Stunning news today out of Hollywood:
Kelly Monaco, a veteran actress who has portrayed the character of Sam McCall on ABC’s General Hospital since October 2003, has been let go by the network and will be leaving the soap opera at some point this fall.
It doesn’t sound as if she’ll be coming back, either.
Because the show plans to kill McCall off.
Kelly Monaco attends the 49th Daytime Emmy Awards at Pasadena Convention Center on June 24, 2022 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
According to Soap Opera Network, which broke this unexpected development, Monaco was “blindsided” by the firing.
Prior to coming on board General Hospital over two decades ago, Monaco was best known for her role as Livvie Locke on Port Charles, a half-hour spinoff of this same series.
Taking on this role from 2000 through 2003, Monaco segued to the long-running program following the cancellation of Port Charles.
Since that time, the star has been nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards — first in 2003 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series; and again in 2006 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Kelly Monaco walks the red carpet at the 43rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel on May 1, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images)
Monaco competed in the very first season of Dancing With the Stars 19 years ago and actually won the inaugural Mirror Ball trophy.
In 2012, she was a contestant on the show’s All-Stars edition… on which Monaco and her professional partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, finished in third place.
In 2017, Monaco returned to Dancing With the Stars once more to perform the Rumba with Terrell Owens and Cheryl Burke.
The actress reunited with Chmerkovskiy for General Hospital’s 60th anniversary primetime special in January. At that time, no one would have imagined Monaco would be dismissed mere months later.
Kelly Monaco attends the Disney and ABC Television Group’s TCA Winter Press Tour on January 14, 2015 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
“I put my dancing shoes back on for the @GeneralHospital primetime special (featuring a special appearance by @valentin),” Monaco captioned a picture of herself and the aforementioned dancer earlier this year via Instagram.
“’General Hospital: 60 Years of Stars and Storytelling’ airs tomorrow (January 4th) at 10pm on ABC. Don’t miss it!”
And now we’ll be missing Kelly Monaco from General Hospital.
Her final air date on the soap opera is not known at the moment.
Kelly Monaco: FIRED from General Hospital! was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.