On recent episodes of General Hospital, acting PCPD commissioner, Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) was the last to know when his ex-wife Lulu (Alexa Havins), his cop/friend “Nathan,” (Ryan Paevey) and his son, Rocco (Finn Carr) kept him in the dark from learning that Rocco actually shot WSB director, Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes). That, set off a chain of events leading to Rocco joining Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) and going on the run from Port Charles.

However, what led to everyone being so secretive and keeping the truth from Dante stems, in part, to what happened back in 2010. In story, Michael Corinthos (then played by Chad Duell) was brutally assaulted and rape by his prison inmate, Carter (Josh Wingate). Michael went to prison when his brother, Dante, then a PCPD detective, forced Michael to testify in court about killing his stepmother, Claudia Zacchara (Sarah Brown). That testimony resulted in Michael being sentenced to prison for manslaughter.

In early 2011, Michael admitted out loud to Jason (Steve Burton) for the first time that he was raped. The guilt of that situation has plagued Dante for years, and fast-forward 16 years later, it’s still very much alive in Dante’s character life as explained by Dominic Zamprogna in his recent interview on the Michael Fairman Channel.

Courtesy/ABC

RORY GIBSON RECAST WAS PERFECT TIME TO BRING BACK THE STORY POINT

Zamprogna spoke of Dante’s son current plight, and how it dovetails into the past for the acting police commissioner. “The situation with Rocco is just this awful scenario that this kid is in and wanting to try and do the best for him. The other thing I liked too was from the other people’s perspectives of Dante in the past, he kind of did right by the law, not by the people, or put too much faith in the law, and expected it to work out for the people he loved, and it didn’t. So, it gave them a reason for keeping things from him as well.”

The five-time Daytime Emmy nominee shared it’s important to remember things in the history of the character you play. When GH decided to recast the role of Michael Corinthos with Rory Gibson on-screen in May of 2025, it was the perfect time to remind viewers of what happened all those years ago.

“The idea that when you’re on a show this long, I do think about those elements because there’s so much story. The scenes that I think of immediately with the Michael situation was with Chad gone, and then Rory came in. They (the writers) chose that moment to kind of literally say in the dialogue when we were at the Quartermaines, ‘You’ve changed since you came back from Europe, and you’re a different guy and you’re darker.’ I think I said all these things. Frank Valentini (executive producer, GH) calls (Rory’s version) ‘Dark Michael.’ It’s true.”

Courtesy/ABC

DANTE’S GUILT OVER MICHAEL’S BRUTAL PRISON ASSAULT LINGERS

“That was the first time my character brought that up in what had happened to Michael so long ago. I’d love to play those beats more often. You can’t beat that to death, because it was 16 years ago, but you also can’t act like it never happened. Sometimes in the world that we live in, the soap world, you do act like things don’t happen because how could people carry on with that kind of guilt, you know? Every time I looked at Michael, Dante would feel responsible for the atrocity that happened to him. So, there’s a balance. You can’t think about it every time, but you definitely have to acknowledge it. This was the perfect time to acknowledge it with the character of Michael because of the recast.”

Now over the last several months, Dante was kept from the truth all stemming back to that moment. Zamprogna recalled, “It was the first kind of domino that fell in bringing back that history. Then, you had Britt coming back and that brought back that history of the embryo with Dante and Lulu. It was fun to be able to play pissed-off with these people who I love. So, you got to play the love underneath and the anger on top, and it was all because of his past. So, it all kind of brought things back and it completed something.”

CAN LULU AND DANTE FIND ROCCO AND BRITT IN TIME?

At the end of Friday’s June 19 cliffhanger, Dante and Lulu learned from “Nathan” where Rocco and Britt are hiding out and take off to find their son. How will that go? Can the execs get along for the sake of their son? Stay tuned.

In case you missed our conversation with Dominic Zamprogna  you can check it out in full below.

Do you believe, given what happened with Michael Corinthos in the past, everyone had the right to hide what happened to Rocco from Dante? What do you remember from the harrowing story of Michael’s rape in prison by Carter? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

The tornado that ripped through Fairmont Crest and put the lives of the characters of Beyond the Gates and several from The Young and the Restless in jeopardy had viewers tuning-in for the week of June 8-12.

The highly-publicized crossover event kicked off on the Tuesday, June 9 episode of Beyond the Gates where six residents of Genoa City came to to visit the D.C./Maryland country club for a fundraiser for Martin Richardson (Brandon Claybon), only no one expected a twister to tear into the proceedings, leading to several storylines intersecting as people were trapped with one another with Eva Thomas (Ambyr Michelle) being the most severely injured and now requiring a liver transplant to survive.

