The Young and the Restless (often abbreviated as Y&R) is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wisconsin).^[2] First broadcast on March 26, 1973, The Young and the Restless was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week.^[3][4] The show expanded to one-hour episodes on February 4, 1980.^[5] In 2006, the series began airing previous episodes weeknights on SOAPnet^[6] until 2013, when it moved to TVGN (now Pop). From July 1, 2013 until 2019, Pop aired previous episodes on weeknights.^[7][8] The series is also syndicated internationally.^[9]

The Young and the Restless originally focused on two core families: the wealthy Brooks family and the working class Foster family.^[3] After a series of recasts and departures in the early 1980s, all the original characters except Jill Foster Abbott were written out. Bell replaced them with new core families, the Abbotts and the Williamses.^[3] Over the years, other families such as the Newman family, the Barber/Winters family, and the Baldwin-Fishers were introduced.^[10][11] Despite these changes, one of its most enduring storylines was the four-decade feud between Jill Abbott and Katherine Chancellor, the longest rivalry on any American soap opera.^[12][13]

Since its television debut, The Young and the Restless has won 11 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. It is also currently the highest-rated daytime drama on American television, a rank it has held for 34 years as of the end of the 2021–22 season. As of 2008, it had appeared at the top of the weekly Nielsen ratings in that category for more than 1,000 weeks since 1988.^[14] As of December 12, 2013, according to Nielsen ratings, The Young and the Restless marked an unprecedented 1,300 weeks, or 25 years, as the highest-rated daytime drama.^[15] The serial is also a sister series to The Bold and the Beautiful, as several actors have crossed over between shows. The series aired its 12,500th episode on May 1, 2022. On February 27, 2024, the series was renewed by CBS to run through the 2027–28 television season.^[16]

Some well-known celebrities got their jumpstart on The Young and the Restless, including Eva Longoria, David Hasselhoff, Tom Selleck, Paul Walker, and Shemar Moore. Many other celebrities have made a guest appearances on the show, including Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Wayne Gretzky, Il Divo, Enrique Iglesias.

To compete with the youthful ABC soap operas, All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital, CBS executives wanted a new daytime serial that was youth oriented.^[17] William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell created The Young and the Restless in 1972 for the network under the working title, The Innocent Years!^[17][18] "We were confronted with the very disturbing reality that young America had lost much of its innocence," Bell said. "Innocence as we had known and lived it all our lives had, in so many respects, ceased to exist."^[19] They changed the title of the series to The Young and the Restless because they felt it "reflected the youth and mood of the early seventies."^[19] The Bells named the fictional setting for the show after the real Genoa City, Wisconsin, a community on U.S. Route 12 in Wisconsin along the Illinois-Wisconsin state line located between their then-home in Chicago and their annual summer vacation spot in Lake Geneva.^[2]

The Young and the Restless began airing on March 26, 1973, replacing the canceled soap opera, Where the Heart Is.^[5] Bell worked as head writer from the debut of the series until his retirement in 1998.^[20] He wrote from his home in Chicago while production took place in Los Angeles, California. Originally, Bell wanted to shoot the series in New York City; however, CBS executives felt that Los Angeles would be more cost effective.^[9] John Conboy acted as the show's first executive producer, staying in the position until 1982.^[5] Bell and H. Wesley Kenney became co-executive producers that year until Edward Scott took over in 1989. Bell then became senior executive producer.^[5] Other executive producers included David Shaughnessy,^[21] John F. Smith,^[22] Lynn Marie Latham,^[23] Josh Griffith,^[24] Maria Arena Bell, and Paul Rauch.^[25]

In the mid-1980s, Bell and his family moved to Los Angeles to create a new soap opera.^[9] During this time, his three children, William Jr., Bradley Bell, and Lauralee Bell, each became involved in soap operas. Lauralee Bell worked as an actress on The Young and the Restless. Bradley Bell co-created The Bold and the Beautiful with his father. William Bell Jr. became involved in the family's production companies as president of Bell Dramatic Serial Co. and Bell-Phillip Television Productions Inc.^[9] "It's worked out very well for us because we really all worked in very different aspects of the show," William Bell Jr. said. "With my father and I, it was a great kind of partnership and pairing in the sense that he had a total control of the creative side of the show and I didn't have even the inclination to interject in what he was doing."^[9]

After William J. Bell's 1998 retirement, a number of different head writers took over the position, including Kay Alden, Trent Jones, John F. Smith, Lynn Marie Latham, Scott Hamner, Josh Griffith, Maria Arena Bell, and Hogan Sheffer.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]}

