With the coronavirus changing our lives every today, and a return to production in the air for so many TV series, General Hospital will now air four new episodes a week to stretch out the remaining episodes they have banked before the COVID-10 pandemic forced soap opera production to come to a full work stoppage.

Now, starting this Friday, om the April 6th, the ABC daytime drama series w will air repeat episodes every Friday through May 22.

These encore presentations will be called “Flashback Fridays,” and each episode will feature an introduction from a  General Hospital cast member.

To kick things off, this Friday, the series will air a repeat of last year’s 56th-anniversary episode, with an  intro by Laura Wright. GH fans will recall that episode centered around the reading of the late Gail Baldwin’s will.

According to The Wrap:  :At the time of the production break, the ABC soap had enough episodes pre-taped to carry originals into May.”

Tomorrow on April 1st, will also mark GH’s 57th anniversary.

So what do you think of the plan to stretch out original episodes bu adding in one encore a week; until GH can get back to producing more episodes? Comment below?

There was always something special about the wonderful actors and the cast pictured here from ABC’s All My Children.  After all, this is where Kelly Ripa (Ex-Hayley) met her husband, Mark Consuelos (Ex-Mateo) and where Eva LaRue (Ex-Maria) met her ex-husband John Callahan (Ex-Edmund).

Then, over this past weekend this family picture from Pine Valley was forever changed, when the soap world was rocked by the news that John Callahan passed away at only 66/

Heartbreaking remembrances poured in on social media …. and none more so than from Eva LaRue, who also shares a daughter with John, named Kaya.  Eva and Kaya rushed to John’s bedside where he has been put on life-support following a reported massive stroke.

Now on Monday’s episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan, which is being done remotely from the hosts individual hosts due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kelly Ripa shared her grief over the loss of her dear friend John Callahan with Ryan.

Kelly said “I had a really a bad weekend this weekend.  A very dear friend of mine for many, many years, almost 30 years, passed away over the weekend. He was a great actor, a really good friend. One of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He was the ex-husband of my first-born son’s godmother, Eva LaRue. His name was John Callahan. He was 66 years old—way too young to be taken from us.”

Ripa went on to to tell her co-host: “A gentleman of, I mean, Ryan, you two would have loved each other. He would say the funniest things and we were all going through our brains about all of the funny, like the funny ‘Callahan-isms’ over the years. He was just one of these guys and you know and he just died way too soon. His daughter and my daughter are good friends, they’re the same age and I just want everyone to know, Eva and Kaya, that we are thinking of you and we are just so sad and so devastated. So, I apologize in advance if I seem out of it. I really actually am, I’m terribly out of it. You know, forgive me for it.”

Watch Kelly discuss the death of John Callahan with Ryan Seacrest below.  Then share your thoughts on what Ripa had to share and more on the loss of John Callahan via the comment section.

While the daytime dramas are still not back in production due to the coronavirus pandemic; morning and afternoon talk shows are finding a way to deliver new episodes or some new content to inject into previously aired shows.

CBS’ The Talk returns today on Monday March 30 with the hosts doing their thing from their homes.  The series has a temporary new name as well The Talk@Home

According to Deadline: The ladies of The Talk: Sharon Osbourne, Underwood, Eve, Carrie Ann Inaba and Marie Osmond will be live using Zoom technology – allowing all of them plus their guests to be featured on screens together while in separate locations.  The Talk staff will also continue to work remotely.  Guests for this week will include: Wayne Brady, Sean Hayes, Terry Crews, Broke stars Jaime Camil and Pauley Perrette, Dr Oz and comedian Sebastian Maniscalco.

Photo: NBCUniversal

In addition, syndicated freshmen hits The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Tamron Hall show will both feature new content filmed by their hosts while they have been quarantined at home during the pandemic

Clarkson, who is Montana with her family will add some home segments to air on the daily broadcast.  The Kelly Clarkson Show has been airing original episodes that had been filmed before the production shutdowns. (Many had been previously  preempted). The week of April 6, the show had announced plans to air some new original episodes plus newly filmed content from Montana.

Photo: Disney/ABC

Also beginning today, Tamron Hall will have new content focused on the latest with COVID-19, and that will be followed by encore segments from previously aired episodes of her talk show.

So, glad to hear that the daytime talk shows are imploring technology to continue to try to bring viewers updated and new features, content and episodes? Comment below.