General Hospital has reason to celebrate. The last surviving ABC soap topped The Young and the Restless in the all-important women 18-49 female demo during the week of October 7, ABC announced Friday. It wasn't just among the W18-49 demo where GH delivered. The soap also grew among in other categories too.

For the first time in over two-and-a-half years, “General Hospital” ranked as the #1 program in daytime in Women 18-49 (735,000/1.1 rating) – since week of 2/21/11 – placed #1 for the 8th straight week in Women 18-34 (285,000/0.8 rating) and came with 7% of “Young in The Restless” for #1 in Women 25-54 (938,000/1.5 rating), its closest competitive finish in over two years – since week of 8/15/11.

Impressively, this week stood as the series’ most-watched week in over 3 years in Women 18-34 and in over 2 years in Women 18-49 – since weeks of 9/27/10 and 9/26/11, respectively.

“General Hospital” surged by 40% in Women 18-34 (285,000 vs. 203,000), by 17% in Women 18-49 (735,000 vs. 629,000) and by 12% in Women 25-54 (938,000 vs. 840,000).