New episodes of General Hospital may soon be on the way, as producers of the ABC soap opera are reportedly aiming to restart production in the middle of July.
ABC's General Hospital is the latest daytime drama to set a target date for return to production. According to Deadline, the long-running soap opera is tentatively planning to resume shooting in mid-July. The plans, however, are contingent on the COVID-19 situation in Los Angeles, which has been fluid.
As Soap Central previously reported, The Young and the Restless is also eyeing a July restart date, though the CBS soap is shooting to get back up and running a bit earlier than GH, on Monday, July 6.
Both GH and Y&R will follow The Bold and the Beautiful, which became the very first U.S. scripted TV show to resume production when it began filming again Wednesday, June 17. Unfortunately, the series had to hit pause just one day later to work on its coronavirus testing protocols but was finally able to resume production once more on Wednesday, June 24.
All four network soap operas suspended production in mid-March amid an industrywide production shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Y&R and B&B ran out of original episodes at the end of April and began airing throwback episodes curated into theme weeks. GH ran out of new material in May and also began airing throwback episodes that have weekly themes.
UPDATE (July 10, 2020): Sources confirm to Soap Central that General Hospital is delaying its return to production. The ABC soap had hoped to get things rolling on July 13, but things will now remain dark until the following week. Similarly, The Young and the Restless also delayed its return by a week earlier this month. NBC's Days of our Lives, meanwhile, has opted to hold off on returning to production until September 1.
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