The WGA strike has put a pause on the majority of the entertainment industry’s work, but it can’t pull the plug on ABC’s General Hospital. The soap opera, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has hired “scab writers,” or “‘writers’ who cross the picket line” in order to continue airing the series.
General Hospital is the first soap to adopt this method since the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike began on May 2, violating all union members from crafting new scripts.
Shannon Peace, the show’s breakdown writer (the individual who writes the narrative script of a soap opera), took to Instagram on Saturday (July 22) to explain that Friday’s (July 20) episode was her “final [episode] until the strike is over.”
She wrote, “Starting Tuesday (July 25), the writing team of GH will be watching alongside fans to see what happens… for the sake of the fans, I hope the show is in capable writing hands.”
Peace, who has been the soap’s breakdown writer since 2021, detailed that the show’s upcoming episodes for the foreseeable would be written by temporary scab writers, which she deemed “heartbreaking.”
She also felt she has to “acknowledge the pain of knowing that characters we’ve developed, relationships we built and stories we planned are being handled by others.”
“Still, my hope is that if you love GH, you’ll continue to watch,” she added. “You can morally support the writers AND keep the show the air!”
Soap operas like General Hospital are in a unique position because the SAG-AFTRA strike, which began alongside the WGA on July 14, doesn’t impact the show’s actors, as they are employed under the National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting (or “Netcode”), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Netcode covers daytime serials like General Hospital, allowing its contracts to run through July 2024, per People. Thus, fans are in luck, but as noted by TVFanatic, “the show will probably feel different with a different team [of writers].”
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. The most recent episodes are available for next-day streaming on Hulu.