The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless Information

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 a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin. First broadcast on March 26, 1973, The Young and the Restless was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week. It expanded to one hour episodes on February 4, 1980. In 2006, the series began airing encore episodes weeknights on SOAPnet. The series is also syndicated internationally.

The Young and the Restless originally focused on two core families: the wealthy Brooks family and the working class Foster family. 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 the new core families, the Abbotts and the Williams. Over the years, other families such as the Newmans, Winters and the Baldwin-Fishers were introduced. Despite these changes, one storyline that has endured through almost the show's entire run is the feud between Jill Foster Abbott and Katherine Chancellor, the longest rivalries on any American soap opera.

Since its debut, The Young and the Restless has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. It is also currently the highest-rated daytime drama on American television. As of 2008, it has appeared at the top of the weekly Nielsen ratings in that category for more than 1,000 weeks since 1988. The series, along with NBC's Days of our Lives (both are from Sony Pictures Television), has been renewed through 2013 with optional 2014.

Production

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. 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! "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." 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." The Bells named the fictional setting for the show after the real Genoa City, Wisconsin, which was located on their way from their then-home in Chicago to their annual summer vacation spot in Lake Geneva.

The Young and the Restless began airing on March 26, 1973, replacing the canceled soap opera, Where the Heart Is. Bell worked as head writer from the debut of the series until his retirement in 1998. He wrote from his home in Chicago while production took place in Los Angeles, California. John Conboy acted as the show's first executive producer, staying in the position until 1982. Bell and H. Wesley Kenney became co-executive producers that year until Edward Scott took over in 1989. Bell then became senior executive producer. Other executive producers included David Shaughnessy, John F. Smith, Lynn Marie Latham, Josh Griffith, Maria Arena Bell, and Paul Rauch.

In the mid-1980s, Bell and his family moved to Los Angeles to create a new soap opera. During this time, his three children, William Jr., Bradley, 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. "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."

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.

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.

Videotaping and Broadcasting

Taped at CBS Television City, studios 41 and 43 in Hollywood since its debut on March 26, 1973, the show was packaged by the distribution company Columbia Pictures Television. The Young and the Restless originally aired as a half-hour series on CBS and was the first soap opera to focus on the visual aspects of production, creating "a look that broke with the visual conventions of the genre." Similar to the radio serials that had preceded them, soap operas at the time primarily focused on dialogue, characters, and story, with details like sets as secondary concerns. The Young and the Restless stood out by using unique lighting techniques and camera angles, similar to Hollywood-style productions. The style of videotaping included using out-of-the-ordinary camera angles and a large number of facial close-ups with bright lighting on the actors' faces. Conboy said he used lighting to create "artistic effects". Those effects made the series look dark, shadowy, and moody. The Young and the Restless' look influenced the taping styles of other soap operas. When H. Wesley Kenney replaced Conboy as executive producer, he balanced the lighting of the scenes.

Due to the success of the series, CBS and their affiliates pressured Bell to lengthen the series from 30 minutes to a full hour. Bell attributed this change to the show's fall from number one in the Nielsen ratings, since the lengthening of the show led to the departure of a number of cast members. "The issue of performing in a one-hour show had not been part of their contracts," Bell said. This forced the show to recast multiple main characters and eventually phase out the original core families in favor of new ones.

On June 27, 2001, The Young and the Restless became the first daytime soap opera to be broadcast in high-definition. In September 2011, The Young and the Restless sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful became the last soap to make the transition from SD to HD. On April 24, 2006, SoapNet began airing same-day episodes of the series.

Casting and story development

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. Bell borrowed this technique of soap opera building from his mentor, Irna Phillips.

While casting for the series, Bell and executive producer John Conboy auditioned 540 actors for the 13 main characters. They assembled the youngest group of actors ever cast on a soap opera at the time, hiring mostly unknown actors who they considered "glamorous model types". Chemistry between actors also factored into the criteria for casting. The stories focused on the younger characters, with an emphasis in fantasy. 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.

Sexuality also played a major role in the stories. 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. William Gray Espy's Snapper Foster is considered the "first to discover sex on a soap opera." During the story, the character is engaged to Chris Brooks (Trish Stewart) and having a sexual relationship with Sally McGuire (Lee Crawford). 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. The series also explored social issues. Jennifer Brooks underwent the first mastectomy on a soap opera. Other social issue storylines included bulimia, alcoholism, and cancer. 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.

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. A number of the characters were recast until one of the few remaining original actors, Jamie 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. "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."

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. The relationship between the two characters remained a central theme throughout the series and became the longest lasting rivalry in daytime history.

Another character introduced in the 1980s was Eric Braeden's Victor Newman. Originally, the character was "a despicable, contemptible, unfaithful wife abuser" who was intended to be killed off. 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." 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.

