General Hospital
GH's Nancy Lee Grahn on Her Boobs, Monaco & Shawn/Alexis!
Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins
In one of the funniest interviews we have read and laughed out loud over, General Hospital’s Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) chatted with TV Guide about her noticeably larger breasts, being the cheerleader of her on-screen daughter, Kelly Monaco (as Monaco attempts to win the Mirror Ball Trophy on Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars) and trying to rationalize the out of the blue Shawn and Alexis attraction on GH! And of course, there are some comments on politics and Sarah Palin, that are not to be missed! Here are few excerpts!
Nancy on why it appears the wardrobe department at GH is accentuating her breasts of late: “They’re not! Here’s the other problem: I can’t stand wearing anything that covers my upper chest because it makes me feel like I’m suffocating. I must have been Anne Boleyn in a past life. I’ve always been this way but it’s only obvious now because my boobs have suddenly grown to the size of twin blimps and now they pop out. It’s also more noticeable because I like to move around a lot when I act. I’m always leaning over someone in a scene and they’re like, ‘God, stand up straight, will ya! Nobody can concentrate!”‘
Nancy on why she is always in the audience at every taping of DWTS All-Stars rooting on Kelly Monaco: “Oh, my God! I need an intervention! I can’t stop going to the tapings. Remember Miss Miller, the old gal who used to always sit in the audience of The Merv Griffin Show? I’m her. What the hell am I thinking? I’m so carried away playing Kelly’s mom on GH that I think I’m her mom in real life. I’m the Jewish mother she never had! She’s got a lot of balls for a pint-sized little thing. Sometimes I’ll go get her lunch on the GH set. The other day, as a joke, I threw a head of lettuce into her dressing room and said, ‘This is for today and tomorrow!’ I’m really, really impressed with how hard she’s working because this show is serious s–t! Just brutal! Between the angina I get being there to root for Kelly and the angina I have over this presidential election, I am so headed for the emergency room!”
Nancy on the arbitrary pairing of Shawn and Alexis: “I love working with Sean Blakemore (Shawn). I think he’s very cool. His character needs to be more dimensionalized, but I’m all for putting Shawn and Alexis together. Frank and Ron Carlivati know that I need to have a relationship on the show. Maybe they’re just experimenting, seeing what works, what doesn’t. It’d be good to start over with Alexis and Shawn and approach this thing again. Why are the two of them together? What’s behind the attraction? I don’t think they even know each other. They were making out in that scene because the show wanted a big moment after the boat exploded. We were shooting at the end of a long day on location on the docks in Long Beach and Frank Valentini came running at me and said, ‘If we don’t get this scene shot in 60 seconds, we’re going into overtime and it’s going to cost us $20,000! So shut up and shoot it! Just do it!” (Laughs) I didn’t have time to stand there and discuss my motivation.”‘
OK, so what do you think of Shawn and Alexis together? Nancy rooting on Kelly Monaco each week in-person on DWTS? We think it’s a tremendous show of support! And, how funny Grahn is? Weigh-in!
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
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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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I love Nancy Lee as actress but feel we would be friends. Feel Alexis needed a hot partner & WOW she got Shawn!! Love how shes suporting Kelly! Got my son voting too. pkease call 1800-868-3411 !! Love watching Nancy Lee.
Nancy always rocks. and yes, gh needs to give her a storyline.
I have loved the character of Alexis since she first appeared on the show. Her scenes with Stefan were superb and intense. Then we got to see her softer side when she gave in to Sonny’s charms. And as a mom, Nancy Lee adds just the right amount of neurosis to make her seem so realistic as the Davis Girls’ Mom. I hope Cartini keep her around for a long time! And what a classy thing she does by cheeering for Kelly Monaco each week. Sounds like she’s a loyal friend and a great actress!
Loved that interview. I have a love/hate “relationship” with NLG…we have very different politics and I hate when she’s on her band wagon acting like the know-it-all of everything political, but I love her as an actress (most of the time.)
I love Nancy Lee Grahn. She’s very blunt her own ways and I love that. However, the Alexis/Shawn pairing does not work, nor does Shawn on the series. Ditch him and TJ and put Alexis/Mac back together!
I heard Nancy is supposed to be on that g-awful show, THE CHEW sometime soon.
I also wanted to add while I was on the TV Guide website reading the entire interview – very good, by the way, there is a link to The Street that has the top 10 shows that Netflix should revive (since they are doing it for ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT). All of you AMC and OLTL fans should be happy that AMC and OLTL are on there together on page 8.
I love her. Beautiful and talented.
I to love Nancy,she’s one awesome actress & mother! I would also like for her & Shawn to have a relationship,they are so HOT together! Also I’m so happy to see her supporting the beautiful Kelly Monaco on DWTS,she really has alot of dedication in everything she believes in. You go girl!! <3! Keep up the awesome work!
When i think of NLG… I think of her superb work… on the beloved Santa Barbara… I will always think of that show as a who’s who… of Daytime… History. Uber Talent….
I simply adore her as the single mother of 3 daughters… she’s so good with all three of them… my favorite scenes are with her and Molly… Molly reads Alexis the riot act…
it’s my opinion… that we’ll never really see Alexis with “anyone”… she’s too pent up… miss anxiety….”frigid”… with men at least… for all the few choices GH has to offer THE WOMEN… it’s Mac I still hold out hopes for….
I think Alexis and Shawn look good together…i agree with NLG, there really is no story… but, Shawns’ a handsome man.
NLG is so hella cool, funny and she keeps it real. Her character as Alexis is always evolving and I love this new relationship with Shawn. Can”t want to see more scenes with them.