During ABC’s presentation at this past weekend’s Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California, Craig Erwich, President, Disney Television Group, overseeing content strategy across ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Freeform and Hulu Originals programming, shared some of his thoughts on “General Hospital” and what the show means to the network.
Calling the show “a tremendous pride” for the network, Erwich spoke with journalist Michael Maloney from Soap Hub, saying, “The show’s been on for 60 years. That is a remarkable achievement. And the great thing about ‘General Hospital’ is that it’s on daily. It’s an opportunity for us to delight, entertain, and surprise people on a daily basis. The joy is to have an audience who has watched the show for 60 years; they’re now watching with their kids and grandkids.”
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“Because the stories are on, on a daily basis, they just become a part of people’s lives — and that’s the goal of ABC,” Erwich further noted to Maloney. “We’re very committed to the show. You saw the way that we celebrated the 60th [anniversary]. We do that because it’s a show we’re very proud of. We remain deeply committed to ‘General Hospital.’”
In addition to oversight of Hulu and ABC Entertainment, Erwich assumed oversight of linear programming for Disney Branded Television and Freeform in February 2023, with the former encompassing content targeted for Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior.
In December, “General Hospital” took home its 16th Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series during “The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards” telecast on CBS. That same evening, after congratulating the show’s cast and crew for setting another record, Nathan Varni, the ABC Current Series Executive in charge of production for the daytime drama series, tweeted, “My 2024 goal is to win back our lapsed viewers, we have a lot of work to do but we’re all ready to work hard for YOU!” Less than a month later, the show replaced co-head writers Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor, following several weeks of the show hitting record lows in the key Women 18-49 demographic and several weeks where the show found itself viewed by less than two million viewers.
Replacing Van Etten and O’Connor, whose scripts will air into March, is Patrick Mulcahey, who is returning to the fold as co-head writer working alongside veteran writer Elizabeth Korte, who has been with the show since 1994 in various positions ever since, including her most recent role as script editor and the show’s historian.
Mulcahey’s writing career began in 1979 as a scriptwriter for the series “Texas.” He joined the writing team of “The Bold and the Beautiful” in 2005 and worked as a scriptwriter and story consultant until 2019.