General Hospital 50th anniversary week ratings

Today, ABC reported that last week’s (April 1-5) General Hospital 50th anniversary week delivered the most-watched week in one-and-a-half years in the Women 25-54 demo (918,000/1.5 rating — since Sept. 26, 2011), ranked a solid No. 2 for the week in that demo, and posted a 6-week high in Total Viewers (2.79 million — since the week of Feb. 18, 2013) and a 5-week high in Women 18-49 (660,000/1.0 rating — since the week of Feb. 25, 2013).

General Hospital registered solid double-digit percent increases year-to-year across target demos, including by 25% in Total Viewers (2.79 million vs. 2.24 million), by 23% in Women 18-49 (660,000 vs. 538,000) and by 27% in Women 25-54 (918,000 vs. 722,000).

Also of note:

* The Friday, April 5, kick-off of the return of the popular General Hospital Nurses Ball ranked as the series’ most-watched telecast in 6 weeks in Women 18-49 (718,000/1.1 rating — since Feb. 18, 2013)

* On ABC.com, the General Hospital 50th anniversary week amassed 2.1 million page views, up 77% over the prior two weeks

* On Twitter, General Hospital was the week’s No. 5 most-tweeted TV series, accumulating 114,000 tweets between social activity on ABC and SOAPnet

This is all promising news for a show that was very close, not that long ago, to going the way of some other daytime dramas that have either had to go online to try their fortunes there, or that have been canceled entirely. Whether General Hospital can keep up this fan interest once the 50th anniversary interest dies down, and some of the “classic” cast members start to depart again, will be seen.

What do you think? Is GH hot again? Will it keep its recent success going?

RELATED: GENERAL HOSPITAL PALEY CENTER EVENT STREAMING LIVE ONLINE APRIL 12

Source: NTI, U.S. ratings, week of 4/1/13, Live + Same Day. ABC.com: Omniture page views. Social Media: SocialGuide, ranked among regular cable/broadcast series (excludes sports, specials). Via ABC press release.

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General Hospital cast shot: Rick Rowell/ABC