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The Young and the Restless Celebrates 25 Consecutive Years As Number #1 Daytime Drama!

By Michael Fairman

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Courtesy/CBS

Courtesy/CBS

It’s time to celebrate this week at The Young and the Restless!  According to a press release from the series and CBS, “With today’s release of  network television’s daytime ratings, CBS’S  The Young and the Restless has marked its 1,300 consecutive week or 25 years as the #1 daytime drama, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending December 2, 2013.

The Young and the Restless currently in its 40th season with more than 10,250 episodes, began its winning streak the week of December. 26, 1988! Season-to-date, Y&R is averaging 5.10 million viewers, its largest audience to begin a season since 2011-2012. The Young and the Restless is first this season in both women 25-54 (2.1/13) and women 18-49 (1.4/10, tie).  The Young and the Restless has also been first in women 25-54 for 354 of the past 356 weeks and first in women 18-49 for the 349 of the last 352 weeks.

“I am so proud of the talented cast and crew, past and present, for making The Young and the Restless #1 for 25 years,” said Angelica McDaniel, Senior Vice President, CBS Daytime.  “A special thank you to our loyal and passionate fans for helping us reach this incredible milestone.”

Below is just a sampling of 25 Years of Y&R milestones:

  • Peter Bergman joins the cast as Jack Abbott in November, 1989, replacing Terry Lester who originated the role.  Bergman has been nominated for 17 Daytime Emmys and has won three.
  • In 1993, Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor) became the first daytime actor to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  • In 1994, a car driven by Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) runs down Paul (Doug Davidson) and Christine (Lauralee Bell).  The truth wouldn’t come out until the storyline was revisited in 2012.
  • In 1999, Katherine (Jeanne Cooper) and Jill (Jess Walton) are awarded joint custody of the Chancellor mansion.
  • Shemar Moore wins a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2000.
  • Y&R was the first daytime drama to be broadcast in high definition (2001).
  • In May 2005, Cassie Newman (Camryn Grimes) dies tragically, attempting to drive a drunk Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei) home from a party.
  • The 10,000th episode aired on Thursday, September 27, 2012.
  • Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) and Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) marry for the fourth time in March, 2013.
  • Over the years, Y&R has tackled a wide range of social issues including alcoholism, teen pregnancy, breast cancer, eating disorders, sexual harassment, AIDS and cyber bullying.
  • Y&R has filmed on location in numerous locations around the world including Bermuda, Nevis, Paris, New Orleans, and Hawaii.

Congratulations to all of our colleagues over at The Young and the Restless for 25 years in the top spot! Now, what do you think about the big milestone?  What is your most memorable moment from 25 years of Y&R being number one? Let us know!

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It is impossible for Y&R to be #1 for 25 years..
There were more great soaps in 1988, and Y&R has not been all that good every year since 1988..
Someday, the real story will come out as to how CBS has controlled numbers.
There is something very wrong with Y&R being #1 for 25 straight years with never ever one year down..
Y&R is not always good, some years it has been terrible.

((perhaps because it is shown in 36 countries, and that would give it more viewers but not always the best soap)

You’re such a whiner and cry baby….boo hoo, lets have a pity party for “su0000” because your blog is completely ludicrous! Throwing a tantrum because your show isn’t #1. I’m not too pleased with YR at the moment but after 40 years of watching this show that didn’t fall past #4 after the first year on CBS in 1974 and been #1 since 1988 is a great feat during this day and age, all because of Bill Bell…..

You do know whom Bill Bell is, correct? I’m 53 and your age_____ is what? You’re probably too young to realize how magnificent Bill truly was and his ability to create such great drama….take your Barbies and go home whiner…please! An accomplishment is an accomplishment regardless we all know you never give one.

Congrats YR….it’s richly deserved….now please fire JFP….geez.

Bill Bell was the best…he was still doing great work at Days during Y&Rs first few years…hey, Harlee im also 53!

