For the first time since February 2011, “General Hospital” beat number 1 soap “The Young and the Restless” in the key demo. In fact, the ABC soap–which was set to be cancelled in favor of Katie Couric’s talk show back in 2010–is within spitting distance of the CBS soap in the other demos, which are all about young women with buying power watching the shows.
It’s a vindication for “GH” after ABC mercilessly cancelled its other two soaps, “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” sending them into a licensing black hole with Prospect Park Productions. It’s also ironic as the producer who almost got “GH” snuffed, Jill Farren Phelps, has moved her unpopular way of driving a soap to “Y&R.” This past week she even copied an unpopular story she executed on “GH”– the hit and run death of a small child– to the CBS show.
Meanwhile, “GH” aims for November sweeps by having cliffhangers almost every day. As for “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”– no one seems to know if they’ll ever come back online via Prospect Park, or if ABC’s license with that company will ever end.
