General Hospital fans were excitedly anticipating the jam-packed episode slated to air on Monday, October 12. Unfortunately, it seemed that ABC decided to switch to coverage of the Supreme Court nominee hearings for the first portion of the show.
During the first quarter of the hour, no official announcement about the preemption popped up on social media. Unfortunately, it looks as if this may not be the only interruption coming over the next few days.
This week, General Hospital spoilers teased that Ava would propose an alternate offer to Ryan, and Lulu would face Dante’s return. During Monday’s show, Ned and Alexis would be scrambling to keep their secret from Olivia.
In addition, as SheKnows Soaps noted, everybody would see developments related to Gladys and Carly and Elizabeth and Franco, as well as Britt doing something ominous.
“These networks really need to stop interrupting soaps for this stuff. It’s disrespectful to soap fans,” one frustrated General Hospital viewer noted on Twitter .
While viewers did miss the first 15 minutes or so of Monday’s episode, ABC did cut away from covering the hearing and return to airing GH for the rest of the hour. There were some major developments in those early minutes, though, and people will be anxious to find a way to catch up on what they missed.
“I could understand @ABC showing Judge [Amy Coney] Barrett speaking but we don’t need to hear the talking heads’ opinions on it. Get back to #GH please and thank you,” another viewer wrote on Twitter just before the preemption ended.
“So they preempted 15 MIN of #GH JUST TO GIVE #SCOTUS UPDATE & show a small part of the HEARING itself?!?! This needs to stop! IF I want to watch it, it’s on news stations or ABCdotCom #BreakingNewsfor AN UPDATE or breakdown of what’s happening is NOT needed. DO IT ON THE NEWS,” detailed someone in another Twitter post.
Everybody will have to wait and see if this becomes an ongoing issue this week. As NPR detailed, the hearings are expected to continue through Thursday.
Whenever the soap is interrupted or preempted, General Hospital viewers often get frustrated. The past few months have been rough for fans, given the months-long production hiatus due to the coronavirus. People are thrilled to have the series back again, but it does seem that this week might be a little touch-and-go in terms of seeing full shows every day.
The General Hospital scenes that people failed to see should be able to be accessed on the network’s site or Hulu later in the day, although the gist of what was missed was fairly apparent as the rest of the hour aired.