With the success of another enduring character, Kimberlin Brown's Sheila Carter, Bell made daytime drama history in 1992 by successfully crossing her over from The Young and the Restless, to his second soap The Bold and the Beautiful. The success of the crossover was due in part 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 Lee Williams (Dr. Olivia Barber) were cast as the nieces of the Abbott's maid, Mamie Johnson, in 1990. The brothers Neil (Kristoff St. John) and Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) were introduced as love interests for Olivia and Drucilla. The Young and the Restless became popular among black viewers, which Williams and St. John attributed to the writing for the black characters. "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." 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.

Executive Producers and Head Writers

Executive Producers

Name	Years	Production Notes/Contributions
William J. Bell	1973"2005	As being the show's creator and longtime head writer (until 1998), he served as the main executive producer while working alongside of other executive producers. He wasn't credited as an executive producer until 1982 when his credit began appearing with H. Wesley Kenney. Served as solo EP from 1986 to 1987 after the departure of Kenney. He received the title of "senior executive producer" when Edward Scott became EP and remained credited with the title until 2004 when he returned to the executive producer credit with John F. Smith as co-executive producer. William J. Bell died on April 29, 2005 and on the following Monday, his credit as EP was edited from the show; he was still living when those episodes were filmed.
John Conboy	1973"1982	Served as the show's first executive producer while credited with the "produced by" credit as the title of executive producer was credited hardly on any soaps (other than a small few), until the mid-1970s to 1980s. It was under his run when CBS wanted Y&R expanded from 30 minutes to an hour with the cancellation of Love of Life. Also the show switched from the live-to-tape filming technique to pre-recording episodes, a practice that remains in effect to this date as with all soaps. John departed in 1982 to produce his newly created soap Capitol, which was later cancelled to make room for Y&R's sister show The Bold and the Beautiful.
H. Wesley Kenney	1982"1986	Guided the show with more action-driven story direction which helped the show win daytime emmy awards in 1983, 1985 and 1986. Began crediting the show's cast in alphabetical order, a standard that remains to this date. Ceased the fade to next scene transition effect within the show's episodes. Had artist Sandy Dvore, who designed the art drawing photos in the shows main title, to design the show's signature stylized brush stroke logo on Y&R merchandise in 1982, leading to the debut of the logo in the show's main title in January 1984.
Edward J. Scott	1987"2001	Debuted on the show in 1976 as an associate producer eventually becoming the "produced by" producer under John Conboy until 1987. Briefly filled in as EP for H. Wesley Kenney in 1986. Helped the show rise to co-#1 in 1987 with General Hospital in ratings before it solely dethroned GH as #1 in 1988 and has since remained there. Retired the longtime art drawings cast montage of the opening credits in 1988. Began the practice of crediting production principals on opening scenes of the show and adding the cast members' real-life names to the opening credits in 1999. Ceased the last commercial break between the last scene and end credits. Converted the show into HDTV in 2001, making it the first soap in history to do so. Returned from 2004 to 2007 as "supervising producer", a position he previously had briefly in 1987. Real-life husband of actress Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Reed Newman).
David Shaughnessy	2001"2004	Assumed executive producer position after serving as a producer and supervising producer since 1991. The Bell Dramatic Serial Co. production logo began appearing with end credits under his run. He managed to score brief returns by veteran actors such as Jaime Lyn Bauer, William Gray Espy, Meg Bennett and James Houghton (who wrote on the show between 1991 and 2006), all of whom who left the show back in the 1970s and 1980s, for brief storylines in 2002 and 2003. Debuted "next episode" preview scenes in 2003, a practice started with the ABC soaps in 1998.
John F. Smith	2003"2006	Became co-executive producer with William J. Bell and David Shaughnessy while still serving as co-head writer with Kay Alden and Trent Jones (until 2004). Worked as a writer on the show since the early 1980s. Still maintained the co-EP title after William J. Bell's passing in 2005. Stepped down in 2006 as EP while remaining as co-head writer until November 2006.
Lynn Marie Latham	2006"2007	Brought on as a "creative consultant" under John F. Smith in November 2005; Latham would later fire Smith as co-head writer in 2006. Promoted to head writer with Kay Alden and Smith in February 2006, then promoted to executive producer, becoming the show's first female EP in October 2006, after the show went that summer without an EP. Tenure as EP/HW was criticized by viewers and insiders for damaging the show's history with out-of-text writing, firing several longtime cast and crew members in favor of several unknowns, and doing too much favoritism. She was fired when she abandoned her post as EP to go on strike for the 2007-08 writer's strike.
Josh Griffith	2006"2008	Brought on by Lynn Marie Latham as her co-executive producer in 2006. Assumed full producer duties in December 2007, when Latham was fired. He also served as head writer with Maria Arena Bell during the 2007-08 writers strike. Remained as EP when Bell became sole head writer until he was fired when it was learned that he was tampering with Bell's stories; this was also known as former EP Edward Scott, who is friends with Griffith, was said to be doing the same thing on Days of our Lives, leading to his departure from that show.
Paul Rauch	2008"2011	The veteran producer debuted as Maria Arena Bell's co-executive producer in October 2008. It was established that his role as co-executive producer would be to only foresee everything with the production of the show while Bell was solely responsible for the stories. This was the only time Paul ever been a co-EP and his first stop back to soap operas in six years since his 2002 departure from Guiding Light. He opted not to renew his contract with Y&R after three years with the show and stepped down in May 2011.
Maria Arena Bell	2008"2012	Bell is the wife of William Bell, Jr., the oldest son of William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell. Head wrote the show since December 2007. Maria was named executive producer in October 2008, after Josh Griffith was ousted for tampering with her stories. Bell brought along veteran producer Paul Rauch to help her with the production of the show while she mostly focused on the stories. From 2008 to 2010, she was credited as co-executive producer as well as Rauch, while her credit appeared first. Bell was let go in July 2012 after years of viewer complaints, and her final episode was aired on October 11, 2012; though she remained credited as HW and EP until October 22, 2012. Under her run, she brought the show's fictional Jabot Cosmetics to life by teaming up with a real cosmetics marketing company to help distribute the products.
Jill Farren Phelps	2012"present	Named executive producer in July 2012 upon the dismissal of Maria Arena Bell. This marked the second CBS soap opera Phelps executive produced, with the first being Guiding Light from 1991 to 1995. While Maria Arena Bell was still credited, Phelps began her tenure by August as she made several immediate casting changes (such as hiring Robert Adamson (Noah) and Hunter Haley King (Summer Newman), two young actors she worked with on the primetime soap Hollywood Heights, respectively). By October, she was still uncredited as executive producer although her first episode aired on October 12, 2012, and received her first official credit on October 23, 2012.

