General Hospital
GENERAL HOSPITAL: Laura Stands Up to Sidwell, “I Have Faced Others Like You, In Fact, I’ve Faced Worse Than You”
From Frank Smith to Mikkos Cassasdine to Helena Cassadine and everyone one in between, and since then, Laura Collins (Genie Francis) has faced formidable foes throughout her life and times. So, when Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota) showed up at her door on the December 4 episode of General Hospital, her plan was not to back down from his threats.
Armed with photographic “evidence,” Sidwell taunts Laura with a photo of her looking into the trunk of her car and at Dalton’s dead and bloody body. Laura claims the photo is fake, but Sidwell counters that the police will try to authenticate it, and when they do, they’ll find it to be true.
It’s at the point that she stands up to Sidwell and says, “I have faced others like you. In fact, I’ve faced worse than you. None of them are around anymore, but I am!” Undeterred, Sidwell shows Laura a second photo with Sonny (Maurice Benard) and her at the trunk of her car with a dead Dalton inside. It’s at that moment, Laura knows she has been had. Sidwell says at this point, in order to stay out of jail for murder, the mayor will now to everything he has asked her to do.
Courtesy/ABC
Just then, there is a knock at the door and none other than her political opponent, the crooked Ezra Boyle (Daniel Cosgrove) shows up. It’s clear to Laura that she will now be under Boyle and Sidwell’s thumbs and her time in office will be absolutely miserable. In fact, Sidwell tells her that Boyle will be giving her orders as his go-between.
Sidwell explains he needs Laura to be the fine upstanding mayor in position so he can maneuver her as he pleases. When Ace cries on the child walkie-talkie, Sidwell threatened’s Laura’s grandson and everyone she loves, if she does not comply with him and to keep her in line, before he and Bo
Courtesy/ABC
Elsewhere, and at the Savoy, Curtis (Donnell Turner) admits to Jordan (Tanisha Harper) he met with Selina Wu (Lydia Look) to hire her to kill Drew (Cameron Mathison). Now that she knows, Jordan accuses him of making her an accomplice after the fact! Curtis says Drew came after Portia (Brook Kerr) and Stella (Vernee Watson) but in the end, he couldn’t do it.
Curtis claims he never paid Selina the money because he didn’t want Drew’s murder on his hands. However, when Jordan goes into kiss and hug him, the camera shows a steely-eyed Curtis. Is he lying to Jordan? Could he have ultimately gone on to shoot Drew, all by himself?
So, what did you think of Sidwell’s blackmail of Mayor Collins? How will Laura get out from under his thumb? Could Curtis have been the culprit that shot Drew? Weigh-in via the comment section below.
When Sidwell first appeared in the Lucky return storyline, I thought that Carlo Rota would be a decent “villain” character for GH, as he had done decent villain roles on other shows like “24”.
Sadly, since then he’s become cartoonish and is looking like Teddy Balkan 2.0 right about now. And that’s not even counting the sudden emergence of the “Legion of Dumb” where he’s suddenly involved with whatever “project” the long dead and literally brainless Faison somehow left behind, including one child who has been paroled from Hell, and another whose apparent survival of being shot point blank in the chest and being buried in his police dress blues has yet to be explained.
Enough of Sidwell, the even more cartoonish Ezra, and of course Dragon Chow Drew. They all need to go. And I know that means I get stuck with them, but as long as the dragons get fed, I can deal with it.
Carlo Rota when he played in 24 he was not a villain his character’s name was Morris O’Brien he was a former British MI6 agent and he became a text analyst for the CTU also he was Chloe O’Brien’s Ex-Husband he helped Kiefer Sutherland’s character Jack Bauer on quite a few occasions before his character was killed off!!!
Curtis shot Drew and Michael is covering for him by framing Willow.
As for Curtis and his involvement in the botched hit on Drew…..
I knew this was a red herring all along, because obviously Selina Wu wouldn’t hire an incompetent shooter who couldn’t do the job. As for Curtis himself doing the shooting? Not likely. Curtis is an ex cop, ex Federal agent, and ex military. He certainly knows how to use a gun.
I believe the fact that we saw Curtis obsessing over a non event for three consecutive days is evidence of the fact that – not that Curtis is worried about himself being a suspect, but that he KNOWS he didn’t do it, but is worried about who DID do it.