In 2012, former General Hospital executive producer Jill Farren Phelps was hired as the new executive producer of the soap, replacing Bell. Griffith was also named the sole head writer.^[28] On August 15, 2013, it was speculated and reported by several online sources that Griffith had resigned as head-writer of the serial.^[29][30] Further speculation adds that Shelly Altman may take over as the new scribe, alongside Tracey Thomson or Jean Passanante may be brought aboard as co-head scribe.^[31][32] On September 12, 2013, it was announced that Passanante and Altman were named head writers of the show, with Thomson promoted to co-head writer.^[33]

On September 18, 2014, former All My Children, Santa Barbara and General Hospital head writer Charles Pratt Jr. was named as the new head writer of the show. Passanante, Altman and Thomson have been demoted to breakdown writers. Pratt was also named as co-executive producer sharing the credit with Phelps.^[34] On June 7, 2016, Serial Scoop announced that Phelps had been terminated from her position as executive producer; a replacement was not named at the time of their reporting.^[35] The following morning, Sony Pictures Television confirmed to several list of soap opera media outlets that Phelps had been let go from her position; British television producer Mal Young was announced as Phelps' replacement.^[36] Phelps' last appearance as executive producer was July 12, 2016, while Young's first appearance occurred the following day on July 13.^[37] On September 13, 2016, it was announced that Pratt was named as executive producer and show-runner of Lee Daniels' Star.^[38][39] The same day, Daytime Confidential revealed that former Generations and Days of Our Lives head writer Sally Sussman, who previously had positions with the show, such as Associate Head Writer, was in-talks to replace Pratt as Head Writer.^[40] On September 15, 2016, it was confirmed that Sussman was named as the soap's new head writer.^[41][42]

On September 21, 2016, Daytime Confidential reported that after ten years since leaving the soap, Alden had been re-hired to be a story consultant under Sussman's regime.^[43] Sussman's tenure as head writer began taping on October 20, 2016, and began airing on December 7, 2016.^[44] On June 20, 2017, CBS announced its decision to renew the serial for three years.^[45][46] On July 31, 2017, it was announced that both Alden and Sussman would retire from their positions; Young was named as Sussman's successor as head writer.^[47][48] Sussman last aired as head writer on October 24, 2017. Young's tenure as head writer aired on October 25, 2017.^[49][50] In December 2018, Young announced his decision to leave the serial, citing that it was a "good time to move on", and cited his desire to pursue his own project.^[51] Anthony Morina was announced as executive producer, while Griffith was named co-executive producer and head writer.^[52]

On January 30, 2020, CBS announced it had renewed the serial through 2024.^[53][54] In a statement, CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl stated: "It's a remarkable achievement and a testament to the extraordinary cast, gifted writers, talented producers and supremely passionate fans, as well as our tremendous partnership with [Y&R studio] Sony Pictures Television."^[55]

On March 20, 2020, after 32 years and over 1,500 consecutive weeks, The Young and the Restless was no longer the number-one soap opera in the United States, having been dethroned by The Bold and the Beautiful, which took 33 years since its 1987 debut to attain that position.^[56] The Young and the Restless then reclaimed the number-one spot the following week.^[57] On April 20, 2020, CBS announced plans to begin airing a week of vintage episodes, following the soap's shutdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; production on the soap would resume in the summer of 2020.^[58] On December 1 of the same year, the serial aired its 12,000th episode.^[1]

On August 19, 2021, it was reported that actress Briana Thomas had filed a lawsuit against Sony Pictures Television and CBS Studios, alleging sexual harassment on the set from showrunner Tony Morina.^[59]

On September 29, 2022, a day before the premiere of The Young and the Restless’ 50th season, the show announced that they would be producing showcasts, an audio form of the show’s episodes. Episodes of the showcast will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

Co-creators William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell centered The Young and the Restless around two core families, the wealthy Brooks' and the poor Fosters.^[3][17][19] Bell borrowed this technique of soap opera building from his mentor, Irna Phillips.^[61]

While casting for the series, Bell and executive producer John Conboy auditioned 540 actors for the 13 main characters.^[69] They assembled the youngest group of actors ever cast on a soap opera at the time, hiring mostly unknown actors^[70] whom they considered "glamorous model types".^[61] Chemistry between actors also factored into the criteria for casting.^[62] The stories focused on the younger characters, with an emphasis in fantasy.^[3][19] The fantasy element was reflected in the love story between Jill Foster and the millionaire Phillip Chancellor II; the Leslie Brooks, Brad Elliot, and Lorie Brooks love triangle; and Snapper Foster's romance with Chris Brooks.^[3][62]

