As “General Hospital” kicked off Season 63 on Monday, September 8, two more affiliates joined the previously announced WCVB in changing the time slot for the long-running ABC daytime drama series in their local markets.

New Hampshire affiliate WMUR, which covers the outlying Manchester area, and WPBF in West Palm Beach, Florida, returned the soap opera to its former 3:00 p.m. ET time slot, which it held for more than 25 years before ABC ceded the time slot back to local stations in September 2012 in the hopes of launching “Katie,” the since-canceled and ratings challenged syndicated daytime talk show hosted by Katie Couric that ran for just two seasons and cost Disney, parent of ABC, $80 million to launch.

At WMUR, “General Hospital” now airs as the lead-in to the station’s “News 9 at Four,” with syndicated episodes of NBCUniversal’s “Dateline” airing at 2:00 p.m. Meanwhile, at WPBF, “Tamron Hall” has moved to 2:00 p.m., followed by “General Hospital” and the station’s “WPBF 25 News at 4:00 p.m.” telecast.

Along with Boston affiliate WCVB, the stations are all owned by Heart Television, leaving one to wonder if the station group is testing the waters to see if it might also move the soap back to its former time slot on other ABC stations it owns, a likely possibility since stations always seek to place their strongest performing shows in time slots that serve as better lead-ins to their highly rated local newscasts.

While on the national level, “General Hospital” continues to air at 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT, the time slot switch by the three Hearst Television stations now sees 11 ABC stations in total that have moved the show back to 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT.

In September 2014, seven of the eight ABC Owned Television Stations, including WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WLS in Chicago, WPVI in Philadelphia, KGO in San Francisco, KTRK in Houston, and WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, made the switch. Meanwhile, KSAT in San Antonio was the sole non-ABC-owned station to also make the switch back at the time.

Boston is the ninth-largest television market in the United States according to Nielsen’s Designated Market Areas (DMAs) report. The area also covers Southern New Hampshire, with WMUR serving as an outlying area of the market.

West Palm Beach ranks #39 (WPBF) on the DMA list, while New York is #1 (WABC), followed by #2 Los Angeles (KABC), #3 Chicago (WLS), #5 Philadelphia (WPVI), #6 Houston (KTRK), #10 San Francisco (KGO) and #22 Raleigh-Durham (WTVD). San Antonio (KSAT) ranks 31st.

Note: The post Hearst Television-Owned ABC Affiliates WMUR & WPBF Move ‘General Hospital’ To New Time Slot, Joining Boston’s WCVB first appeared on Soap Opera Network.

 

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Although I'm not watching GH (it's opposite BTG here in Maine), I hope this helps the show gain more viewership. Any growth for soaps is a plus. 

Edited September 10Sep 10 by Melroser

Not surprised NH followed at all.

Soaps airing in the late afternoon has always made the most sense - captures the after school crowd and serves as a good lead in for local news.

Y&R has had a 3pm or 4pm slot in Canada for decades. 

Those 11 markets comprise about 25% of US total viewers.

It'd be great if GH returned to the 3pm nationally. 

2 hours ago, edgeofnik said:

Those 11 markets comprise about 25% of US total viewers.

It'd be great if GH returned to the 3pm nationally. 

I'm wondering if this is what's going to happen. Stations don't just do things like this, particularly in daytime, unless there might be a longer plan in mind. Yes, stronger lead-in support for their local news, but why now? It's been 11 years since seven of the eight ABC Owned Television Stations did this, so why did these three start jumping on the bandwagon, particularly as they are each owned by Hearst Television?

Hope there is a plan.

@Errol Hearst does own five other ABC stations located in Top 50 markets - like Pittsburgh, KC, etc. I'd imagine if the GH does well in the first 3, it'll get moved in most/all of those other markets.

I'm a Hulu viewer so timeslot doesn't matter, but I believe the 3pm slot will only help GH's linear viewing. 

22 hours ago, Errol said:

I'm wondering if this is what's going to happen. Stations don't just do things like this, particularly in daytime, unless there might be a longer plan in mind.

I was wondering the same. I find it curious for a few reasons, but my pipe dream suspicion probably ain't happening.

23 minutes ago, edgeofnik said:

@Errol Hearst does own five other ABC stations located in Top 50 markets - like Pittsburgh, KC, etc. I'd imagine if the GH does well in the first 3, it'll get moved in most/all of those other markets.

I'm a Hulu viewer so timeslot doesn't matter, but I believe the 3pm slot will only help GH's linear viewing. 

I'm hopeful this means we get 3:00 p.m. back nationally, and 2:00 p.m. as well. Pipe dream.

12 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was wondering the same. I find it curious for a few reasons, but my pipe dream suspicion probably ain't happening.

Ditto.

Just now, Errol said:

Ditto.

Interesting we're on the same page.

4 minutes ago, Vee said:

Interesting we're on the same page.

Let's just hope a certain network is also on the same page. 

🙂