'General Hospital' Switching up Its Broadcast Schedule for Thanksgiving Day
The long-running soap will be airing a new episode on Thanksgiving, marking only the second time it's happened since 2003.
General Hospital is making a big change this week with the Thanksgiving holiday. According to Soap Central, instead of usual reruns on Turkey Day or other network programming, the long-running soap will be airing a brand new episode on Thursday, Nov. 23. It will mark only the second new episode to air on Thanksgiving Day since 2003. The last time there was a new episode on Thanksgiving was in 2019 because of "excessive preemptions" that happened that year. Before that, it was back in 2002 that General Hospital premiered a new episode.
The reasoning for the change is unknown, but it will give viewers something to watch either before, during, or after having their feast. The episode will see Lois' mother arriving at the Quartermaines to help with the turkey as Robert has a surprise for Anna. Meanwhile, Valentin gently confronts Charlotte, Kristina invites Blaze to Alexis' for Thanksgiving, and Sasha and Cody get asked if they're dating. It's going to be quite a Thanksgiving at the Quartermaines, and viewers will want to tune in.
On top of the new Thanksgiving episode, there will be no new episode on Friday, Nov. 24. ABC will be airing a college football game, so the series will be coming back on Monday, Nov. 27. At least fans will be able to look forward to a brand new episode on Thanksgiving, and they will be able to see what will be going down on General Hospital for the holiday.
In other GH news, Roger Howarth was cut from the series after starring on it for 11 years and close to 900 episodes. The actor joined the show in 2012 as Todd Manning, having portrayed the character on One Life to Live. During his run on General Hospital, Howarth also played two other characters, including Dr. Austin Gatlin-Holt. It's going to be disappointing to see him go, but with a show like General Hospital, there is always the possibility he could return in some capacity, maybe even as yet another different character.
If you are too busy on Thanksgiving to watch General Hospital, the episode will be on Hulu later in the day, so there are more options to watch. Whether this will continue next year is unknown, but it should be interesting to see if it will have an impact on the show's future holiday airings. Holidays on General Hospital are always unpredictable, and tomorrow's Thanksgiving episode will surely be the same way.