‘General Hospital’ Scheduling Notes: Encore Episodes Airing The Rest Of This Week, ABC Executive Explains Why
General Hospital viewers were treated to a couple of intense episodes on Monday and Tuesday, but now they will be left hanging for an entire week. Encore episodes are scheduled to air through Labor Day and fans are already frustrated by ABC’s decision to go this route. Network executive Nathan Varni has taken to Twitter to try to explain why this is being done.
As SheKnows Soaps shares, there will be no new episodes of General Hospital airing Wednesday, August 29 through Monday, September 3. On Wednesday, ABC will air the episode that originally ran on Friday, January 26, and viewers will see the next two episodes from January air on Thursday and Friday of this week. It looks like that will take everybody back to Nathan’s heartbreaking death and the aftermath of the devastation that played out throughout Port Charles.
On Monday, September 3, ABC will share a special tribute episode of General Hospital that originally aired on Friday, February 9. It seems that this one focuses on Nathan’s funeral and all of his loved ones mourning his death. Fans have been frustrated and confused about the upcoming string of encore episodes, but it sounds as if it’s been planned for quite some time.
ABC executive Nathan Varni shared some insight about the situation via Twitter. A follower said that it seemed like a bad sign that these encore shows were airing in place of new General Hospital episodes, but Varni said there was no reason to worry. He said that this has been planned for months, and it comes as a result of fewer interruptions throughout the course of the year than what typically happens.
Uh oh. What could these guys be talking about? #GH #KevinRyan #twins #doppelganger @GeneralHospital #GeneralHospital pic.twitter.com/lokAUfAyLL
— Jon Lindstrom (@thejonlindstrom) August 28, 2018
Apparently, this year there have been fewer episodes interrupted by President Trump and news-related issues that cause new shows to be pushed out by a day. As a result, the network basically caught up to what they had produced and needed to build in some encore shows to get things back into balance.
Another follower asked Varni on Twitter why ABC doesn’t air classic episodes at times like these or during the holidays when new episodes are held back. He said that this is hard for them to do, mostly due to talent costs and music rights. He explained that it’s typically cost-prohibitive for them to do, but they are trying to find a way to make it work.
Where do things head next? Tuesday’s show brought a medical crisis for Oscar, news that Madeline was dead, a missing birth mother, and the revelation that it had been Ryan locked up at Ferncliff. Ryan managed to knock out Kevin and there’s action on the way during the week of September 3 for all of these storylines. Stay tuned for General Hospital spoilers as they emerge and start counting down to the exciting new episodes that are on the way.
