH”,  TV Guide’s Michael Logan took to the task of getting some comments from an ABC representative who wanted to remain anonymous to shed light on what is really going on here, and how it might impact the life of General Hospital. Here is a key excerpt below!

“Our release states that we’re giving back our 3pm time slot to the affiliates. This is widely known as the GH timeslot, but this does not mean the inevitable cancellation of GH.  We are going to populate our daytime block with our strongest shows, the ones that resonate most with our audience. We hope it will encourage them to watch and support GH.  We will consider all options, such as making The Chew and The Revolution a half hour each, or making The Revolution and GH a half hour. This all happens a year and half from now. We are going to do our best to keep everybody happy.”

How is everyone going to be happy? We are losing OLTL and AMC for the two new lower budget lifestyle/reality/makeover shows, and potentially cutting in more airtime of GH. This does beg the question, couldn’t ABC have made OLTL and AMC into half hour shows instead of dumping them?

Hang on to your seats, we have another year and half to sort what remains of the ABC Daytime soap line-up shuffle.  Whatever the case, now is the time to keep watching GH!

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A half hour GH ???
I would rather see ABC put the show out of it’s misery than that –
next they will say GH will air at 1:00AM.

Hush your mouth. 🙂

GH started as a half hour soap. If cutting it back to a half hour is what it takes to keep it on the air in the afternoons, I will happily take it!

I think GH should stay right where it is.
GH should be on for an hour i wouldnt be happy wit 30 min of the show
it be stupid
y do idiots have to mess up all the daytime shows on ABC i say leave them all there.

I know I’m supposed to support the soaps, but I can’t bring myself to watch GH. It is so inferior to One Life to Live that I’m insulted OLTL was sacrificed while GH gets a reprieve. I cannot stand the Sonny/Jason/Carly/Sam show and its ridiculous mob stories that prop up disgusting mobsters as heroes. I apologize to other soap lovers who will watch GH until its last day, but I will no longer watch ABC after One Life to Live goes off the air.

Jared, i could not agree with you more! Further, the rating system clearly shows that OLTL is fairing better that GH. Like you, once OLTL is finished, no more ABC TV for me. Luckly thou, I am a Canadian, and my other longtime soap “Coronation Street” has nothing to worry about. The Brits approach TV in a completely different manner. It also has just started it’s 50th year on the air. It’s on later in the evening, and is aired three times a week, with one hour episodes twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) and a half hour show on Thursdays. This past week was a major storyline and it was on every night during the week at 9pm, and yield around 12 million viewers. If daytime American tv goes all talk show, and reality tv in the evening, I may be cancelling my tv feed. I don’t mean to offend anyone, it just seems that for the past couple of years, any ABC show I enjoyed is being cancelled even before it gets a change to grow (Detriot 1-8-7, Dirty Sexy Money, V) so when ABC makes OLTL go dark, there won’t be any shows that I want to watch from ABC.

I can NOT stand Curic , NO WAY! Hope she fails here as well.
THEY’RE NOT saving, their gonna pay HER arent they.

Michael, I agree with what you said, ABC could of have made OLTL and AMC into half hour shows instead of dumping them. Once OLTL goes off the air, I will have no interest in anything broadcast by ABC. Even their news programs. Since they don’t have any respect for daytime drama viewers, I have no respect for them.

Sonzabitches, ABC is full of them.

We did not have the chance to save One Life to Live and All My Children on ABC, BUT we now have the chance to do just that for General Hospital, so now is the time to watch the show, and tell everyone you know (who watches or used to watch) to also tune in. Hopefully, in this case, we WILL have a say in what is in ABC’s daytime line-up. Now is also the time for the writers to vamp up the storylines, and make the show the best it could be, not chip away at what makes it the icon it is (as was done with OLTL and AMC). This has to be an all around group effort to keep GH on the air, so let’s get started!!!! BTW, I am still not willing to give up on the fact that OLTL and AMC can still be saved by being picked up by another network or cable station, who is smart enough to see what these shows have to offer. Call me cynical, but I think that one, if not both of the replacement shows for our beloved soaps, will be ready to be pulled by the time Katie Couric’s Show starts airing in Sept. of 2012 (if not sooner), so that might make the addtion of Katie’s Show easily fit into the line-up. Don’t forget to continue to watch or begin to watch GH !!!

