It’s one of the longest real-life cliffhangers that soap operas have ever faced. The coronavirus crisis shut down most television production in March and eventually, The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless ran out of new episodes.
Will We See New Soap Operas Again Soon?
Now, a new report is giving soap fans and the people who work on them some hope. Deadline is reporting that TV production in Los Angeles may resume this Friday, June 12 — if a variety of safety protocols are met.
The Deadline report stated that L.A. Country Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer “announced modifications to the health order her office has issued to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Those changes will permit the reopening of sectors that include film and TV production.”
The order is set to be issued today, Thursday, June 11, with the effective date being one day later. This week, Ferrer introduced a graph that showed a “clear picture” that the “seven-day rolling average of COVID-related deaths in the county” was trending down — for both the region as a whole and at skilled nursing facilities.
This good news came to light after Los Angeles County was put on a state “watch list” earlier this week due to concerns of a higher transmission rate.
This doesn’t mean that things are getting back to normal in the immediate future. Time will tell when the four soaps get back into production. One source tells Soap Hub that it may not be happening for a few more weeks. Hopefully, new soap episodes are able to air by July.
BB, GH, and YR are currently airing classic episodes in their respective regular timeslots. Years ago, DAYS got ahead by several months by taping more than the usual one episode per day. That is paying off now as the NBC serial is the only soap with new content.
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