‘General Hospital’ Tentative Return Date Revealed, Coronavirus ‘Encore Episode’ Run May Soon End

ABC has revealed that it is almost ready to begin airing new episodes of General Hospital again. Production shut down in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and daily reruns have been airing since late May. Now, it seems that the action in Port Charles will hopefully kick back into action again in just a matter of days.

According to Soap Central, the next new episode of General Hospital is tentatively slated to air on ABC on Monday, August 3. If that is the case, production is going to pull off a pretty quick turnaround between filming new content and getting the episodes airing.

Earlier this month, reports indicated that production was aiming to resume during the week of July 20. Those behind the scenes of General Hospital seemingly have not made any grand declarations about this actually happening. However, social media posts from a number of cast members seemed to suggest that people were heading back to the set at last.

For example, James Patrick Stuart (Valentin Cassadine), referenced needing to be at work Monday morning. Josh Swickard (Harrison Chase) mentioned how different the workplace was looking, and a new Instagram post from Emme Rylan (Lulu Spencer) revealed that she had gotten her blond tresses freshened up for the first time since filming was halted. This fresh color job seemed to suggest that Emme was ready to head back to work on the General Hospital set, too.

According to Soap Opera News, the General Hospital synopsis for this August 3 show says that Valentin will meet with Brook Lynn Quartermaine, while Olivia Falconeri Quartermaine and her husband Ned Quartermaine clash with one another.

Jasper “Jax” Jacks will be impressed by the strength that his romantic interest Nina Reeves shows, and Nelle Benson will be rattled by something. In addition, Portia Robinson has an uncomfortable interaction with somebody.

All of those General Hospital spoilers suggest that the action in Port Charles will pick up right where it left off in May. As fans will remember, Nelle and Michael were battling in court over custody of Wiley. Nelle asked Nina to take the stand and testify on her behalf, and fans were left hanging regarding whether the Crimson head would come through.

Olivia and Ned were struggling in their relationship as she had started to lean on Robert Scorpio for some support. Portia and her daughter Trina were getting some unwelcome attention from mob boss Cyrus Renault, and Curtis Ashford was feeling protective of them.

Is the long stretch of encore episodes finally about to end? General Hospital fans hopefully will not have to wait long now to see what comes next for all of these core Port Charles residents.

However, given ongoing complications with the coronavirus pandemic in California and across the country, the situation could still change. For now, however, it seems that viewers can start looking forward to August 3 as they stay tuned for updates.