Impeachment Consequences: You May Not See General Hospital For Two Weeks

Soap Hub urged the networks to please put our soaps online and/or on a streaming service during the impeachment trial of the United States President, but we know at least ABC plans to keep delaying General Hospital as long as it’s preempted.

Give Us General Hospital

As of now, the trial in Washington can go into the end of the next week as it’s currently set up under the Republican-led Senate rules. But we also know anything can happen and even yesterday, more was supposed to get done but with amendments introduced and debated well into the night, it will likely go longer.

In addition, the trial proceedings will not be starting until the afternoon due to the Chief Justice having a day job over at the Supreme Court, where he must be in the mornings. That cuts right into soap time, so the odds of a long recess during GH time are slim to none.

We had hoped when ABC decided to delay yesterday’s GH and not utilize both Hulu and ABC.com as alternative viewing venues, that would just be a one-day thing, but according to ABC executive Nathan Varni, it is not.

As he posted on Facebook late yesterday:

“A #GH programming update: today’s episode won’t air in the U.S., we are pushing today’s episode to tomorrow. For Canadian viewers, you’ll see an encore tomorrow. Thank you!”

Astute fans immediately pointed out what we know — this trial will begin in the afternoons and not end today or even tomorrow and can go well into next week and beyond. Varni responded with ABC’s current plan:

“We do have a plan, if we keep getting interrupted in a majority of markets, we’ll, unfortunately, keep pushing the show back by a day. We do want the biggest number of GH viewers to be able to see the episodes as intended on ABC. If we keep pushing, the good news is you’ll get to see all episodes on ABC and won’t miss anything. Thanks for your understanding and your loyal viewership!”

We do understand ABC not wanting fans to miss a day as the show heats up and is the best its been in quite a while, but fans do not have to miss a day. It is 2020. It is not 1987 during the Iran-Contra hearings.

It’s not 1999 during the Clinton impeachment trial. And it’s not even 1995 when OJ Simpson was on trial. We have the Internet now. We have streaming services. There are alternative viewing options in this tech-savvy world, including running the shows overnight to be recorded on DVRs, so there is no reason to delay any episodes at all, much less for weeks. If you are reading this, if you were reading Varni’s message on social media, you have the ability to turn to ABC.com to watch GH.

Days of our Lives has an enormously consequential week planned for the people of Salem, and DAYS fans get to see it every day — on NBC.com. CBS has not made a decision yet if it will keep delaying as long as its preempted, but the network has made use of CBS.com and CBS All Access before to run its soaps and we hope by today, fans can catch The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful online.

ABC and GH: Please Reconsider

ABC, you can still change course and we urge you to do so. We are completely behind the network’s decision to air this historic trial live. No matter the outcome, it will have lasting consequences for all Americans and being informed has never been more important. But we also need self-imposed breaks from it and an escape. Soaps are an escape. General Hospital is a wonderful escape.

Utilize the tools you have to get GH to its audience every day during the trial — for our sake and the soaps. With daytime dramas holding onto life by a thread, we can’t afford for viewers to not come back when this is over, as has happened when soaps have been preempted for extended periods of time before. (Most notably, during the OJ Simpson trial.)

Soap Hub is a champion of soaps, as soaps are more than just a job to us. They are our passion and we don’t want to see extended preemptions hurt their longevity. General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.