I have no ”blog”, what are you ranting about..
hope you feel better now, bad hair days are a bitch .. 🙂

I do feel so much better…you’re always, not a little but ALWAYS putting YR down for some reason or another and don’t even watch the show, with all the venom you spew about YR….if you say do watch I don’t believe nothing you would say anyway…..peace out

Jimh….so nice to know I’m not the only one here at that age….you know what we grew up in the golden age of soaps, the ’70s and we had what 16 or more soaps on the air through out the that decade. Being a teen coming home watching (yes with Beta) LaurieLance, crazy ass Vanessa, Bill’s cult story, quad of LucasLeslieLaurieLance, or Holly being raped by Roger on GL, watching it all unfold from the affair being exposed between KimBobJenniferJohn on ATWT (the dirty bastard, pre-Victor there was John Dixon!) Wonderful, wonderful time, we had EON, LOL, SFT my love of soaps on CBS….sigh

Congrats to Y&R. 25 years is unheard of.

must be a lucky timeslot: everyone on lunch break!

On the west coast, Y&R comes on at 11am. GH comes on at 1pm. There are different groups of people who take lunches at different hours, some at 11am, some at noon and some at 1pm. Many who sit in the lunch room plan their lunch hours around their preferred TV schedules. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE me some GH! LOL It is a better show AT THIS TIME, and so is DAYS. However, Y&R is still the most watched soap on American television and one of the most watched shows on daytime; and it would even be moderately competitive in prime time slots. A lot of people don’t like American Idol, or Sunday Night Football, but it doesn’t change the fact that these shows have been #1 in the ratings. Y&R IS #1; and based on the numbers, on any given day 1.5M to 2M people prefer to watch Y&R. I’m just not one of them. I just don’t like denials or simple “explain aways” to hard facts.

Ive watched this show off and on since the 70s but never really got addicted to it…the best thing about it is that the show stays focused on most of its vets, and its rarely used campy and farfetched plots to tell its stories…my current soap favorites are Days and GH…imo, these are the most entertaining…GH needs to trim its cast…move its plots more consistently…and a little less gloom and doom…then it could be as great as it was in the 1980s…GH is really good now but what im trying to say that with some improvements it could even be better! imo

Let’s be real here, this show has been unworthy of being No. 1 for a good ten or eleven years.

Only reason for this is habit.

So happy for Y&R to achieve their twenty-fifth year at No.1 in the ratings. The series has honestly never been better than it is right now. The show is really character-driven, and not plot-driven, which I love. And a lot of familiar faces are either on the canvas, or returning to the canvas! Here’s to another 25 years a top of the ratings!

Which SHOW are you watching?

To say that it has never been better is like saying Whitney Houston died right when she never sung better!!! 🙁

You obviously never saw “Young and the Restless” in 1989. THAT my friend is when it peaked. What we have today is absolute crap.

I’m sorry, but I have to disagree. Y&R is amazing, and has been since Jill and the new writing regimes have taken hold of the series.

You forgot one of the most important milestones of all, when Sheila/Kimberlin Brown crossed over from Y&R to B&B, the first of its kind in terms of a front-burner storyline being continued on two shows at the same time.

Back in the 1960s widower Mike Bauer and his daughter Hope moved from CBS’s Guilding Light to NBCs Another World where he fell in love with married Pat Randolph…and later returned to the Guilding Light when he realized he had no future with her…i consider this one of the first crossover storylines long before Sheila did her jump from Y&R to B&B!!!

Thank you jimh (leave it to beaver) for:

1. Mentioning GL
2. You’re so correct
3. Being someone that is of age range or if not knowing your history

Thanks

Yes, but the crossover storyline on Guiding Light didn’t play out simultaneously on BOTH SHOWS like Sheila’s did. Get your facts straight you two.

Sorry beacon…i wasnt trying to get you mad or anything…i probably shouldve made myself clearer…Guilding Light and Another World may not have played their crossover the same way as Y&R and B&B but it still is a forerunner to later day crossovers like the Sheila storyline.

plus what made the Guilding Light/Another World(both created by ina philips:spelling?) crossover more unique than others is that it happened on two different networks!