And that means Curtis suspects somebody in his own family of doing it. Maybe his Aunt Stella, who has made no secret of the fact that she thinks Drew deserves it. His dad Marshall might have done it, since he seems to sneak in and out of town easily these days.
And there’s Portia, of course. Curtis knows she had a motive. Though Trina & Kai took care of the blackmail evidence that very night. What Curtis does NOT know is that Portia has an alibi. That’s the good news is. The bad news is that Isaiah is her alibi, so Curtis ain’t gonna like that, when he finds out about it.
I’ve already been dreading the possibility of Nathan working for Sidwell. Did Nathan take the photos? He was there moments after Laura opened the trunk.
An excellent thought Carrie. I don’t trust the back from the dead Nathan at all. I didn’t watch GH when Nathan was on before. Sidwell is creep enough to be pulling the strings behind his resurrection.
Laura offers viewers a lesson on what not to do should you happen to discover a corpse in the trunk of your car.
The latest ratings are out for the week of October 26-30, 2026 and the big takeaways include: that CBS daytime’s Beyond the Gates was separated by only 23,000 viewers behind third place (of the soaps) General Hospital! For the last several weeks, Beyond the Gates has been closing the gap on this year’s winner for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series, and continuing to best GH in the key demos.
According to the latest Nielsen ratings breakdown from Soap Opera Network, the final week of October brought Beyond the Gates 1.790 million on average tuning-in and the show set a season high in total viewers. Meanwhile, General Hospital hit a new season low! The long-running ABC soap had 1.813 million for the week, and once again the series did not go over the 2 million mark.
Meanwhile, in the key Women 18-49 demo, Beyond the Gates was firmly ahead of GH with a rating share of 0.21, while General Hospital had 0.17 rating share.Then, in the key Women 25-54 demo, Beyond the Gates was once again ahead of the ABC soap with a ratings share for that demo at 0.30 while GH came in with 0.26.
Photo: CBS
MORE BY THE NUMBERS
In addition and comparatively, Beyond the Gates +22,000 viewers week-to-week, and had the largest gains in viewership year-to-year in daytime TV with +267,000 from this in 2025.. However, General Hospital seems to be going in reverse. The show was down -56,000 viewers week-over-week and down -22,000 year-over-year .
BEYOND THE GATES
Let’s take a look at some of the storylines that had people tuning-in to Beyond the Gates during the ratings week:
Hayley (Marquita Goings) attempted a massive shocker regarding her pregnancy and tried to use it to extract money from Bill Hamilton (Timon Kyle Durrett). Although, Bill saw right through her game, he demanded a paternity test, and made it clear he has no intention of raising the child—planning instead to pay her off to take the baby and leave. Meanwhile, Hayley confided her plan to her cousin Randy (Maurice P. Kerry).
Jacob Hawthorne (Jibre Hordges) and Naomi Hamilton (Arielle Prepetit) clashed over Jacob’s ongoing investigation into The Impaler, causing significant strain in their marriage. At the same time, Smitty (Mike Manning) considered taking matters into his own hands—including potentially heading to Mexico for evidence—while Martin Richardson (Brandon Claybon) worried about what comes next.
Photo: ABC
GENERAL HOSPITAL
Over at General Hospital for the ratings period, the story served up included:
Carly (Laura Wright) and Valentin (James Patrick Stuart) teamed up to investigate what really happened to Jack Brennan (Chris McKenna). Later, Danny (Asher Antonyzyn) leads them to Jack’s dead body.
Jude (Wil Traval) dropped a bombshell claim to Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn); that he is Phoebe’s father, while Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) and Chase (Josh Swickard) signed their divorce papers.
Then, Danny caught Rocco (Finn Carr) and Scout (Kayden Brenna Tokarski) sharing a kiss, plus the shocking return of Heather Webber (Alley Mills) capped the week.
Now the questions become; without having much promotional synergy in the ABC day-part to draw more eyeballs it is not helping but hurting General Hospital. It seems Beyond the Gates is also a benefactor of a one-two-three punch of CBS soaps (Y&R, B&B and BTG) and promotion.
However, that still doesn’t take away the fact that Beyond the Gates is close to besting GH in all ratings category as they go head-to-head in some markets across the country.
So, are you excited to see Beyond the Gates climb in the ratings? Are you concerned for General Hospital? Do you think they can stave off Beyond the Gates in total viewers or will the upstart soap overtake them in the next ratings report? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
Antonio Sabáto Jr., the former Jagger Cates of General Hospital and GH: Night Shift, and the former Dante Damiano of The Bold and the Beautiful has issued his first public statement since the incident involving his son, Jack’s arrest in Alaska for a fatal hit-and-run.
