Steve Burton has confirmed that his run as Days of our Lives' Harris Michaels has come to an end.
"Well, I just shot my final scenes here on Days of our Lives, and I just want to say, thank you so much to the cast, to the crew. It's been amazing," Burton said in a video on The Daily Drama's YouTube page. "I can't believe it's been a year already! So, thank you so much to the fans. It's just -- I'm always so full of gratitude. So, thank you. Stay tuned."
Despite there being dozens of words spoken in Burton's video, fans seized upon just two of them: stay tuned. While the seemingly innocuous words often appear in any outgoing actor's message to fans, Burton's fans took them to mean that he could be returning to General Hospital. More on that in a bit.
Burton actually first reprised his role as Harris on the Days of our Lives' spinoff Beyond Salem in 2022. He earned a Daytime Emmy nomination earlier this year in the Outstanding Guest Performer category. Shortly after the five-episode spinoff premiered, DAYS announced that Burton would be bringing Harris to the mothership program. Burton made his first DAYS appearance on March 20, 2023.
Prior to joining DAYS, Burton was in the midst of a four-year run on ABC's General Hospital. His run as GH's Jason Morgan ended abruptly in November 2021 when he was let go from the ABC soap for not complying with the show's vaccine policy. GH wrote the actor off the show in a storyline that had Jason declared dead after he was trapped under heavy rubble in a collapsed underground cavern. But since when has a couple of tons of rubble kept a sometimes-good guy down?
The answer to that was revealed during General Hospital's big 60th anniversary primetime special. At the close of the broadcast, actresses Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos) and Kelly Monaco (Sam McCall) each walked out of eerily lit doors. "When one door closes," Wright said as she walked through her door. "Another door opens," Monaco continued. Then, a third door between them opened, and out walked Burton, seemingly in character as Jason Morgan. "Happy anniversary, General Hospital. Stay tuned -- big things are coming to Port Charles," Burton said with a wry smile.
Okay, that might not be a technical confirmation of Burton's return, but it's the closest you can get to one without, you know, it being a confirmation. Since the broadcast, ABC has confirmed that Burton is back at GH and teases that he will be seen on-screen very soon. February "Sweeps," anyone?
In addition to GH's Jason and DAYS' Harris, Burton also played The Young and the Restless' Dylan McAvoy, the son of Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) and Paul Williams (Doug Davidson), from 2013 to 2017.
What do you think about Steve Burton exiting his role as DAYS' Harris Michaels? How do you feel about him heading back to General Hospital? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