Congrats Y&R. Thanks for the memories. I’ll stay tuned.

Y&R was always “my” show until the late 2000’s. I’m happy for the show’s success, and I hope it continues to succeed. 25 years is quite a feat, and when you put the show’s numbers up against even many prime time shows, it is competitive as well. I do prefer GH and DAYS nowadays, but I’ll always root for Y&R to return to its former glory quality-wise. As for the numbers, despite what some naysayer posters may say or want to believe, the numbers do not lie. Y&R IS the most watched daytime drama, and it probably will remain the most watched daytime drama until the genre eventually disappears from weekday programming.

Victor keeping Michael the Jabot photographer in his dungeon in the basement at the Ranch has a sentimental spot in my heart, although not the best story line ever, it was the story that got me hooked on the show. But I think that was before the show was number one in the ratings.

First of all…since the post is about YR being number one for 25 years. CONGRATS.

Well deserved.

Is it at its creative best right now, no. But really it was until 2006. I watched almost since the beginning.

ATWT was number 1 from 1958-1978, and I know it also wasn’t always at its creative best at that time. In fact YR probably had some kick ass years in there.

All My Children hit #1 before GH went to the top in 79/80 where it stayed until it was dethroned by YR. And everyone KNOWS that in those 8 or 9 years GH went downhill in quality fast, and SHOULDN’T have been #1. But as someone said, it’s just viewing habits.

The difference these days is that there are only four soaps, and the “head start” that YR had by about 1990/91 was so great that as every show lost its viewership, no one really has come close since. I know people don’t want to believe that, but it’s all in the total ratings.

Other shows have hit that top spot in the demos, but that’s because those demos are soooo small that any fluctuation is noticeable. So have some consolation that “your” show has or may hit #1 in a demo, but it’s going to be a while still before any show hits this milestone.

Finally, the voice of reason..I agree with you 100%..Well written message and SO true!! Congrats to Y&R, deserving or non deserving, they are the perennial soap in overall ratings..Here is hoping all the other soaps surge higher in total viewers.

I love this post. So true! I like FACTS, hard facts. Thank you for bringing sense and logic to the topic. And once again, congratulations to Y&R! This Bell brand was rightfully number one in both ratings AND quality for decades. I recall many times GH or some other less than soap, at the time, won the best show Emmy during years Y&R was clearly the best show in quality, too. Also, it’s wonderful to see the recent ratings resurgence in all four remaining soaps. Y&R is starting to flirt with averaging 5 million daily viewers again. GH seems to regularly have 3-3.5 million viewers every day now. It seems the four remaining shows are four different brands that are developing new audiences or re-capturing old ones.

25 consecutive years @ #1; that’s awesome for any show. If Y & R is so popular among the masses; it must be a really good show. I have not watched Y & R. May be I should start watching the show from Jan 2014.

The best soap is whichever soap you love. Ratings just relate how many people are watching a show that’s it. Some high quality shows on prime time get cancelled all the time because there aren’t enough viewers, while other shows that are less than stellar continue on for years—ratings just say how many viewers are watching, why they are watching, or if what they are watching is worth watching is not measured. So being number one in the ratings for 25 years is a feat regardless of quality, because to get a loyal and consistent viewership is to be envy in this day and age of the fickle consumer. Congrats.

It was a good show until some jerk made the decision to get rid of the actor Michael m. That played Adam. I’m done with the show!!!!

Since I work, I was able to watch General Hospital & Days of Our Lives at night, now I can’t and I am very disappointed, so I will switch to Young & Restless and The Bold 7 Beautiful. Thanks Disney for the let down!!!!!!

General Hospital

Kelly Sullivan Gives High Praise to ‘General Hospital’s’ Maura West Recalling When Ava Shot Connie (Exclusive)

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Maura West and Kelly Sullivan

It was just over 13 years ago on General Hospital when Ava Jerome (Maura West) shot and killed Kate Howard/Connie Falconeri (Kelly Sullivan) in an effort to keep her quiet from revealing that Derek Wells was actually Ava’s back-from-the-dead brother, Julian Jerome (William deVry). It’s a crime that somehow Ava never has quite paid for either.