Sexuality also played a major role in the stories.^[3][61][63] Formerly, soap operas did not delve into the sexual side of their romances. Bell changed that, first during his time as head writer of Days of Our Lives and again on The Young and the Restless.^[61] William Gray Espy's Snapper Foster is considered the "first to discover sex on a soap opera."^[63] During the story, the character is engaged to Chris Brooks (Trish Stewart) and having a sexual relationship with Sally McGuire (Lee Crawford).^[63] Other plots reflected sexual themes as well. For the first time in the genre, the dialogue and the story situations included explicit sexual themes such as premarital intercourse, impotence, incest, and rape.^[3] The first two rape storylines that would be told on the serial were controversial at the time as they reflected a more introspective and analytic storytelling style, the first time rape storylines would be addressed in this manner in the genre.^[71] The first, in 1973–74, revolved around the rape of Chris Brooks and the aftermath, in which she entertained (and, eventually, rejected) the idea that she was perhaps at fault for her attack. The second, in 1976, involved Chris's sister Peggy (Pamela Peters Solow) and was meant to serve as a cut-and-dried story in which no viewer could justify this attack, committed out of the blue by an authority figure.^[71]

The series also explored social issues. Jennifer Brooks underwent the first mastectomy on a soap opera.^[62] Other social issue storylines included bulimia, alcoholism, and cancer.^[72] Lesbianism was also touched on with Katherine Chancellor, who flirts with Jill while drunk in 1974 and has a brief relationship with Joann Curtis (Kay Heberle) in 1977.^[72]

When the series lengthened from a half-hour to an hour in 1980, multiple cast members who portrayed characters from the original core families departed because their contracts only bound them to performing in a half-hour show.^[3] A number of the characters were recast until one of the few remaining original actors, Jaime Lyn Bauer, who portrayed Lorie Brooks, decided to leave. When she announced her intention not to renew her contract, Bell decided to replace the original core families.^[3] "As I studied the remaining cast, I realized I had two characters- Paul Williams, played by Doug Davidson, and Jack Abbott, played by Terry Lester- both of whom had a relatively insignificant presence on the show," Bell said. "They didn't have families. Hell, they didn't even have bedrooms. But these became the two characters I would build our two families around."^[3]

The characters from the Abbott and Williams families were integrated into the series while the Brooks and Foster families, with the exception of Jill, were phased out. The continuity of the feud between Jill and Katherine, which began in the early years of the show, smoothed the transition.^[3] The relationship between the two characters remained a central theme throughout the series and became the longest lasting rivalry in daytime history.^[12]

Another character introduced in the 1980s was Eric Braeden's Victor Newman.^[3][10] Originally, the character was "a despicable, contemptible, unfaithful wife abuser" who was intended to be killed off.^[10] Braeden's tenure on the show was meant to last between eight and twelve weeks. "When I saw Eric Braeden's first performance- the voice, the power, the inner strength- I knew immediately that I didn't want to lose this man," Bell said. "He was exactly what the show needed. Not the hateful man we saw on-screen, but the man he could and would become."^[10] Bell rewrote the story to save the character and put Braeden on contract. Victor's romance with Nikki Reed became a prominent plot in the series.^[10]

With the success of another iconic character, Kimberlin Brown's Sheila Carter, Bell successfully crossed her over from The Young and the Restless to his second soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, in 1992. The success of the crossover was due to the creativity of Bell, as the nefarious character of Sheila was presumed to have died in a fire on The Young and the Restless.

In the 1990s, core black characters were introduced with the Barber and Winters families. Victoria Rowell (Drucilla Barber) and Tonya Williams (Olivia Winters) were cast as the nieces of the Abbotts' maid, Mamie Johnson, in 1990.^[73] The brothers Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) and Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) were introduced as love interests for Olivia and Drucilla.^[11] The Young and the Restless became popular among black viewers, which Williams and St. John attributed to the writing for the black characters.^[11][74][75] "I play a CEO at a major corporation, that's something we don't see that often," St. John said. "And the show doesn't use the old African-American stereotypes that we have been seeing on TV, like the hustler, the pimp, the drug dealer. We have come a long way."^[74] Though the characters held prominent positions in the fictional work place of Genoa City, they had little interaction with other characters outside of their jobs.^[76]

