Amidst the ongoing Writer’s Guild of America strike, the show General Hospital has taken on temporary writers to continue the production of the show. According to Deadline, this news started going around after General Hospital writer Shannon Peace posted to her private Instagram account that “scab writers” are now working for the show.
Peace also wrote that, “Daytime writers face a unique conflict during strikes. We hate to see our characters and storylines handed over to ‘writers’ who cross the picket line. But we’re also keenly aware that stopping production could spell the demise of soap operas.”
The post generated a lot of traction on social media and caught the attention of actors like Bradley Whiteford and Lisa Ann Walter, who are big fans of daytime dramas, and they stated that “scab writers putting the writers of these beloved soaps out of work.” An ABC spokesperson declined to give a comment on the matter.
Production on daytime soap operas will still go on despite the SAG-AFTRA strike since soap actors are employed under the National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting, which is also known as Network Code. This covers soap operas, morning news shows, variety, reality, talk shows, sports, game shows, and promotional accouchements. The Code agreement was negotiated with SAG-AFTRA and the big four broadcast networks to allow these programs to still run. This agreement will continue on till July 2024.
There are many soap opera writers who are WGA members, however it hasn’t been until recently that daytime dramas are being affected since they tape far ahead in advance. Hence, once the writers started striking, soap operas turned towards financial core writers who had resigned their membership from the WGA as they benefit from the guild’s contracts with studios. Producers, executives, and assistants have also contributed to writing scripts.