'General Hospital' Blessed With a 50th Season by ABC Maybe it was Farah Fath, a former soap opera star, who said it best on Wednesday when ABC confirmed that it had renewed "General Hospital" for a landmark 50th season. Congratulating the cast and crew in a Twitter message, she wrote, "A soap renewal in 2012 is nothing short of victorious." That's how it felt for fans of the show too, who have been worried for months about its fate. Last year, in what was widely seen as a cost-cutting move, ABC ended two other soaps, "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," and installed two talk shows in their former time slots. But it canceled one of the talk shows, on Wednesday, citing weak ratings. "The Revolution," which has a self-improvement theme, has retained only about half of the audience of "One Life to Live" since it started in January. Ms. Fath, who had been a cast member on "One Life to Live," dubbed the talk show "The Revulsion" and wrote on Twitter, "It's hard to even muster up an "We told you so." " The other new talk show, "The Chew," has had steadier ratings. When the next television season starts in September, it will stay on ABC's daytime schedule, most likely in the 1 p.m. time slot in many local markets. Also in September, "General Hospital," which is now at 3 p.m., will move to the 2 p.m. time slot in many markets, making way for Katie Couric's new syndicated talk show, "Katie." The moves were first reported by Deadline.com on Wednesday. "The Revolution" will end a bit prematurely, though. In early July it will be replaced by an afternoon edition of the ABC News program "Good Morning America." Tentatively titled "GMA in the Afternoon," that show will have a nine-week run until "General Hospital" takes its place. The "GMA" co-hosts Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer are expected to lead the afternoon hour. Vicki Dummer, who oversees daytime programming for ABC, has credited Frank Valentini, the former executive producer of "One Life to Live," with rejuvenating "General Hospital." When he took over the show last winter, he brought with him several cast members from that show. Three other soap operas remain on network television: "The Young and the Restless" and "The Bold and the Beautiful" on CBS, and "Days of Our Lives" on NBC.