General Hospital: Night Shift, stylized as NIGHTSHIFT, is an American prime time serial that first aired on Soapnet for a 27-episode run from July 12, 2007, to October 21, 2008. A spin-off of the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital, the show is SOAPnet's first original scripted drama series and follows the nighttime adventures of familiar and new characters around the hospital. As of March 2008, the first season of the series was "SOAPnet's most watched series ever," with ABC Daytime and SOAPnet President Brian Frons noting that Night Shift drew more than 1 million new viewers to the channel during its first season. With its reruns gaining higher ratings than those of General Hospital on SOAPnet, a second season was expected, though Frons noted that the same crew producing two shows had taken its toll.
It was announced in May 2008 that Lisa de Cazotte would serve as Executive producer for season two, joined by Head writer Sri Rao. The 14 new episodes of Night Shift began taping in high-definition in June 2008, with the series airing Tuesdays at 11 p.m. and premiering on July 22, 2008. SOAPnet said the second season "will feature new and returning characters as well as the return of 'legacy' characters from GH. In addition, the continuity between story lines on Night Shift and GH will match." The second season finished its run on October 21, 2008.
Night Shift is the second spin-off series for General Hospital, the first being the 30-minute daytime serial Port Charles, which ran on ABC from June 1997 to October 2003.
Season two of Night Shift also aired on DirecTV's The 101 Network in 2008.
Overview
Prior to its premiere, SOAPnet had announced that Night Shift would "delve deeper into the relationships, friendships and medical cases seen at the hospital." It was noted that unlike General Hospital itself, the stories on Night Shift would be "self-contained and wrap up during each weekly one-hour episode," as well as being "understandable to viewers who do not watch General Hospital." With the goal "to attract younger viewers to both SOAPnet and General Hospital," characters would be "plucked from General Hospital's history" and "be mostly younger characters with ties to GH core families." Night Shift storylines, however, did not directly intersect with those on General Hospital.
Cast
Season one
Contract
Guest
Season two
Contract
Guest
{ | class="wikitable" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" ! Actor || Character |- |Chad Allen || Eric Whitlow |- |Cameron Boyce || Michael "Stone" Cates Jr. |- |Leslie Charleson || Dr. Monica Quartermaine |- |Anthony Geary<ref name="TV Guide 2008-10-08">{ { cite web |url=http://www.tvguide.com/Soaps/General-Hospital-preview-20014.aspx |title=Inside Night Shift'''s Emotional GH Reunion |access-date=2008-10-17 |last=Mitovich |first=Matt |date=October 8, 2008 |work=TV Guide |publisher=TVGuide.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011033620/http://www.tvguide.com/Soaps/General-Hospital-preview-20014.aspx |archive-date=October 11, 2008 }}</ref> || Luke Spencer |- |Finola Hughes || Anna Devane |- |Kathleen Noone || Patricia Julian |- |John Reilly || Sean Donely |- |Sharon Wyatt || Tiffany Hill |- |John J. York || Mac Scorpio |}
Episodes
Season 1 (2007)
Season 2 (2008)
Ratings history
The premiere episode of Night Shift ranked as the SOAPnet's "most viewed telecast ever" with total viewers and in its target demographic, women age 18–49. The show was also SOAPnet's most watched premiere with those groups and with women 18–34. According to Nielsen Media Research, the series averaged 1 million total viewers, "posting 63% audience growth over its lead-in," and ranking as "the second most viewed cable program for the hour with women 18-49." Broadcasting & Cable notes the significance of this fact considering "only 64 million homes carry the network, compared to the 94 million that carry USA, the top network in the demo that night." Night Shift doubled SOAPnet's time-period viewership from 2006 in total viewers and the women 18-49 demographic. The series averaged 833,000 viewers (and 381,000 among women 18–49) during its first season.