It’s been a long, cold, and quiet year for General Hospital fans. To be precise, it’s been a year without Sam McCall.

In October 2024, the landscape of Port Charles was irrevocably altered. Sam McCall, the tough, savvy, and beloved private investigator—a character who had been the heart of the show for over two decades—was tragically and suddenly lost. The “death” was a devastating blow, a shocking, hollow end to a 20-year legacy.

The grief was palpable because it was compounded by the cold, corporate reality of what had happened just two months prior. In August 2024, news had broken that the actress, Kelly Monaco, was not leaving on her own terms. She had been “let go” from the ABC soap.

For the loyal, dedicated fanbase, this was not just a plot twist; it was a betrayal. A 20-year veteran, a fan favorite, a pillar of the show, unceremoniously dismissed. The backlash was immediate and unprecedented. Billboards were purchased. Banners were flown over the ABC studio, their messages simple and desperate: “Bring Sam Back.” “ABC, You Made a Mistake.”

For a year, that loyalty was met with a deafening silence. Sam McCall remained gone. Kelly Monaco remained off our screens.

Until November 11, 2025.

Last night, during ABC’s much-hyped Dancing With the Stars 20th-anniversary special, it happened. In a sea of celebrities and television icons, the camera panned to the audience. And there she was.

Kelly Monaco.

The internet did not just “react”; it erupted. It was a spontaneous, collective, and profoundly emotional explosion.

One fan, Connie, captured the moment perfectly, posting a picture of the star on X. “There are just no words to best describe the feeling of seeing you again on my screen!” she shouted in all caps. “I am so happy I could cry. How we’ve missed you.”

She was not alone. The digital floodgates opened.

“The queen has returned!” cheered another fan, Patty. Jane, another viewer, added, “Kelly Monaco the complete star. We love miss and want to see back on our screens.”

It was a beautiful, joyous, and heartbreaking moment all at once. ABC was, in one sense, giving the fans exactly what they wanted: Kelly Monaco, back on their network, looking as stunning as ever. She was being honored as a guest, a nod to her own history with the network as the first-ever winner of Dancing With the Stars Season 1. She was, in that room, royalty.

But for General Hospital fans, this was a cruel, bittersweet tease.

This was not the return they had been fighting for. This was not Sam McCall, miraculously found alive, walking back into Dante’s arms. This was not Sam returning to her children. This was Kelly Monaco, in the audience, at a different party. It was a painful reminder of what they had lost, and what ABC had taken from them.

The shock of her 2024 dismissal has not faded. In the world of daytime television, loyalty is the currency. Viewers tune in for decades, building a relationship with these characters that is, in many ways, more stable than their real-life ones. Sam McCall was not just a character; she was a friend, a constant. Kelly Monaco’s portrayal, which began in 2003, had defined the modern era of General Hospital.

To have her “let go,” a term that feels sterile and cold for such a passionate medium, felt like a deep, personal insult to the viewers who had invested 20 years of their lives.

The fan campaigns—the billboards and flybys—were not just the act of a fringe group. It was a massive, mainstream movement, a fanbase rising up to tell the network, in no uncertain terms, that they had made a grave error. They were begging ABC to reverse their decision, to find a way, any way, to undo what had been done.

In the world of soap operas, after all, “gone” is rarely “forever.” The very nature of the genre is built on miraculous returns. Characters survive explosions, plane crashes, and impossible falls. Unless a body is seen and a character is truly, definitively put in the ground (and sometimes, even then), the door is always left open.

This is the hope that fans have clung to for the past year. They have been waiting, praying for the storyline that would reveal Sam’s “passing” was a ruse, that she was kidnapped, that she has amnesia, that she is fighting her way back to Port Charles.

And then, ABC put her in the DWTS audience.

The move, while likely intended as a respectful nod to a former champion, has been interpreted by the GH fanbase as a tone-deaf flaunting of their pain. “How can you honor her on one show, while ignoring our pleas to return her to the show we love?” one fan posted. “ABC knows what they are doing. They know we want her back.”

This brief, 10-second camera pan has done more to reignite the “Bring Sam Back” campaign than anything in the past year. It has energized the fans, reminding them of the face they have been missing. It has proven that Kelly Monaco is still part of the “ABC family,” which makes her absence from General Hospital all the more glaring and inexcusable.

The online support for her has, once again, reached a fever pitch. Her name is trending. Fan sites are buzzing. The message is singular: “We are so happy to see her. We are in tears. Now put her back where she belongs.”

The ball is, once again, in ABC’s court. They have seen the eruption of love and loyalty that this brief appearance has caused. They can no longer pretend that the fanbase has “moved on” or “forgotten.” The fans have not forgotten. And they have not forgiven.

Kelly Monaco, “The Queen,” has indeed returned to television. But for her legions of fans, this was not a celebration. It was a call to arms. They want her off the audience bleachers and back on the General Hospital set, where she belongs.