ABC is developing a real-life version of “General Hospital” — with actual doctors and nurses filmed at an LA hospital — as a daytime show for next year.
The show quietly began taping recently at the famed UCLA Medical Center, a spokesman for ABC confirmed.
The show is in its “earliest, pilot stages,” said the official and is intended “either for syndication or maybe cable.”
The show, according to sources, will follow the private as well as working lives of white coats at the hospital.
ABC has been experimenting a lot with daytime TV in the past few years — trying to see if new kinds of shows can replace the age-old menu of talk, soaps and game shows.
It has succeeded with “The Chew,” a multi-host show built around food and starring chef Mario Batali, which debuted last year and has been a surprisingly steady performer.
Another experiment, “The Revolution,” never found any chemistry with “Project Runway” mentor Tim Gunn and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” host Ty Pennington, and was quickly dropped.
The idea of shaping the reality format for daytime TV has been kicked around by TV producers for a while now — though it’s rarely been tried.
NBC re-cut existing episodes of the “Real Housewives” franchise for an afternoon soap two years ago — but couldn’t make it work.
More importantly, if ABC were to syndicate the as-yet-untitled hospital show, it would have to make room somewhere in its daytime schedule.
The only syndicated show it currently airs is Katie Couric’s new talk show — which ABC also owns.