Finola Hughes Previews Anna’s GH Story to Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest

While General Hospital is on a brief production hiatus, Finola Hughes went to New York where she visited All My Children pal Kelly Ripa both socially and professionally as a guest on Live With Kelly and Ryan. The affable morning talk show hosts inquired what was coming up next on GH.

GH’s Finola Hughes Visits Live With Kelly and Ryan

“I can tell you that I’m sort of getting together with this guy [Valentin Cassadine, James Patrick Stuart] who used to be also in the agency,” Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) told Live With Kelly and Ryan hosts Kelly Ripa (ex-Hayley, AMC) and Ryan Seacrest (American Idol). Knowing she was perhaps speaking to an audience that may not be regular GH viewers, Hughes clarified, “we call [the agency] the ‘bureau’…the WSB.”

“That’s our affiliate in Atlanta,” quipped Seacrest. A chuckling Hughes said, “It’s so nice to tell Ryan this whole story [because] he has no idea [what I’m talking about]. It’s almost like the FBI, I suppose. We’re going on a caper to look for somebody who has potentially stolen a baby, which is what happens all the time on soaps.”

“Everybody is kidnapped, always,” dryly noted Kelly Ripa. who jokes, “And if you haven’t, you’re a loser.”

“So you [Ripa] don’t work for the WSB,” Seacrest said to his co-host. “I work for the ABC,” Ripa wryly responded.

On Memorizing All of Anna’s Lines

Seacrest asked Hughes about the intense taping schedule at GH, asking if it was heavy. “Sure, yes,” Hughes said. “We shoot five days a week, sometimes two or three shows a day. You have to [memorize] sometimes 30-40 pages a day.”

“That is a muscle,” says Ripa, who used to have to memorize many daily during her time as AMC’s Hayley. “Now that I work here if I try to work anywhere else doing anything else, I ask, ‘Will there be a prompter? Cue cards? Will my lines be written down on something?'”

Check out the clip below. Live With Kelly and Ryan airs weekdays in syndication. Check local listings for airtimes. General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers.