‘General Hospital’ (GH) spoilers show that amidst the WGA strike, ‘General Hospital’ and other soap opera writers are facing a unique conflict as temporary scribes are being brought in to keep the genre alive.
Shannon Peace, a General Hospital writer, expressed her heartbreak on Instagram, stating that starting the following week, the show will be exclusively penned by “scab writers.” Daytime writers find themselves in a challenging situation during strikes.
As a breakdown writer on the series since 2021, Peace conveyed her concern about characters and storylines being handed over to writers who cross the picket line. However, she acknowledged the potential consequences of stopping production, which could lead to the demise of soap operas.
Peace revealed that her episode aired on July 20, was the last one she wrote before the WGA strike began in May. As of July 25, full-time writers on the soap opera will no longer have control over the beloved characters’ destinies.
‘General Hospital’ Spoilers: Using Temporary Writers To Keep The Show Going, Is This The Only Option?
She shared her hope that capable hands will take charge but acknowledged the pain of seeing characters they developed and stories they planned being handled by others. Nonetheless, Peace encouraged fans to continue watching General Hospital and show moral support to the writers.
In May, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), consisting of TV writers and film scribes, called on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to update their contracts to align better with the current media landscape.
The union’s demands include better wages and streaming residuals. Unlike scripted TV counterparts, soap operas like ‘General Hospital’, ‘Days of Our Lives’, ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’, and ‘The Young and the Restless’ operate under different rules during a strike.
Soap opera actors are employed under the SAG-AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting, also known as the Network Code.
What do you think? Is this the best thing for the shows to do or should they just show re-runs again like they did during COVID-19? Let us know in the comments below.
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