ITA. Call you local cable providers and tell them you want a soap channel!
If ABC doesn’t want AMC/OLTL we want a channel that does!!!

I don’t understand why this silly looking woman keeps getting tv work, she would do better on the radio, so tired of seeing that troll face.

I do not agree. If it is too late to save OLTL, then I can not watch anything on ABC….even the vastly inferior GH. I’m sick of hearing how GH is the well known, viable and strong brand. Well….it isn’t, any more than OLTL. ABC is over. They really do not need me as a viewer. I want soaps to survive, but I will get my scripted drama from cable….Nurse Jackie, United States of Tara, True Blood…..not GH’s lame version of rated PG Sopranos. All soaps are not the same. OLTL was smart….sometimes, funny most of the time (not like Bold and Beautiful’s unintentional comedy), and well acted always. Now I am just free to watch other things…not on ABC or anything Disney related.

Let us be honest the state of the econmy is what is behind this! Face it ! I grant you stupid storylines have not helped viewership but they have in the past been able to pull back and get back on track! And I can not stand Katie she is a foulmouthed twit. I know this to be true she was at at an event I will not say when and the men were embarrased she swears like a sailor, I might add they were military.

The economy is fine over at Disney/ABC:

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert A. Iger commanded a 35% jump in salary and bonuses in 2010, rewarding what the board of directors’ compensation committee called his “exceptional performance” in the face of a slow-recovering U.S. economy.

Iger’s salary and bonus reached nearly $16.3 million, up from $12 million a year earlier. His total compensation, including equity awards, reached $28 million, according to the company’s proxy filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I would like to add some other things remeber when Love in the Afternoon was ABC’s motto? Where is the love and why do we need soap operas when our politicians are doing their version every day!!!!

NO GH NO ABC for me!!!!!

Couric is going to be an EPIC FAIL. Everyone on the political right despises her, she is too old too attract the younger Demos, and soap fans will boycott her. Bad move for ABC.

Just remember, if you have ever been a soap fan BOYCOTT all of ABC’s replacement shows and tell everyone you know to do the same. Support all THREE ABC soaps to the bitter end!

GH is toast. After losing OLTL, which is superior, I don’t care about GH. But why is anyone surprised? You didn’t actually believe Franz was committed to GH did you?

I agree GH is toast my prediction is that it gets canceled in 2012.

Well I have been an GH fan all my life, thirty two years now deciated to this network.
If they take my soap off the air I will boycott. ABC. I( will be hard because I Watch all the NEws promgrams and primetime shows like 20/20 world news. BUt GH is my all time favortie stupid move if they cancel for that boring katie she will fail misery if that’s the case!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have more great arilctes like this one?

General Hospital

General Hospital’s Adam J. Harrington Weighs-in On John and Carly, and How it’s ‘Starting to Get Very Complicated”

On recent episodes of General Hospital, Carly (Laura Wright) came to John “Jagger” Cates (Adam Harrington) rescue as he was beaten down in an assault. Carly put on her “nurses cap,” sort of speak, and got John to his hotel room and watched over to him, to make sure he didn’t lose consciousness.

GH fans also got their first glimpse of what may be a new romance for Carly, if she and John continue to bond.  If John and Carly were to have a relationship, it would certainly have a ripple effect with Jason (Steve Burton) and Sonny (Maurice Benard).

