After years of bad news, fans of daytime soap operas finally got some good news this week when ABC announced that they were renewing their last remaining soap and jettisoning the underperforming ‘The Revolution’ instead.

This was bittersweet for soap fans – mostly because the highly touted show had only premiered a few months ago. It’s not that fans wanted it to fail. No, they wanted it to crash and burn in a fiery chemical explosion – mostly because it took the spot of the beloved ‘One Life to Live.’

In fact, if OLTL fans had their druthers, they would have actually tortured whoever made the decision to cancel OLTL and replace it with another bad reality show (cough*Brian Frons*cough) with hot pokers and tar and feathers. After all, he did essentially kill a beloved member of the family when he made the decision to axe OLTL.

The cancellation of ‘The Revolution’ doesn’t save OLTL, though. What it does do is give ‘General Hospital’ a reprieve to (hopefully) hit its 50^th anniversary next year.

 

This is probably a hard pill to swallow for OLTL fans. After all, it was their hard work and boycott that tanked ‘The Revolution’ – and the only rewards they truly reap out of the situation is the continued influx of OLTL characters and actors on ‘General Hospital.’

That steady parade is starting to alienate GH fans. So, while ratings are rising on GH due to new OLTL fans, they’re also falling at the same time because some GH fans are fleeing because OLTL characters and actors are taking over the show. Whew, everybody get that? I know it was a mouthful. Essentially, what I’m saying is, that the influx and outflow of fans is making viewership break even – and that’s not good enough.

As a fan of OLTL and GH, I’m actually fine with bringing over some (and I stress some) OLTL characters. GH has a lot of dead weight they can cut, and it would be a shame never to see Todd Manning again.

That being said, I’m starting to find myself siding with disgruntled GH fans that are sick of OLTL fans taking over their show. This was never more apparent than this week when we found out Florencia Lozano (Tea) would be making a guest stop in Port Charles in a few weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Lozano (and I used to love Tea before she willingly let her husband physically abuse her, but I digress). But we don’t need Tea in Port Charles. We already have a feisty (and neurotic) lawyer in town – her name is Alexis Davis and she doesn’t get enough to do as it is.

Adding Todd (Howarth) makes sense. He’s a good character, played by a great actor, and he’s one of the few characters in daytime that won’t cow tow to the mobster who ate Port Charles Sonny Corinthos. Howarth has sparkling chemistry with Laura Wright and, if they keep Michael Easton (which I expect they will) he’ll have two ready-made foils on the canvas. Besides, who doesn’t want to see Todd and Jason Morgan go at each other?

I’m still trying to warm to the idea of Starr being in Port Charles – especially since they felt the need to kill off her boyfriend and daughter (both legacy characters mind you) to do it. Of course, since they didn’t find the bodies, odds are they’re still alive, but that won’t be addressed until further down the road I’m sure.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this is still ‘General Hospital,’ and no matter how bad OLTL fans want to believe otherwise, GH stories have to come first.

Right now, I think that Howarth, Easton and Kristen Alderson’s Starr are plenty of OLTL characters for the time being. If certain storylines open up down the road – that’s a conversation for then.

As it stands now, Alexis, Mac, Lulu, Dante and Patrick, especially, need more screen time. Not less. They don’t deserve to have what little screen time they get usurped by outsiders.

On the flip side, dead weight like Matt, Steve, Olivia, Maxie and Kate can easily be cleared out to create room for the OLTL characters.

What we need here is balance.

Fans should remember, too, that even though they’re celebrating the pickup there is still work to be done. GH isn’t safe forever. Just for now. If we really want to save the show for the long haul we’ve got to tune in and tune in regularly. That’s what ultimately counts, viewership and loyalty.

What do you think? How long is ‘General Hospital’ safe?