Jack is the son of Sabáto Jr. and Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, and according to court documents obtained by KTUU Jack, was allegedly driving a white Chevy Tahoe when he hit and killed Carl Simmonds, 42, near an intersection in Anchorage around 5:35 a.m. on Monday, November 9.
The reports indicated that Jack fled the scene — but later decided to called the cops to say he hit “something” that “suddenly appeared in the road” while he was “doing late-night DoorDashing.”
Photo: NBC
Now, Antonio has taken to his Instagram breaking his silence on the situation, sharing, “At this time, my family and I are navigating an extremely sensitive and deeply personal matter.”
He added, “As a father, my love for my children remains unconditional, and my priority is the well-being of my family. We ask that the public and members of the media honor our privacy during this difficult time and keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.”
The soap alum concluded, “I also wish to extend my heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the gentleman who tragically lost his life. My thoughts and prayers are with them as well. We sincerely appreciate your compassion, understanding, and respect for the privacy of everyone affected.”
Jack Sabáto was arraigned in court on Tuesday, November 10 with bail set at $5,000, and a no-driving order and the potential of $5,000 penalty fees if he fails to attend future court appearances.
Antonio is the father to Jack, 34, daughter, Mina Sabato, 24 and son, Antonio Sabáto III, 15.
This is a developing story. You can check out Antonio’s official statement below.
So, let us know your thoughts on this tragic hit-and-run, which claimed the life of another man, and Antonio’s statement, via the comment section below.
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Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Ava’s (Maura West) daughter Avery looks quite different, starting on today’s November 9 episode of General Hospital. That’s because GH has made Avery into a full-blown teenager and the role is now being played by actress Alya Bullington.
In her debut, the Tennessee native was thrown into the deep soap waters with Daytime Emmy winners, Maurice Benard and Eden McCoy (Josslyn). Bullington weighed-in to TV Insider about her first scene which featured Avery overhearing a fight between Sonny and Josslyn.
She explained “It was something I have never done before, I did not have a lot of experience with the screaming and the crying stuff, but I got my first script, and I was like, ‘OK, this is a huge opportunity to learn so much about how that stuff works and to become this character that I have never even tried playing before.’”
Photo: ABC
THE TEENAGED VERSION OF AVERY WILL HAVE A LOT TO CONTEND WITH
Speaking of working with McCoy, Bullington shared, “She’s incredible. I remember her just laughing and making jokes on set, and then the minute that they started taping, she just locked in and she cried immediately, and my first thought was, ‘I want to be able to do that.’
The soap opera newcomer added, “I think she just inspired me so much because she is so great and she can just lock into whatever character she wants to in the moment.”
The character of Avery was born back in 2014, but as recently as the October 8 episode of General Hospital, the character was suddenly referred to as a teenager. This is the second young female character in recent months to be aged up following the casting of Kayden Brenna Tokarski as Scout Cain.
As for her take on Avery and what’s ahead, Alya said,“She’s emotional, and she’s curious, and she’s a really fun person to play because so much stuff is happening in her life. I think she’s kind of confused about what’s happening and what to believe.”
So, what do you think about General Hospital making Avery a teenager? Are you excited to see the conflict between Sonny, Ava and Avery now that they have aged up the character? Share your thoughts and welcome Alya to GH via the comment section below.
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Katie Kicks Bill to the Curb … for Now
RATINGS: ‘Beyond the Gates’ Inches Closer to ‘General Hospital’ in Total Viewers
B&B’s Sydney Bullock Weighs In on Future of Dylan and Will: ‘I Think She Can Hold on to Him for Awhile’ (Exclusive)
Antonio Sabáto Jr. Breaks Silence on His Son’s Arrest for Fatal Hit-and-Run
DANCING WITH THE STARS: A Shocking Elimination on Grammy Night Leaves Ballroom Silenced
Y&R’s New Head Writers Share Vision for Genoa City: Contemporary Homage to Bill Bell, Mixing Heightened Escapism and Grounded Reality
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS Preview: Episodes From New Co-Head Writers, Jamey Giddens and Dan O’Connor, Begin to Air
‘General Hospital’ Casts Ayla Bullington as the New Avery Jerome-Corinthos
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THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Katie Kicks Bill to the Curb … for Now
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