General Hospital fans post 'I stand with Kelly Monaco' in show of solidarity after actress was 'blindsided' by show axe

General Hospital fans are standing by actress Kelly Monaco.

The actress has reportedly been fired from the ABC daytime drama after 21 years of being on the show and playing reformed bad girl Sam McCall. Her character Sam will apparently be killed off this coming fall. Soap Opera Network first reported on this news on August 26 and said Kelly was left "blindsided" by the decision.

While Kelly has not yet spoken about this news nor anybody at the network, fans have had a lot to say on the matter. GH fans have reacted with shock, dismay and anger at the news. Sam is a fan-favorite character who many love and is the one-half of a supercouple that they still root for: Sam and Jason.

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As the days keep going since the news, they have come together on social media with a five-word phrase to showcase their solidarity with the soap star. The five-word phrase is "I Stand With Kelly Monaco." Many have been posting that phrase under the posts of General Hospital's X formerly Twitter account. In their Labor Day post, there were a batch of pictures of a black background and I Stand With Kelly Monaco written in white filling the comment section.

One fan exclaimed on X/Twitter: "Do you think Kelly fans are going to back down? Do you think we are going to stand for this? Hell no we're not. #GH You want lapsed viewers back. Then start respecting your actors and your fans—21 loyal years. What is going over there it's gross."

A second fan quote-tweeted the previous one, writing: "Some of us have watched General Hospital for almost 40 yrs. Why should we remain loyal to a show that can't do the same to its actors? We will NOT let Kelly Monaco be disrespected like this. #IStandWithKelly #NoKellyNoGH"

One fan on a Television subreddit mentioned how the decision could get reverse like it has with previous actresses from the show: "Sam is my favorite, I’m so upset! I’ve already sent a letter to Prospect Studios and a message to ABC, I’ve signed the petition and I’m tweeting like crazy, doing whatever I can to help!! We saved Rebecca Herbst and Genie Francis, we can do this!!!"

In January 2011, Rebecca who plays Elizabeth Webber was announced by ABC to be exiting. There was tons of fan backlash about the decision that it is believed to have reversed the decision when ABC announced a month later that she would be staying on the show.