WCVB, the Boston ABC affiliate owned by Hearst Television, has announced that beginning Monday, September 8, “General Hospital” will swap time slots with “The Jennifer Hudson Show” on the station.
“The Jennifer Hudson Show” will move up one hour to 2:00 p.m. while “General Hospital” will move back to 3:00 p.m., leading into the station’s “NewsCenter” broadcast at 4:00 p.m.
The Jennifer Hudson-hosted talk show is set to launch its fourth season on Monday, September 8 15. Meanwhile, the long-running daytime drama series, which is entering its 63rd season, returns to its former time slot where it had aired for decades until September 2012, when ABC ceded the time period to its local stations in the hopes of launching “Katie,” the since-canceled and ratings challenged talk show hosted by Katie Couric that ran for just two seasons and cost Disney $80 million to launch.
With the time slot change, WCVB becomes the ninth ABC affiliate to return “General Hospital” to its long-held time slot of 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT, where it followed “One Life to Live,” which aired at 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT, for decades before the latter soap was ultimately canceled, having aired its final episode in January 2012.
In the months following the final episode of “One Life to Live,” ABC aired the short-lived reality-based program “The Revolution,” which was canceled due to low ratings and was quickly replaced by “Good Afternoon America,” which saw some improvement in the ratings, though not nearly enough to sustain itself. Ultimately, “General Hospital” proved to be the stronger program, with the network also canceling “Good Afternoon America,” and the soap opera moving to 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT nationwide after more than 25 years at 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT.
In September 2014, seven of the eight ABC Owned Television Stations announced the switch back, 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. Meanwhile, KSAT in San Antonio was the sole non-ABC-owned station to make the switch at the time.
WCVB had not cited a reason for the switch at press time. Meanwhile, on weekends, the station will air the program “CityLine” at 11:30 a.m. on Sundays, beginning Sunday, August 31, which will follow “NewsCenter 5 Weekend EyeOpener” at 10:00 a.m. and “On the Record” at 11:00 a.m.
Encores of “CityLine” will air Saturday nights at 11:35 p.m. after the late news starting Saturday, August 30, while “On the Record” will re-air at midnight following Sunday night’s broadcast of “SportsCenter 5 OT.”
Elsewhere, Hearst Media Productions Group’s “Ocean Mysteries” and “Vets Saving Pets” will air on Saturday and Sunday mornings starting Saturday, August 30.
Boston is the ninth-largest television market in the United States according to Nielsen’s Designated Market Areas (DMAs) report.
