Soap Opera Digest grants Daytime Confidential’s Jamey Giddens his wish. On Wednesday, August 15, Giddens had posted a Wishful Casting report shortly after word broke that Kevin Schmidt was out as Noah Newman on CBS'” The Young and the Restless.” The writer figured that Nickelodeon’s “Hollywood Heights” actor Robert Adamson (Phil Sanders) would fit the role perfectly. Today the magazine reported on its Facebook page that Adamson is now heading to Genoa City!
Five years after being taken off contract and placed on recurring status, Jacklyn Zeman (ex-Bobbie Spencer, “General Hospital”) has opened up to Soap Opera Digest in its newest issue about the circumstances surrounding her unexpected departure from the ABC daytime drama series.
Daytime’s most watched soap is also daytime’s most heavily viewed series for African American audiences, but you wouldn’t know it based on the storyline’s written for its African American characters of late. With a new writing team in place, that will soon change. According to Soap Opera Digest, the series has put out another casting call for an African American character. Unlike the previous casting call, this one is for a female and it definitely sounds like a possible recast of a current character, but we could be wrong.
While “The Bold and the Beautiful” canceled its casting call last week following news of Ronn Moss’ (soon-to-be ex-Ridge Forrester) departure, sister soap “The Young and the Restless” has announced its plans to cast the contract role of an African American male.
On Thursday, July 26, Sony Pictures Television announced Josh Griffith as the new head writer of “The Young and the Restless.” He replaced Maria Arena Bell, who also served as the soaps executive producer (she’s been replaced by Jill Farren Phelps in that position). In the days following the announcement of his appointment at “Y&R,” Griffith became a little more active on his Twitter account (@joshgriffith13).
Soap Opera Network has learned that actor Graham Shiels, who most recently appeared in an episode of TNT’s “Leverage,” has booked a recurring role on CBS’ “The Young and the Restless.”
Eric Braeden is best known to daytime fans of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” as Victor Newman and in celebration of the shows upcoming 10,000th episode (tentatively scheduled for Thursday, September 27), the actor appeared on today’s edition of “The Talk,” with guest co-host Shannen Doherty.
In a posting on her facebook page yesterday, following the announcement by Sony Pictures Television and CBS that Jill Farren Phelps and Josh Griffith, Jr. would be stepping in to replace her, Maria Arena Bell stated that she was “mystified” as to why she was being let go as executive producer and head writer of “The Young and the Restless.”
“The Young and The Restless” is making major changes at the top. Executive Producer/Head Writer Maria Arena Bell is leaving the show and is being replaced by Jill Farren Phelps, who will be the new Executive Producer, and Josh Griffith, who will be the new Head Writer.
Nickelodeon has tapped former “General Hospital” executive producer Jill Farren Phelps and former “One Life To Live” head writer Josh Griffith to adapt the popular Mexican telenovela “Alcanzar una Estrella” for Nick at Nite.
In a statement released via Soap Opera Digest, “One Life to Live” head writer Ron Carlivati says, “I am both excited and honored to remain with ‘One Life to Live’ as Head Writer and Consulting Producer when the show moves online. My heartfelt thanks to Executive Producer Frank Valentini, as well as to Rich Frank and Jeff Kwantinetz of Prospect Park for this incredible opportunity.”
After fifteen years of working in various positions on the “One Life to Live” writing staff, including serving as the show’s head scribe for the last three years, ABC has announced that Ron Carlivati will be joining “General Hospital” as a script writer. The move will fulfill the remainder of the three-year contract Carlivati signed with the network last September. A similar two-year deal was hammered out at the time with “One Life” Executive Producer Frank Valentini.
On Monday, May 23, three days after news broke that Ingo Rademacher (Jasper ‘Jax’ Jacks) had been fired by ABC’s “General Hospital,” Soap Opera Network tweeted that we had exclusively learned that Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo (Brenda Barrett Corinthos) would be the next actor leaving the daytime drama series. On Thursday, May 26, just before the long Memorial Day Weekend, the actress confirmed our report when she revealed that her days with the soap were numbered via her Twitter page. Interestingly, the actress has been tweeting up a storm since revealing the news while keeping mum for nearly 3 months on her twitter account (it had previously been crickets since February of this year). Marcil Giovinazzo’s confirmation follows months of rumors since she revealed in an interview with Access Hollywood Live back in March that she was on her way out.
After 72 years on air between radio and television, CBS’s “Guiding Light” will cease broadcasting on the CBS Television Network due to low ratings. Love may save the world, but apparently it wasn’t enough to save television’s longest running daytime drama. Even with having its name published in the Guinness World Record Book and winning three Daytime Emmy’s for Best Drama Series (the most recent being in 2007), “GL” found itself unable to withstand the mass exodus of viewers from the traditional daytime soap format in recent years.