According to the ratings report from CBS and Nielsen ratings and as supplied to Variety, Beyond the Gates brought in on average 1.8 million viewers throughout the wee. That is up 11% from its season-to-date numbers and it makes the crossover/tornado episodes its third most-watched week for the soap since Beyond the Gates premiered back on February 24, 2025.

Photo: CBS

A GENOA CITY TOUCHDOWN

With the strength of the story, its special effects and bringing over cast of the top-rated, The Young and the Restless which included: Eric Braeden (Victor Newman), Michael Mealor (Kyle Abbott), Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott), Susan Walters (Diane Jenkins), Melissa Ordway (Abby Newman) and Bryton James (Devon Hamilton), the Thursday, June 11 episode was the week’s most-watched.

According to the numbers, the Wednesday June 10 episode brought in the most total viewers for the week with 1.87 million (up 17% week-to-week), followed closely by the Friday, June 12 episodes which had 1.84 million watching.

Photo: JPI

Over on The Young and the Restless, the week of June 8-12, also saw an increase based on the early return that week of Shemar Moore as Malcolm Winters wrapping up his leg of the story where viewers learned he had a son Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) with Stephanie Simmons (Vivica A. Fox), and survived his bone marrow transplant surgery thanks to Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn).

Y&R scored 3.11 million viewers for the week up 2% from its season average with the June 8 and June 9 episodes featuring Moore averaging 3.2 million viewers and up 9% year-over-year.

So, did you enjoy the tornado episodes of Beyond the Gates and seeing the residents of Genoa City crossover to Fairmont Crest? Share your thoughts via the comment section on the latest ratings for the two CBS daytime soaps.

The highly-anticipated return of Daytime Emmy winner, Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) to General Hospital is just around the corner. It’s next week! Anna’s back starting with the Wednesday June 24 episode of the ABC daytime drama series.

Hughes has been off the soap opera on-screen since February. Now, the question becomes, when viewers see Anna, will she be in the same condition she was when we last saw her? Believing Cesar Faison is alive, and traumatized from the hallucinogenic drugs she was served up from Cullum (Andrew Hawkes), Sidwell (Carlo Rota) and company while held captive at Wyndemere?

Anna was last seen in a mental clinic in France, but also left word of her captivity on the wall inside the secret room at Wyndemere where Josslyn (Eden McCoy) and Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) are now being held against their will, too!

Photo: ABC

ANNA ON HER WAY BACK TO PORT CHARLES?

Even though Finola Hughes has not been on the canvas for months, Anna has certainly been talked about. In fact, super spy Anna, nearly escaped and made it as far as Switzerland before being recaptured. Since that time she is said to be housed at a high-security institution. We were then told that Congresswoman Willow Cain (Katelyn MacMullen) went to bat for Anna with the authorities overseas, and had her transferred to a more comfortable facility.

How will Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) play into saving Anna? We know he flipped out after learning what was happening and tried to phone the facility as Dr. Kevin Collins, but that backfired making him public enemy number one with the WSB.

Here’s what to look for on episodes featuring Finola Hughes on her first week back below:

On Wednesday, June 24 official General Hospital spoilers share: Anna meets with her doctor. Carly makes a stunning confession. Britt extracts a promise. Cullum pulls a fast one. Gio and Emma hit the pool.

Then, when we next see Anna on the Friday, June 26 episode, official GH spoilers add: Anna takes a huge risk. Britt is in grave danger. Willow is in disbelief. Danny must act fast. Curtis jumps to the wrong conclusion.

ANNA/VALENTIN/CARLY

In addition, General Hospital co-head writers, Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten teased summer story to Soap Opera Digest, including some intel on Anna’s return to Port Charles. The scribes shared that Anna’s presence doesn’t mean that Rocco (Finn Carr) is out of the woods for shooting Cullum, and that Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) would face some hard questions from the super spy as well, plus a major decision made by Jason (Steve Burton) is said to have big implications for Anna.

There is also the fact that while Anna was in a mental facility in France, Carly (Laura Wright) and Valentin have become lovers and developed feelings for one another while in Port Charles. Will a triangle ensue? Stay tuned.

So, what do you think will be Anna’s mental state when viewers see her next week on GH? Will she be OK? Suffer from PTSD? Be faking it at this point, or be a changed woman? Weigh-in via the comment section below.