The serial has won 165 Daytime Emmys, among 360 nominations. The following list summarizes 82 Daytime Emmy awards won by The Young and the Restless:

"Nadia's Theme" has been the theme music of The Young and the Restless since the show's debut in 1973.^[5][9] The melody, originally titled "Cotton's Dream", was composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. for the 1971 theatrical film Bless the Beasts and Children. The melody was later renamed "Nadia's Theme" after the American Broadcasting Company television network's sports summary program Wide World of Sports lent the music for a montage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci's routines during the 1976 Summer Olympics;^[119] despite the title, Nadia never performed her floor exercises using this piece of music. Instead, she used a piano arrangement of a medley of the songs "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" and "Jump in the Line".

Botkin wrote a rearranged version of the piece specifically for The Young and the Restless' debut.^[9] The song remained unchanged, save for a slight remix in 1988 and a three-year stint in the early 2000s, when an alternate, jazzier arrangement of that tune was used, using portions of the longer closing version of the original theme.^[9]

An LP album was published in 1976 by A&M Records. The track list contains two titles of the French composer Michel Colombier, Rainbow and Emmanuel, a success track^{[clarification needed]} which he wrote in memory of the death of his son.^{[citation needed]}

In late September and early October 2012, upon the show's 10,000th episode, the current form of opening credits were updated. In the years prior, fans criticized them for their lack of updates and cast additions (some contract players, such as Adrienne Frantz, and Kimberlin Brown came and went without being added).

In mid-February 2017, the opening title sequence was updated in anticipation of the soaps's 44th anniversary.^[120] In March 2023, the opening title sequence was updated in celebration of the soap's 50th anniversary.^[121]

The Young and the Restless entered CBS' daytime lineup at 12 noon/11 a.m. Central in March 1973, a timeslot where two popular game shows, NBC's Jeopardy! (original version, hosted by Art Fleming) and ABC's Password (revival of the 1960s hit with Allen Ludden as host), vied for the top spot in the ratings. Quite a number of CBS affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone had for years been running local newscasts at noon, despite CBS giving them a 30-minute break one hour later, at 1 p.m., for that purpose.

With that scenario, at first, The Young and the Restless was at the bottom of the ratings, inheriting Where the Heart Is' low numbers and affiliate clearances. However, the youthful and sexually-driven storylines, which appealed perfectly to CBS' desired key demographic of younger women, helped it to rise rapidly, surging to ninth by 1974–75 and third by 1975–76. This eventually led to both Jeopardy!'s and Password's cancellations during 1975; a succession of shows (of varying formats) on both networks failed to make any significant impact for the next five years, other than perhaps ABC's The $20,000 Pyramid, which aired at noon/11 from 1978 to 1980. Apart from a dip to sixth in 1980-81 (its first full season at a full hour, when the first half went against ABC's then-top-rated Family Feud in the Central Time Zone or the second half against the first part of All My Children in the Eastern), it has been one of the five highest-rated soaps since the 1975–76 season. After Feud's decline beginning in 1984 (it would be canceled the next year) and the eventual plateauing of AMC and NBC's Days of Our Lives, the latter of which did undergo a brief resurgence in the mid-1980s, Y&R widened the ratings lead to the point where ABC and NBC never caught up again, both eventually ceding the Noon/11 time slot back to their local stations by the 1990s. By 1988–89 it had dethroned long-time leader General Hospital as the top-rated soap, a position it held until 2020. In 2010, it marked its 1,000th consecutive week n the #1 spot for daytime dramas.^[122] During the week of December 2, 2013, the series celebrated its 25th consecutive year as the number one daytime drama.^[123] The Young and the Restless airs every weeknight on Pop, where it averaged 362,000 viewers from July to September 2013.^[124]

On the week ending April 6, 2012, The Young and the Restless was watched by a new low of an average of 3,960,000 viewers for the week, beating its previous low of 4.209 million in October 2011, as well as being the only week to date below 4 million viewers.^[125] Currently, the show is still the most-watched daytime drama; and for the season 2011–12, has a household rating of 3.5, and 1.5 for the Women 18–49 demographic.^[126] As of 2008, the Tuesday episodes of The Young and the Restless on average is the most-watched daytime drama showing.^[127]

• The show was mentioned in the lyrics of Carlene Carter's "Every Little Thing" song in 1993.

• CBS Daytime
• List of The Young and the Restless cast members
• List of The Young and the Restless characters
• List of longest-serving soap opera actors