‘General Hospital’ and More Soap Operas Are Filming Amid Strikes — But Are the Writers on Board?

usmagazine.com:

General Hospital and more soap opera writers “face a unique conflict” during the WGA strike as many are being replaced by temporary scribes to keep the genre alive.“Starting next week, the show will be penned exclusively by scab writers, which is heartbreaking,” General Hospital writer Shannon Peace explained via Instagram on Friday, July 21. “Daytime writers face a unique conflict during strikes.”Peace, who has been a breakdown writer on the series since 2021, continued: “We hate to see our characters and story lines handed over to ‘writers’ who cross the picket line.

But we’re also keenly aware that stopping production could spell the demise of soap operas.”Peace noted that her Thursday, July 20, General Hospital episode was the last one she wrote before the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike began in May.

She revealed that beginning on Tuesday, July 25, the full-time writers on the soap opera will no longer have control over what happens to the show’s beloved characters.“Starting Tuesday, 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,” she continued. “But I have to also acknowledge the pain of knowing that characters we’ve developed, relationships we built and stories we planned are being handled by others.”Peace added: “Still, my hope is that if you love GH, you’ll continue to watch.