"general hospital" fan response has been overwhelmingly positive of the pairing of sonny corinthos and kate howard. they are consistently among the top 10 couples with the wedding of sonny and kate becoming a sweeps event for gh. fans were disgusted in march 2009, when abc announced "general hospital" was dropping megan ward to recurring status and rick hearst (ric lansing) off contract, which resulted in him last airing that june.