Watch the cast and crew of General Hospital on the premiere of The Chef Jeff Project , this Sunday, October 12 at 10 p.m. on the Food Channel.

Chef Jeff Henderson is an executive chef who, in a former life, was a prison inmate. He now has a catering company, Posh Urban Cuisine, where he helps young adults learn the food business. On their first show, taped some months ago, the company caters a GH party to celebrate the soap opera's Daytime Emmy nominations.

Bon appetit!

Rumor has it that Sebastian Roche (Jerry Jacks) is being released from his General Hospital contract and is due to be killed off, possibly during an attack on Sam.

The present monetary crunch is also impacting ABC. Allegedly they are planning major cutbacks on General Hospital and other shows.

Several contracts are rumored to be unsigned or not being renewed: Nancy Lee Grahn may leave in February, Ingo Rademacher is only on extension and then may leave, and Maurice Benard has apparently still not signed his contract.

However, the present monetary crunch is affecting everyone, and that includes the actors as well as the networks. This is not the time to leave a job, so some decisions may be re-thought.

My advice to viewers is similar to what some stock market pundits are giving: Hang tough, and don't panic.

Some interesting, if preliminary, information on the specifics of General Hospital's November sweeps are drifting in - check them out.

For the time period of September 22, 2008 to September 26, 2008, General Hospital placed number 3 in the soap opera ratings with a 2.2 share, behind The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. A 2.2 share means that 2.2 million people watched the show; this is down 151,000 viewers from the previous week. The two other ABC soaps, One Life to Live and All My Children placed numbers 5 and 7, respectively. Weekly fluctuations are to be expected.