General Hospital's Poor Storytelling Style Could Be The Death Of It
If they want to keep the soap alive, they need to start acting now.
Being able to keep so many people glued to their screens every day for the past 60 years is a huge accomplishment in itself. There aren't many shows that can brag about that, but General Hospital is one of them, and it's totally deserved by every member of the cast and crew that has worked on it over the years.
However, nothing can go on forever, and fans are worried that General Hospital may come to an end sooner than they would like. As much as their love for the characters drives the team to keep going and continue executing the craziest storylines, no love would be enough to continue covering for poor storytelling skills.
Like many other shows, General Hospital has suffered a lot from COVID, but unlike others, it hasn't bounced back as well. As the months go by, more and more fans realize their disappointment in the soap and leave the fandom bored.
Instead of watching it every day, they switch to watching it only when their favorite characters appear, and when those characters' stories get ruined... well, the only thing left to do is to leave the series behind. This not only puts each character's story at a higher risk, but it also puts pressure on the writers to involve otherwise mild characters in more storylines just to keep people watching.
What has led to this bad situation is the way the stories have been handled by the showrunners in the past. Although the fandom welcomed current head co-writers Chris Van Etten and Dan O'Connor with open hearts and minds, they didn't live up to expectations.
From dragging out stories for years and then leaving them unresolved to using the same plot devices over and over again, General Hospital quickly went from being one of the most exciting soaps out there to nothing but sheer disappointment.
Of course, the show's current ratings aren't nearly as bad as what it would take for ABC to cancel it altogether. However, the chances of Days of Our Lives following in its footsteps and moving from broadcast to streaming only is a very real possibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.
Tune in to ABC Monday through Friday to catch up on what you've missed on General Hospital while you still can.