Kelly Monaco Ousted from “General Hospital” After 21 Years as ...

If an actor has been on a soap for 20 years, it’s a big deal.

Kelly Monaco has played Sam McCall for 21 years on “General Hospital.” She’s enormously popular with fans, and has around 590,000 followers on social media. She’s been nominated twice for Daytime Emmy awards.

But news broke yesterday that Monaco has been let go. Her character will be killed off this fall. Fans are outraged, and it does seem pretty mean of ABC.

“General Hospital” is suffering in ratings, though, and budgets are down. A lot of the cast is off contract, appearing at the whim of the producers. The permanent cast is taking on some big ticket favorites from the past, so someone had to go. And Monaco lost the bet.

The two other broadcast soaps, “The Young and the Restless” and “Bold and the Beautiful” on CBS are on equally shaky ground as network TV contracts. “Days of our Lives” on Peacock costs very little (and it looks like it) but chugs along. The cast there has no doubt taken pay cuts as well.

Monaco will no doubt turn up somewhere else soon. But the sting for “General Hospital” fans will last a long time.