General Hospital
GENERAL HOSPITAL: Lucky Leaves Port Charles as Jonathan Jackson Wraps On-Screen Run
The Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson) farewell tour was short and sweet. So, on today’s Wednesday, June 11th episode of General Hospital, after saying his final goodbyes to his mother, Laura (Genie Francis), and one last glimmer of hope for a reconciliation with Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst), Lucky boards a plane with son Aiden (Colin Cassidy) in tow headed towards Amsterdam.
The moments signified the last scenes taped by five-time Daytime Emmy-winner, Jonathan Jackson, who returned to GH back in August of 2024, but cut his time with the soap short after nine months; citing logistical issues between his home in Tennessee and being there for his family, and flying to Los Angeles to tape scenes as Lucky as the main culprit.
In story, before he heads out of town, Lucky stops by to see his mother, Laura. The two have a heart-to-heart, where this time she feels that Lucky isn’t running from something, but truly wants to go and explore the world, or potentially save it. After all, Lucky is like his mother and father, Luke and Laura, who lived most of their lives on the run. Understanding her son, and asking him to please check with his ‘mom’ more often, Lucky and Laura share an emotional hug.
Courtesy/ABC
Meanwhile at GH, Isaiah (Sawandi Wilson) is talking with Elizabeth and wants to make sure her decision to not accept Lucky’s marriage proposal is really what she wants. Liz says it’s what’s best, because in the end it would not work out. Sensing an uneasiness from Liz, Isaiah tells her if there is anything she wants to tell Lucky, she should say it to him before he leaves Port Charles.
Courtesy/ABC
Now at the airport, Lucky talks with Aiden about their plans for the summer, and where they are headed. All of sudden, Lucky receives a text from Liz that says “Wait for me.” As Aiden has boarded the plane, the flight attendant tells Lucky that they are taking off in 1 minute. Lucky asks for just a minute or so more, as Elizabeth shows up!
Courtesy/ABC
Lucky asks where her luggage is (thinking she decided to come with) but instead, Liz tells Lucky she just wants him to know how much she truly loves him. They share a kiss. Clearly, leaving the door open for Lucky and Liz to possibly have a future down the line. Lucky looks back at Liz, who is in tears as he makes his exit onto the plane.
Courtesy/ABC
Elsewhere, in her office, Laura takes out a photo of a young Lucky from her wallet, which is revealed that she carries with her all of the time. The photo was of an 11-year-old Jonathan Jackson, when he first appeared on General Hospital back in 1993.
So, what did you think of how Lucky Spencer made his exit from GH thus signifying the end of Jonathan Jackson’s nine-month return to the ABC soap opera? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.
It was an appropriate goodbye for the character. Let it also be the last we see of Cassidy. Although he can act, he’s way too old to be playing Aiden (similar to the last Molly prior to Kristen Vaganos).
For the first time in 20 years, Elizabeth is on her own. Perhaps she’ll get a visit from Cameron or Jake.
I don’t know why they replaced the actor who played Aiden as he was perfectly cast. You’re right. This guy looks like he’s in his 30s.
Where is Jake?
Art school in Spain.
I think he is a great actor and will be misses. The writers never bothered to develop a real storyline for him. Thats said, I dont entirely believe his reason for leaving is to spend more time with his family. In the same story where he talked about the problematic commute from Tennessee, he also talked about going on a world wide tour. Doesn‘T seem to add up,but I wish him well.
I think they knew in March that he would stay much longer and changed the original storyline. If he had other commitments, like the concert tour, music career, then I think Frank should have recast the role of Lucky.
I thought the reason why they decided against a recast was to leave the door open for JJ to return, but now I see it’s because they added the lady from OLTL and are bringing back Kelly T. I would prefer the recast instead the return of Kelly or addition of Erika.
It took that snapshot of Lucky as a boy to make me finally feel something. Otherwise, both his return and exit were anticlimactic and emotionally toneless. I think JJ’s theme song as Lucky should be,” Hello I Must be Going.”
Yeah it was a waste of time.
Sad
Time to recast Lucky for real.
Jonathan Jackson is a fantastic actor and I love him as Lucky, but I think they made a mistake sending Lucky off canvas. I wish they had written this as Lucky and Aiden summer adventure but both return after summer. That would give them time to recast Lucky so the character would return and give the fans a true Liz and Lucky reunion. It seemed like the writers intended to reunite Liz and Lucky at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately they were forced to change the story when JJ chose to leave. I would have preferred they recast Lucky instead of writing him off and give the fans the LNL2 love story we’ve wanted. Im sure they would have found a great fit if they made the effort to look. Sometimes the story should be the priority.
They immediately recast Brennan, a trivial character, when the original actor left,8 but they won’t recast a legacy character like Lucky. Ridiculous!
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.
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