Browsing: General Hospital

Ratings Report for the Week of January 28 – February 1, 2013

Prospect Park’s much anticipated online revivals of long-running soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” continue to inch closer to reality as both shows are scheduled to go into production in the coming weeks ahead of their excepted launch dates on Hulu (and iTunes) sometime in April.

During tonight’s 65th Annual DGA Awards Dinner, held at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles, “One Life to Live’s” Jill Mitwell beat out “General Hospital’s” Larry Carpenter, Scott McKinsey and William Ludel and “Days of our Live’s” director Albert Alarr in the category of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials. Mitwell won for her direction of the episode “Between Heaven and Hell,” which aired during “OLTL’s” final week on television (week of January 9, 2012). Coincidently, the title of the episode is based on the fact that prior to its 43-year run on ABC, which began July 15, 1968, “One Life to Live” was initially titled “Between Heaven and Hell.”

It was on Friday, January 25, when Soap Opera Network first reported that Prospect Park’s “All My Children” was looking to recast the role of Cassandra Foster, the adopted daughter of Angela Hubbard (Debbi Morgan), who the good doctor found abandoned in a dumpster during her run on ABC’s “The City” back in the mid-1990′s. The character returned as an 18 year-old seeking comfort from mommy dearest in 2008 as played by actress YaYa DaCosta. Since then, the production company has now officially issued a casting call for the role. According to the casting call, the role is for an African-American in her early-mid 20’s, “gorgeous with an air of sophistication.” The character spent the majority of her time in Paris, France, which has helped her become “worldly, independent and a force to be reckoned with.” The role is contract.

Just a short time ago, Prospect Park released the following statement to Soap Opera Network regarding the latest developments surrounding its discussions with Disney/ABC Domestic Television and the use of the characters Starr Manning, Todd Manning and John McBain.

According to the company, shortly after deciding to postpone production of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” they made an agreement with ABC that would allow “General Hospital” to utilize the characters so that they could “stay alive with the fans and also so that the actors could remain working.” The company also tells Soap Opera Network that “Everyone at ABC and on the production staff of ‘General Hospital’ understood that this was a temporary arrangement until production started once again on ‘One Life to Live.’ Now the time has come to start production and Prospect Park needs to, once again, cast these characters including Llanview transplants Michael Easton (John) and Kristen Alderson (Starr).”

Beginning Wednesday, February 6, fans of “General Hospital’s” Sean Kanan (AJ Quartermaine) can see/hear the actor in a different light as the daytime star has signed on with UBN Radio Network to launch a new radio show, “Kanan’s Rules,” with wife, Michele. The show will air live in both audio and streaming video via http://www.ubnradio.com from the Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood.

Despite Michael Easton’s announcement early this morning, where he stated that after February 8th he would be exiting “General Hospital,” along with Roger Howarth and Kristen Alderson, due to “some ongoing legal this and that,” an ABC spokesperson tells Soap Opera Network that all three will remain an essential part of the “GH” canvas for the foreseeable future.

As previously reported, Michael Easton along with Kristen Alderson and Roger Howarth are currently at the center of a legal dispute between Prospect Park and Disney/ABC Domestic Television, part of the Disney/ABC Telvision Group, over who has the right to use the characters of John McBain (Easton), Starr Manning (Alderson) and Todd Manning (Howarth)). In one corner you have Prospect Park and “One Life to Live” and in the other you have ABC and “General Hospital.” Unfortunately for the fans, no one is “winning.” According to one of the affected actors, after Friday, February 8, they “cannot be at ‘General Hospital'” any longer.

Ratings Report for the Week of January 21-25, 2013

ABC’s “General Hospital” and “The View” ranked #1 in Women 18-34 for the week of January 21-25, 2013. Both series averaged a 0.7 rating in the key sales demo. This marks “GH’s” 10th time in the past 11 weeks to rank #1 in the demo.

Described as the love story behind “Doctor Zhivago,” the award-winning play “Lightning from Heaven,” written by “General Hospital” script writer Scott Sickles, will open for a limited engagement at New York City’s WorkShop Theater beginning Thursday, February 14th.

What a difference a year makes, huh “One Life to Live” fans? Looking back through the Soap Opera Network archives, I happened upon the last column that I had written. It was November 30, 2011, nearly two weeks after Prospect Park made the now infamous decision to scrap their plans to revive “OLTL” online, just five days after the soap wrapped production on its ABC run. And now here we are just over a year later, with that plan seemingly resurrected and “One Life,” along with sister soap “All My Children,” a month away from resuming production for new episodes on the internet.

Ratings Report for the Week of January 14-18, 2013 NOTE: Please do not copy and paste the entire ratings.  Thank…

In a report outlining the tremendous turnaround daytime soap operas have experienced in recent months, following five years of consistent cancellations, which found numerous soaps ending their runs starting with “Passions” in 2008, “Guiding Light” in 2009, “As The World Turns” in 2010, “All My Children” in 2011 and “One Life to Live” in 2012, Deadline is reporting that CBS and ABC are about to forgo another year of fan heartbreak. According to the sites sources, the networks are expected to continue production of “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “General Hospital” for the foreseeable future. This news would follow in line with NBC’s recent announcement that it had renewed “Days of our Lives” through the next television season (2013-2014).

As previously reported, actor Jimmy Deshler has joined the cast of “General Hospital” in the role of Rafe, who is believed to be the son of Alison Barrington and Caleb Morley as a result of their sexual encounter occurring towards the end of ABC’s long canceled “Port Charles.”

As previously reported, Jack Wagner is returning to ABC’s “General Hospital” to reprise his role as Frisco Jones on the daytime drama series. Soap Opera Network first reported on word of Wagner’s return to the set on Monday, January 14, following a now squashed Twitter controversy surrounding the actor and now co-star Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis). The two appeared separately in the Monday, January 7 episode of “Castle,” which also happens to air on ABC.

With Lynn Herring returning last month as the ever spectacular Lucy Coe, now head of CoeCoe Cosmetics, many were left wondering if her return would solely be for the purpose of resurrecting the Nurse’s Ball on ABC’s “General Hospital.” Thanks to the creative writing of head writer Ron Carlivati and his team, that doesn’t appear to be the case. In a welcome twist of fate it looks as though Lucy’s return has actually helped open up a string of storylines tied to ABC’s canceled “General Hospital” spin-off “Port Charles.”

On Wednesday, January 30, “General Hospital’s” Sean Kanan (AJ Quartermaine) will be putting his comedic chops on display for Mavrick Artists Agency’s Comedy Showcase being held in Los Angeles, CA. The event is being hosted by Lorenzo Lamas, who co-starred with Kanan back in the early 2000’s on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Lamas portrayed Hector Ramirez on the CBS daytime soap.

Prospect Park first announced plans to move “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to the web back in July 2011 after striking a license holding deal with Disney/ABC Domestic Television. Sadly, plans fell through by November 2011 after apparent financing and union discussions fell through. Since that dreadful time period, Prospect Park has resumed work on returning the soaps to your [computer] screens, only this time with financing said to be in place and union deals already signed with the DGA (directors), SAG-AFTRA (actors) and the WGA (writers). With more than a year gone by since “One Life to Live” last aired, we thought it would be a great opportunity to see which stars have (so far) signed on to return to “AMC” and “OLTL” compared to the list circling back in 2011.

Hours after Prospect Park officially announced that they had signed deals with a number of “One Life to Live” stars including Kassie DePaiva (Blair), the actress posted a new blog entry expressing her excitement to be returning to Llanview.