The episode back aired on August 13, 2013 and viewers had to say goodbye to Kelly Sullivan who played Kate and her alter, Connie. In the story, just before she died, Kate/Connie scrawled the letters AJ in her own blood, initially making the PCPD and Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) think that it was AJ Quatermaine (Sean Kanan) who did the deed.

Now, Sullivan recalled sharing scenes with the three-time Daytime Emmy-winning West, during a live conversation on You Tube’s Michael Fairman Channel. Kelly was the special guest talking about her recent return to the soaps in her new role as The Bold and the Beautiful’s Darcy Dylan.

Photo: JPI

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MAURA WEST

Speaking of her final GH scenes and working with Maura West, Sullivan gave her then GH co-star major props. “If you’re going to be shot by somebody (on the soaps), you want to be shot by Maura West, c’mon!”

Maura West debuted back in May 2013 as Ava, and Sullivan remembered when the As the World Turns favorite began on GH. “I remember when Maura West first arrived at GH. She walked in with this cute little bob (hairdo) and she’s just delicious,” shared Sullivan.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Kelly revealed more about Maura, adding “I think she’s amazing! I remember right before I left the show, someone suggested, and I would still love to do this with her, if she ever want to, but someone suggested that they wanted to direct the stage play A Streetcar Named Desire with Maura and I, where I would play Stella and she would play Blanche! Wouldn’t that be great?”

Speaking of the Ava/Connie showdown scenes, Sullivan expressed, “On television and on General Hospital specifically, Maura West is able to play a character who does the most horrendous things and you still care about her and that’s the mark of a really great actor. In other words, you’re able to be liked in the midst of the most horrendous things, and as a performer not shying away from that, and to just have the courage to do what’s on the page (in the script).”

Photo: JPI

KELLY SULLIVAN PARTING THOUGHTS AS SHE LEFT GENERAL HOSPITAL

Kelly also shared her sentiments when she walked off the set of General Hospital after her run back in August of 2013. “I really was honored. Every day I would go to work and I would say a little prayer, which is I want to do justice for my character, explained Kelly. “It’s between me and my character. I get to walk this path with her and to leave the show on that note, which is, I left every out there. I just gave it my all and again what an honor it was to play Kate/Connie.”

You can catch the full conversation with Kelly where she talks about her time on General Hospital, The Young and the Restless where she played Sage Warner and now The Bold and the Beautiful below.

So, do you remember the Ava and Connie scenes where Ava shot and killed her? What did you think of Kelly Sullivan’s sentiments about Maura West? Share your thoughts via the comment section. But first, watch the reveal where Ava recalls murdering Connie below!

 

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General Hospital

Steve Burton Reportedly Signs Three-Year Contract with ‘General Hospital’

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Steve Burton

The question of will Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) stay awhile at General Hospital after his recent extended hiatus from the show earlier this year, has reportedly been answered.

TMZ via court documents obtained in Burton’s ongoing legal battle with his ex-wife Sheree Gustin, shared that Steve actually inked a new three year deal with the ABC soap opera back in June.

That is significant because it was June when Burton returned back to work as Jason. In addition, the court filing confirmed that Burton had already moved back to California from Tennessee.

Steve Burton

Photo: ABC

STEVE’S HIATUS AND HIS RETURN TO PORT CHARLES

GH fans will recall, it was back in February of 2026, that Burton announced via his Instagram that he was stepping away from his role of Jason Morgan for short break and pointed to wanting to spend quality time with his new wife, Michelle Lundstrom Burton with whom he tied the knot back on May 17, 2025.

Steve expressed at that time, “I’m newly married and looking forward to spending some quality time with my family.” It was back on March 25 that viewers saw Jason carted away by the WSB after taking the fall for Rocco Falconeri (Finn Carr) who shot then WSB Director Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes).