Adam J. Harrington shared his view on the scenes and what might be next between the two. Speaking to Soap Opera Digest, Harrington shared, “I thought it was written in a way where there’s an understanding and a respect between them both. I don’t think there was any moment where she was not aware that he’s an FBI agent, and there was no moment that he wasn’t aware of her history and relationship to other people in the town. I really liked it. I was really looking forward to shooting it with Laura and we had a really nice time shooting it.”

Photo: ABC

When Carly and John part ways, it seems there were some romantic sparks, as Harrington puts it, “Isn’t that interesting that sometimes with people, the one moment they actually show how they feel is when they know there’s an escape hatch. They know they’re about to walk away. So, it’s almost safe in that moment to do it. I thought that was really special about how (the writers) handled John and Carly. Even the music in that scene was beautifully done.”

Where is this all heading? Conflict! Internally and professionally, and as Adam explains, “Who Carly was to John on paper as just a tool to be used as bait is starting to get very complicated.”

What would you think of a John and Carly pairing? Would you prefer him with Anna, or neither of them? Let us know via the comment section and take our poll below.

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General Hospital

General Hospital’s Steve Burton Reveals the Emotional Scene He Almost Could Not Get Through

On a recent episode of General Hospital, Jason received a message from his mother, Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson) via a note. The effect it had on Jason’s portrayer, Steve Burton turned out to be quite visceral.

As GH fans know, although Jason’s bio-mom was Susan Moore, he was raised and adopted by Monica. Speaking on his Daily Drama podcast with his co-host and GH co-star, Bradford Anderson (Spinelli), Steve shared some insight on the difficulties he had getting through that scene.

Burton shared that in the key moment, “Brooklyn (played by Amanda Setton) came in and that’s where she gave me (Jason) the letter from Monica. That was a very hard scene for me to do. That was a tough one. That was the one time I was almost going to call ‘cut!’  It read ‘Jason, I believe in you.’ I was literally going to walk off the set.”

Photo: JPI

To clarify and in the story, Monica was saying “I believe in you” and that she knows Jason didn’t shoot Dante (Dominic Zamprogna). Steve added, “It was tough, man. Emotionally, it was a tough scene. It was overwhelming in the moment.”

Steve went on to detail to Anderson, “She (Brook Lynn) pushed it to me and I read it and she was walking out and I had to stop her, but I was so emotional I couldn’t even get it out.  And at that point, I’m like, ‘Do I just keep going … or do I just walk off the set right now?’ But, I knew just to stay, because it’s so hard to get back there, once you shut it down. I knew, the next take wasn’t going to be the same.”

Photo: JPI

It’s clear that Leslie Charleson is so missed on-screen as Monica by all of her castmates, and that Jason and Monica had a very special mother/son relationship throughout the decades on GH.

What did you think of the moment when Jason got a note from Monica that said, “I believe in you?” Were you touched as well? Let us know in the comment section. You can check out the latest episode of Steve and Bradford’s podcast below.

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General Hospital

George Russo to Appear on General Hospital as Carmine Cerullo

Coming up, it looks like Brook Lynn’s (Amanda Setton) grandfather, Carmine Cerullo is headed to Port Charles.

According to casting news from the ABC soap opera, George Russo will take on the role. Russo will tape his episode next week on April 15th and will appear on the May 15th episode of the long-running daytime drama series.

If George looks familiar he has been in numerous primetime television shows and motion pictures including: The Offer. Winning Time, Grand Crew and Shameless.

Photo: ABC

Longtime GH viewers will recall that Lois’ (Rena Sofer) dad, Carmine, was previously showed up in Port Charles on and off from 1994 to 1996 and was played by John Capudice.

Clearly, it seems that Carmine will be a part of Chase (Josh Swickard) and Brook Lynn’s wedding.  Will it go off without a hitch? Are you looking forward to it? Stay tuned.

Who else would you like to see attend the nuptials? Gloria Cerullo (Ellen Travolta), any other blasts from the pasts who should be present? Let us know in the comment section.

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