ABC‘s General Hospital is joining fellow daytime dramas The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless in setting a target date for return to production. ABC is tentatively planning to resume shooting its long-running soap in mid-July contingent on the COVID-19 situation in Los Angeles, which have been fluid.
CBS’ The Bold and the Beautiful restarted production last week. It was paused after the first day over what the production company revealed as multiple false positive tests results. Its testing protocols were adjusted, the lab used to process tests was changed, and the series has been taping again since this Wednesday. The Young and the Restless is targeting a July 6 return to production. All shows follow strict COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Like The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless, General Hospital ran out originals more than a month ago and has been rerunning classic episodes. The fourth broadcast daytime drama, NBC’s Days of Our Lives, has not revealed production restart plans, but it has a lot more leeway with banked originals to last through September.
General Hospital is both the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the longest-running scripted television drama currently in production. The show has won the Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Drama a record 13 times.
