The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an
American soap opera which first debuted on the
CBS television network on
March 26,
1973.
Since late 1988, the show has been the highest-rated serial in the daytime ratings. Like all the other soaps, however, The Young and the Restless has seen the ratings decline steadily since it first ranked #1. From 1988 to 2004, the show has lost more than 50% of its audience, from eight million viewers to less than four.
The Young and the Restless, created by husband and wife team William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell stood out from other soaps on the air for its brightness, both literal and figurative. Soap operas at the time tended to be comparatively darkly-lit and lugubrious in tone. The Young and the Restless infused light, humor and youth into the genre.
It follows characters in the fictional Genoa City, and around the companies Newman Enterprises and Jabot Cosmetics.
Longtime characters
- Victor Newman (played by Eric Braeden) - wealthy, powerful and brooding industrialist
- Nikki Reed Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) - Victor's on-again off-again wife and one great, true love
- Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) - Victor and Nikki's son
- Victoria Newman (Heather Tom) - Victor and Nikki's daughter
- Sharon Collins Newman (Sharon Case) - Nick's wife
- Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) - Victor's greatest rival and enemy, Jabot executive
- Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson) - Jack's chemist sister, board member of Jabot, and one of Victor's ex-wives
- Brad Carlton (Don Diamont) - a Newman Enterprises executive
- Jill Foster Abbott (Jess Walton) - Jack and Ashley's stepmother
- Katharine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) - Jill's longtime rival
- Billy Abbott (most notably played by David Tom) - Jill's husband's son
- Brock Reynolds (Beau Kayzer) - Katharine's long-lost son
- Mackenzie Reynolds (most notably played by Ashley Bashioum) - Katharine's long-lost granddaughter, Brock's daughter
- Christine Blair (Lauralee Bell) - Legal Aid lawyer and former model
- Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc) - lawyer and former lover of both Chris and Phyllis
- Paul Williams (Doug Davidson) - Chris's former husband, a private investigator
- Mary Williams (Carolyn Conwell) - Paul's meddling, judgmental mother
- Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) - photographer for Newman Enterprises
- Olivia Barber Hastings Winters (Tonya Lee Williams) - was Malcolm's wife, doctor
- Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) - Malcolm's brother, Newman Enterprises executive
- Drucilla Barber Winters (Victoria Rowell) - Neil's tart-tongued wife
External sites
Warning: spoilers for non-American viewers; your current season may be behind that of America