GH: Time Slot Switch

In most parts of the US, General Hospital is moving one hour earlier from its long time home on September 9, 2012. GH started airing in the east at 3 PM in 1978, so for 34 years it was at the same time.


As everyone should know by now, this change happened because Katie (Katie Couric's new talk show) has been cleared as airing at 3 PM for many of the ABC stations. Katie is syndicated, but owned by Disney-ABC Domestic TV, which is why in some areas it will not appear on ABC. The reason it is airing at 3 PM instead of 4 PM is many ABC stations started to air local news (like the flagship out of NYC, WABC channel seven) once Oprah Winfrey retired her daytime talk show. That said if Katie does well, it is good for the people who own the show and the local stations. Since ABC gave that hour back to the affiliates, it isn't like they can bring back a soap opera, because even if the syndicated group did, there is no guarantee it would air on everyone's local ABC stations. The only true ABC programming times (using east coast times) during the day come Monday are:

11 am: The View
1 pm: The Chew
2 pm: General Hospital

So starting on ABC only has three hours to play with during the day, before Monday it was four, prior to the cancellation of Port Charles it was 4.5. ABC started broadcasting 4.5 hours in the day starting 20 years ago. In December 1984, Edge of Night aired its last episode and ABC gave back another 30 minutes, making it a 5 hour schedule. I think for us to wish for a new soap, we have to pray for a syndication deal as there are a lot more syndicated hours in the day than network ones. (For comparison, CBS currently has 2 hours of game shows, 1 hour of talk and 1.5 for soaps or 4.5 hours. NBC has 3 hours like ABC, with just Days of Our Lives and the extra 2 hours of Today.)

GH is moving into what was theme slot that One Life to Live held from 1978 until its last episode aired in January 2012. The show that replaced OLTL entitled The Revolution failed, and its temporary replacement Good Afternoon America didn't gain any traction. So perhaps the boycott of ABC by some viewers is working, or else people who used to turn into ABC have found something else to watch. The Chew which replaced All My Children seems to have ratings that aren't as downright dreadful, but my guess and only a guess is that people who watch that sample for a few minutes and then turn it off, it is the ultimate flipper show. A flipper show is one where you scan your remote channels and stop for a few minutes, but don't develop that many loyal regular viewers.

A part of me wonders if GH would even still be on the air if not for the failure of the shows that replaced OLTL. It will be interesting to see what happens to GH's ratings. One of the reasons that GH was so popular years ago was due to time slot as people were at home after school to watch. The earlier time slot makes that impossible. I'm hoping for the best, that we'll continue to have a soap opera on ABC daytime.