“General Hospital” is eyeing a return to production in mid-July, an individual with knowledge of the series told TheWrap.
The ABC soap would become the second U.S. television production after “The Bold and the Beautiful” to attempt to restart physical production since the shutdown in March. The target date is considered a rolling one as new information about the coronavirus pandemic is coming every day.
Like all soaps not titled “Days of Our Lives,” “General Hospital” has been airing reruns for the last few weeks as the stockpile of pre-taped episodes ran dry at the end of May.
“The Bold and the Beautiful” had only been back in production for a matter of hours last week before having to close the TV City set down again. Bell-Phillip Television, the production company behind “The Bold and the Beautiful,” says the sudden production shutdown was the fault of the testing lab, which “produced several false positives” in onsite COVID-19 testing.
They’ve since switched labs and have no legitimate positive cases of the coronavirus, a spokeswoman for Bell-Phillip Television told TheWrap. “The Bold and the Beautiful” was scheduled to start back up Thursday.
As part of that show’s new safety protocols, the cast and crew are all tested for coronavirus on a daily basis. The show has also hired a COVID-19 director who is on set at all times to make sure proper protocols are followed as set forth by L.A. County, the City of Los Angeles, and each of the Hollywood guilds. It is not clear what kind of health and safety measures “General Hospital” will implement.