As many General Hospital fans had anticipated, ABC ran into issues when it came to airing the episode slated to be shown on Friday, November 15. Now, network executive Nathan Varni has taken to Twitter to explain how the situation will be handled.
Varni tweeted that ABC would switch away from coverage of the impeachment hearings at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. Unfortunately, this means that for anybody in the Eastern or Central time zones, they have missed the first half of Friday’s show.
Rather than bump the full episode out a day, as ABC did on Wednesday, or switch over earlier on Friday for the full episode, the network went with the option that may leave viewers irritated the most. Varni noted that the 30 minutes many people across the country will have missed can be seen either on ABC’s website Friday night or via Hulu.
ABC did try to spread the word about a possible preemption ahead of time. On Friday morning, they shared via social media that they were keeping an eye on the televised hearings and would confirm any schedule changes once they were made.
Interestingly, it appears that NBC and CBS both switched over to their regular programming before the public hearings finished on Friday. However, even into the time slot where the East Coast and Central Time Zone people were hoping to see General Hospital , the hearings continued to air live on ABC.
Jax is in deep with Nikolas and might want to consider leaving the whole thing behind. Is it too late? #GH is brand-new and STARTS NOW on ABC! @IngoRademacher pic.twitter.com/N12blHTZIP
— General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) November 14, 2019
As General Hospital fans watched social media for word from ABC about the schedule shift, actor William deVry (Julian Jerome) decided to have a bit of fun with the topic. DeVry said via Twitter that the next new episode for those on the East Coast would come a year from now. He teasingly recommended that everybody should move to the West Coast, so they can stay current with the shows.
While General Hospital fans hate to be left hanging, it looks like some did get a kick out of deVry’s post. For example, some quipped about how a year from now Michael will still be separated from his son Jonah.
This just in. GH will air a new ep on East coast of U.S. a year from now when impeachment viewings are over. However, all of Canada & West Coast of U.S. will continue to air new eps until then. So East Coast U.S. will be a year behind. You should all move 2 PST zone. Thank you.
— William deVry (@WilliamdeVry1) November 15, 2019
Some other General Hospital viewers joked that Josslyn will still be moaning about Oscar’s death a year from now. A few people responding to deVry’s post teased that GH was trying to take the time jump storyline that Days of Our Lives just kicked off and crank things up a notch.
It is not yet clear whether these impeachment hearing preemptions will continue in the weeks ahead, but it seems possible if not likely. Stay tuned for additional schedule updates and General Hospital spoilers to keep track of where the chaos in Port Charles is headed next.