General Hospital is the only ABC soap left on air these days, and when a day is missed there can be panic among viewers. Showing reruns isn’t a regular practice, but for holidays it is a typical thing.
Beginning Wednesday, General Hospital started airing repeats. The episode depicted when Nathan (Ryan Paevey) was shot by Faison (Anders Hove). This set a chain of events in motion, eventually leading to the revelation that Peter (Wes Ramsey) was actually Henrik.
Thursday and Friday, General Hospital will also be broadcasting encore episodes of previously aired material. This has been known for several weeks now, but has caught some viewers unawares.
Fans were concerned when the news was initially announced, jumping to the conclusion that General Hospital was in danger of cancellation. But that’s not the case.
ABC has explained that the reason for the reruns is that there have been fewer interruptions to normal scheduling this year.
Usually, in any year there are a certain number of big, breaking news stories that mean episodes of General Hospital don’t air and get pushed back.
However, this year the network ended up three shows short because there have been an unusually low number of big news stories.
ABC network executive Nathan Varni said on Twitter: “You shouldn’t be worried. It’s been planned for months.
“Last year we didn’t have to take additional encores because Trump interrupted the show so much. This year, with less interruptions, we needed to take some extra days off based on the number of new episodes we produce for you.”
You shouldn’t be worried, it’s been planned for months. Last yr we didn’t have to take additional encores because Trump interrupted the show so much. This year, with less interruptions, we needed to take some some extra days off based on the # of new eps we produce for you.
— Nathan Varni (@nathanvarni) August 17, 2018
Because Monday is a holiday, there will be no new episode of General Hospital that day either. The show will return with brand new episodes on Tuesday, September 4, 2018. Until then, encore episodes will continue to air in place of new ones.
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC.
Thank you for letting me know, now I understand
Faithful watcher, since it began.