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Young and the Restless: Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) - John Abbott (Jerry Douglas)
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‘Young and the Restless’ Classic Episodes Upset Fans – Here’s Why

Kelly Joyner 5016 Views

Young and the Restless airs classic episodes with no fresh material to run. But, there’s some fan outrage for a surprising reason. It was inevitable that Y&R had to shut down production with the lockdown. And it was either reruns or take the soap off the air. But, here’s what has some fans’ feathers ruffled with the CBS sudser.

Young and the Restless Needed to Keep Soaps on the Air

Despite not having any new episodes, it was important for Y&R to keep running content. Why? If CBS daytime inserted other programming into that time slot, and ratings didn’t suffer, then they might not resume shooting at all. Soap operas are high budget programming for networks.

So, if Young and the Restless stopped airing altogether, it might open the door to more cancellations. As it is, there are only four soaps left on daytime TV. So, reruns were the best option to keep fans turning in every day. And, it seems the powers that be chose well.

Now, Young and the Restless and sister soap Bold and the Beautiful are running theme weeks. On Y&R right now, it’s Katherine the Great week devoted to Kay Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper). Over on B&B, it’s Monte Carlo week. But it’s interesting to see fan reaction to these classic episodes.

Y&R Fans Are Irritated With Re-Runs – But Not for the Reason You’d Think

Many Young and the Restless viewers are sticking with their soap and watching the older episodes. And the comments are interesting. We see many fans increasingly annoyed as these reruns air. However, they’re not angry that Y&R is running old episodes. Far from it.

Instead, they’re annoyed by watching the old Young and the Restless shows because it reminds them how far the CBS soap drifted from its roots. One fan asked how Y&R “lost sight of its brand” as they look at old episodes. Another said watching them proves “how bad” the show is now.

Most Young and the Restless watchers love the old material. Some of the descriptions are that it’s mesmerizing and magnificent. Another fan said the classic dialog had “conflict and emotion.” But, they added, “we’re lucky” if we get even one scene daily of that quality now.

Will Viewers Drop Off When New Episodes of Young and the Restless Return?

Although Y&R remains at the top of the ratings for the four soaps, that doesn’t mean it will stay there. The disastrous reign of Mal Young turned off tons of longtime viewers. There was high hope for Josh Griffith, but enthusiasm’s quelled for his writing too.

So, whenever Young and the Restless comes back with new episodes, will the soap find fans harder to please? It’s one thing to recall the heyday of the CBS sudsfest and miss it. It’s quite another to see all that soapy goodness on your screen every day and then go back to the often “meh” writing of today.

What do you think as a Young and the Restless fan? Are you relishing these reruns or eager to get back to the new storylines? It could be that viewers hold the soap to a higher standard after getting this refresher course from these oldy but goody episodes. Wait and see.

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