General Hospital
‘General Hospital’ Reignites Scott’s Feud with Sonny Over His Past Misdeeds of His Late Daughter, Karen Wexler
In what now seems like many moons ago, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) was a small-time mobster who owned a strip club in Port Charles. He enticed a young Karen Wexler (Cari Shayne) to work as a stripper at the Paradise Lounge.
But things got worse from there! Sonny convinced Karen that stripping was her idea, and he eventually got her hooked on drugs and into his bed!
Karen’s father, Scott Baldwin (Kin Shriner) has never forgotten what Sonny did Karen and for years wanted to take him down when he was the D.A. Fast-forward and on Wednesday’s February 28th episode of GH, Scott visited Karen’s gravesite on her birthday.
Courtesy/ABC
However, Scott had a visitor at the gravesite when John “Jagger” Cates also showed up to pay respects to his ex-wife. This was the first time Scott laid eyes on the new incarnation of “Jagger’ on-screen as played by Adam J. Harrington.
Scott realizes he might have an ally to put the screws to Sonny after John reveals the pain and sorrow he still has over what Sonny did to Karen. Speaking to his former son-in-law about the break-up of his daughter’s marriage to him, Scott pipes up that Sonny, “walks around like he’s the mayor.” Then, Scott shouts to John, “Make him pay! Take him out!”‘
Photo: ABC
In Karen’s backstory: after getting help, Karen was reunited with “Jagger” and left Sonny. The two married and left Port Charles. Karen returned as medical student and had divorced “Jagger” in 1997, and the character landed on the General Hospital spinoff soap opera, Port Charles. Eventually, Karen was struck by a car and died. Three actresses played the role during Karen’s history: Cari Shayne, Jennifer Hammon and Marie Wilson.
Watch Scott and John talk about their vendetta against Sonny Corinthos in key scenes from GH below. Now let us know, do you think Sonny should pay for his manipulation of Karen Wexler many years ago? Comment below.
I’m not familiar with the character of Karen but I find it odd that Jennifer Harmon played her. The same Jennifer Harmon who played Cathy Craig on OLTL? I think she is 10 years older than Kin Shiner who played her father.
Jennifer Hammon was the second actress to play Karen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_General_Hospital_characters_(1990s)#Karen_Wexler
Jennifer Hammon, not Harmon
This ridiculous history revisionism needs to stop already. Scotty has been spewing this dragonshit for years, now they have NuJagger doing it.
Here’s the reality… Yes, when Sonny was first introduced, he was a disposable 13 week character so they had him do some sleazy things like passing out pills to the girls (Karen included) who worked at his strip club. When they realized how good Maurice was, they changed the character, and he actually helped Karen get on a better path and from there she was able to get herself together, move on with her life and eventually become a doctor. So if anything, Sonny was a positive influence on Karen, arguably even saved her life. And of course, when Karen died years later, it was because some idiot ran over her with a car. It had absolutely zero to do with Sonny or any mob related storyline.
What screwed up Karen in the first place was that her trailer trash mother’s pedophile boyfriend was molesting her repeatedly. Her mother also didn’t bother telling Scotty that he was Karen’s father until long after all of this happened. From what my Fuzzy Devil Memory recalls from way back in the 1990s, the original Jagger was aware of what happened to Karen – as were Brenda and the original, pre-brain scrambled Jason Quartermaine, and they all threatened to kill her mom’s pedo boyfriend.
So give the vendetta a rest already. If Scotty as a former district attorney and NuJagger as a federal agent want to take issue with how Sonny earns a living, that’s completely fair, but blaming him for anything that happened to Karen as an adult is even more ridiculous than Nina’s obsession with Carly.
Since nobody’s allowed to discuss how Sonny killed AJ or that Ava killed Connie, having Sonny take some blame for something not entirely his fault might not be bad.
If every once in a while Tracy mentioned AJ to Sonny or if Ava ever squirmed a bit on her numberous visits to Nina’s office (where she killed Connie) it would seem somewhat more authentic. At least Dante still seems like he can’t be bothered with Ava.
Seems to me that they pretty much dropped the whole story with both AJ and Connie’s deaths, once ReRon’s personal “beef” with Sean Kanan was ended… by AJ’s most recent trip to Hell.
Of course Sonny didn’t really kill AJ either. He picked up Ava’s gun, which she had already fired, but it jammed up. Who would have thought a “mob princess” would buy guns at WalMart, right?? Who knows if Sonny even had to pull the trigger, but even if he did, the bullet didn’t kill AJ. He was recovering from the gunshot wound in the hospital for several days, and then suddenly had a cardiac arrest in the hospital, which killed him. Shortly before his death, Ava was in his hospital room, clearly concerned that AJ would remember her confession to ConKate’s murder, and was basically arguing with herself about “finishing the job”. Which I believe she did. On soaps, people always have easy access to drugs that can cause cardiac arrests, but are completely untraceable in the toxicology report & autopsy.
Sonny probably would have what Ava did and turned her in for both AJ and ConKate’s murders, but instead… he decided to have sex with her in the Quartermaine crypt at AJ’s funeral, which eventually resulted in Avery’s birth and… well you can’t throw your baby mama in prison, right?
You’re kind of grasping at straws to say Sonny didn’t kill AJ or blame it on the gun.
Ava was directly responsible for Connie and played a significant role in both AJ and Morgan’s demises. (Don’t even bother with the Morgan’s not down there diatribe – that’s worth saving for another thread).
All of that said, recent scenes between Ava & Sonny have been a pleasure to watch.
Given recent developments in Port Charles, I would say Morgan might be returning sooner than you think. The inmate who was interviewed by Cyrus the Virus said the guy who was doing business with him was a “ghost” who went by the name “Stone”. And Selina Wu’s turncoat employee Lee also indicated that the guy they are looking for is supposedly dead.
Obviously it’s not Stone Cates. The Frank Valentini regime has changed GH history for the dumbest of reasons a few times since 2012, but they aren’t possibly dumb enough to mess with THAT story. Death from AIDS isn’t reversible, even in Port Charles. But Morgan’s full name is Morgan STONE Corinthos.
Would Morgan target his own father? Probably not, if he were in his right mind. But if he had amnesia after the Jerome Family Project car bombing, and was programmed by Alcazar to target his own family, definitely.
How this ties into Jason’s return – or if it’s just a bizarre coincidence that it’s happening at the same time – remains to be seen, of course.
You still went there with this Morgan thing.
STONE Cold Jason Morgan is the “dead” man in question.
All (or most) will be revealed next week. Will be paying close attention to dialogue as the new HWs work kicks in.
I totally agree!
I like that the rich history of GH’s past is being used and coming into play.
Re: Jason. I used to feel that GH could not survive without Jason and was completely supportive of the character. But the circumstances of his departure made me never really want to see him again and I still don’t. Cameron Mathison was a great hire and could have easily taken his place. He is a terrific actor with a strong stage presence. But I don’t understand what they are doing with his character right now. I hope they aren’t making him a villain or making him disappear.
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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