Former “Days of our Lives” star Heather Lindell (ex-Jan Spears) and husband Josh Boyd welcomed their first child, Desmond George, who was born on Monday, August 27. Desmond George weighed in at 6 ½ lbs.

Beginning Monday, September 10 ABC’s “General Hospital” moves to a new time period (2:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT/CT) and in celebration the network is hosting a weeklong twitter chat with cast members of the drama series.

ABC News’ “Good Morning America” won the week of August 27, 2012, ranking as the No. 1 morning newscast in both Total Viewers (5.386 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.969 million), according to Nielsen Media Research. “GMA” outperformed NBC’s “Today” (4.503 million and 1.817 million, respectively) by +883,000 Total Viewers and +152,000 Adults 25-54, scoring its largest margins over “Today” in more than 18 years in both measures – since w/o 5/16/94 and w/o 8/15/94, respectively. Additionally, Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo! is the dominant morning news website, leading NBC’s Today.com by millions of pageviews and unique users. In July 2012, 24 million people visited Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo!.

On Monday, August 13, Soap Opera Network first brought you the story of WKDH, an ABC affiliate that will cease operations effective Friday, August 31, 2012 at 11:59 PM CT after citing poor financial conditions in recent years as its reasoning. Now Soap Opera Network has learned that the ABC Television Network, which was left scrambling to replace the 11-year-old affiliate, has signed a long-term agreement with WTVA, an NBC affiliate that had actually provided WKDH with ABC programming through a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Southern Broadcasting, Inc. (WKDH’s parent company). The new deal, by utilizing WTVA digital channel 9.2, will enable ABC programming to remain in the Columbus/Tupelo/West Point television market and is effective Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 12:35 AM, Central Time.

ABC’s “The Chew” returns for its second season MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 (1:00-2:00 p.m. ET), bringing with it a smorgasbord of exciting guests, culinary creations and tips and tricks to make life healthier, easier and, frankly, a whole lot more fabulous. Season Two will also continue to showcase the hosts’ signature series, including “Five in Five,” “Mario’s Simple Italian,” “The Power of Oz,” as well as “Clinton’s Craft Corner” and “C&C Food Factory.”

ABC has acquired the television rights to “BAD25,” a documentary film by the award-winning director Spike Lee. Airing at Thanksgiving (details to be announced at a later date), “BAD25” shares fresh insights into the King of Pop’s creative vision that resulted in his landmark “BAD” album, this year marking its 25th anniversary.

Andrew Kubitz, an esteemed entertainment executive with 17 years of scheduling experience, has been named executive vice president, Program Planning & Scheduling, ABC Entertainment Group, it was announced today by Paul Lee, president, ABC Entertainment Group, to whom he will report. In his new role, Kubitz will have oversight of daytime, primetime and late-night program planning and scheduling, as well as film acquisition and theatrical inventory. Kubitz will also facilitate and coordinate windowing strategies for ABC Entertainment Group programming across all platforms.

TV Guide’s Michael Logan pulls off another exclusive! In an interview with Steve Burton, the actor reveals that he has in fact decided to leave ABC’s “General Hospital” after two decades at the drama series. First joining the cast in 1991, Burton had portrayed the role of Jason Quartermaine turned Morgan. He left the series in 2000, but returned in 2002, and has remained at the show ever since. He’s also appeared on the “GH” spinoff, “General Hospital: Night Shift,” during the SOAPnet original series’ first season.

After promising that today’s episode of “General Hospital” was “not to be missed” as the series has “been keeping a huge surprise under wraps,” executive producer Frank Valentini got some good news today as the big reveal began trending worldwide just a short time ago. While live tweeting along with thousands of others, fans of the daytime drama series learned that actor Ian Buchanan had returned to the ABC soap after a 23-year absence. Of course, Soap Opera Network broke the story on Thursday, August 23.

While it is unknown when the message was first posted on her official copy written website, Brenda Dickson (ex-Jill Foster, “The Young and the Restless”) is apparently promising to release a “Tell All Book” in the next couple of months that will begin with highlights of her experience at the “canceled” CBS daytime drama series (say what?) and ends with her time in Hawaii. The site says that if you want to know what happened in the tropical state with Dickson and other assorted matters, “read the book, my friends. You will learn a lot about what you think goes on, and what really goes on. Who really runs the country!”