Burton returned to work on June 1, and due to General Hospital taping roughly six weeks ahead of air, made his on-screen comeback on the July 13 episode.

GOING FOR GOLD AT THE UPCOMING DAYTIME EMMYS

Then, Steve and his enduring fans got an extra special treat on the same day, when it was revealed on Extra that he was nominated for the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Daytime Drama Series category.

Steve previously won in the Supporting Actor category for his work as General Hospital’s Jason in 1998 and as The Young and the Restless’ Dylan McAvoy in 2018.

Now with Jason and Britt’s (Kelly Thiebaud) relationship seemingly hitting the skids, plus Jason’s commitment to staying out of mob life to focus on being present for his son Danny Morgan (Asher Antonyzyn), what does the future hold for the fan favorite character? Stay tuned.

So, happy to hear that Steve Burton signed a new three year deal with General Hospital? Knowing that, what storyline would you like to see Jason get involved and with who? Share your thoughts and theories via the comment section.

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Jess Walton Memoir ‘The Young and the Rest of Us’ Set for Release in 2027

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Jess Walton

The Young and the Restless enduring favorite and two-time Daytime Emmy-winning actress, Jess Walton (Jill Foster Abbott) is set to release her memoir!

Kensington Publishing has revealed on their website that Walton’s book The Young and the Rest of Us is now available for pre-order while listing an April 27, 2027 release date. In addition, in June of 2027, Walton will mark her 40th anniversary with The Young and the Restless and her debut as Jill.

The official log lines for the memoir share, “Emmy Award-winning actress Jess Walton, known to millions as the iconic Jill Abbott on the #1 soap opera The Young and the Restless, shares her extraordinary journey to stardom, sobriety, true love, and self-discovery in this startingly candid, intimate, and star-studded memoir.”

Jess Walton

Photo; Kensington Books

CAKE FIGHTS AND CORPORATE INTRIGUE

The book description for The Young and the Rest of Us adds,  “In June 1987, Jess Walton walked through the artists’ entrance at CBS for her first day on The Young and the Restless,where she had just been hired to play the recast role of Jill AbbottTwo Emmy awards, four decades, and countless onscreen affairs, marriages, corporate takeovers, and cake fights later, she’s a beloved icon with an astonishing tale to tell.”

“In her refreshingly candid style, Jess shares her journey as a young actress from Toronto theaters to Los Angeles, where she found herself at the center of a Laurel Canyon circle that included the likes of Neil Young, David Geffen, Laura Nyro, and Joni Mitchell. Landing a Universal contract and a steady stream of guest starring roles, Jess embraced everything 1970s L.A. had to offer—including Hollywood parties fueled by limitless booze and drugs, and trysts with stars. She recounts with candor and gratitude the surprising path that eventually led her to sobriety, true love—and ultimately, to fictional Genoa City, Wisconsin, and the role of a lifetime.”

“Brimming with behind-the-scenes drama and celebrity cameos to delight fans, The Young and the Rest of Us is also rich in personal, relatable truths about marriage, motherhood, empty-nesting, self-discovery, and finding the courage to start over—as often as it takes. In a voice as fearless and frank as Jill’s, but with, humor and grace all her own, Jess Walton looks back on a life as unpredictable, and adventure filled as anything she has portrayed on screen.”

WHO ELSE PLAYED JILL FOSER ABBOTT?

Fans of The Young and the Restless know that Walton became the fourth actress to take on the role of Katherine Chancellor’s original nemesis Jill Foster back in 1987. The OG Jill was played by Brenda Dickson, also Deborah Adair, Bond Gideon and Melinda O. Fee played the part.

This year, Days of our Lives star Lauren Koslow (Kate Roberts) filled-in for several episodes for Walton who was unavailable to travel from her home in Oregon to Los Angeles where Y&R was taped. Walton is still with the long-running soap opera as Jill.

So, excited to learn of Jess Walton’s upcoming memoir, ‘The Young and the Rest of Us?’ Will it be it a must-read for you? Drop a comment below.

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