General Hospital's Tyler Christopher Replaced as Nikolas by Nick Stabile

Tyler Christopher has been temporarily replaced as General Hospital‘s dark prince, Nikolas Cassadine, by daytime TV vet Nick Stabile, TVLine has confirmed.

A spokesperson for ABC’s one remaining soap could neither say how long the recast would be playing Hayden’s husband nor when the big switch would take place on air. Christopher, who recently won his first Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, originated the role of Laura Spencer’s firstborn son back in 1996. He was replaced once before during his long GH run in the early 2000s, when The Closer‘s Stephen Martines — then known as Coltin Scott — took over.

Stabile, who played Mark Wolper on Aaron Spelling’s Sunset Beach in the late 1990s and Dean Hartman on Days of Our Lives in 2009, is no stranger to recasts. He previously stepped in as Passions‘ Fox Crane in 2004 while Justin Hartley (now Adam, The Young and the Restless) was on paternity leave. Stabile’s other credits include Dawson’s Creek, Charmed and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Daytime Confidential broke the story that Christopher was taking time off during contract negotiations.

What do you think? Will you be able to accept another actor as Nikolas? Or would you have preferred the character to just leave Port Charles for a while? Hit the comments.