Head Writers

Name	Duration
William J. Bell	March 26, 1973 " 1997
William J. Bell and Kay Alden	1997"July 1998
Kay Alden	July 1998"August 18, 2000
Kay Alden and Trent Jones	August 21, 2000"June 28, 2002
Kay Alden, Trent Jones, and John F. Smith	July 1, 2002"August 5, 2004
Kay Alden and John F. Smith	August 6, 2004"February 15, 2006
Lynn Marie Latham, Kay Alden, and John F. Smith	February 16"October 25, 2006
Lynn Marie Latham, Kay Alden, John F. Smith, and Scott Hamner	October 26"November 10, 2006
Lynn Marie Latham, Kay Alden, and Scott Hamner	November 13"December 22, 2006
Lynn Marie Latham and Scott Hamner	December 26, 2006"December 22, 2007
Josh Griffith and Maria Arena Bell	December 26, 2007"April 14, 2008
Josh Griffith, Maria Arena Bell, and Scott Hamner	April 15"April 21, 2008
Maria Arena Bell and Scott Hamner	April 22"May 9, 2008
Maria Arena Bell	May 12"July 14, 2008
Maria Arena Bell and Hogan Sheffer	July 15"August 8, 2008
Maria Arena Bell, Hogan Sheffer, and Scott Hamner	August 11, 2008"October 11, 2012
Josh Griffith, Maria Arena Bell, Hogan Sheffer, and Scott Hamner	October 12"October 22, 2012
Josh Griffith, Hogan Sheffer, and Scott Hamner	October 23"November 2, 2012
Josh Griffith and Hogan Sheffer	November 5"December 6, 2012
Josh Griffith, Hogan Sheffer, and Tracey Thomson	December 7, 2012"February 1, 2013
Josh Griffith and Tracey Thomson	February 4, 2013"present

Awards

The serial has won 111 Daytime Emmys, along with 334 nominations. The following list summarizes awards won by The Young and the Restless:

Daytime Emmy Awards

Category	Recipient	Role	Year(s)
Outstanding Drama Series			1975, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1993, 2004, 2007
Outstanding Individual Director in a Daytime Drama Series	Richard Dunlap		1975, 1978
Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team			1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2011
Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team			1992, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2011
Lead Actor	Peter Bergman Eric Braeden Christian LeBlanc	Jack Abbott Victor Newman Michael Baldwin	1991, 1992, 2002 1998 2005, 2007 2009
Lead Actress	Jess Walton Michelle Stafford Jeanne Cooper	Jill Foster Abbott Phyllis Summers Katherine Chancellor	1997 2004 2008
Supporting Actor	Shemar Moore Greg Rikaart Kristoff St. John Billy Miller	Malcolm Winters Kevin Fisher Neil Winters Billy Abbott	2000 2005 2008 2010
Supporting Actress	Beth Maitland Jess Walton Michelle Stafford Sharon Case	Jill Foster Abbott Phyllis Summers Sharon Newman	1985 1991 1997 1999
Younger Actress	Tricia Cast Heather Tom Camryn Grimes Christel Khalil	Lauren Fenmore Nina Webster Victoria Newman Cassie Newman Lily Winters	1985 1992 1993, 1999 2000 2012
Younger Actor	Kristoff St. John David Tom David Lago Bryton James	Neil Winters Billy Abbott Raul Guittierez Devon Hamilton	1992 2000 2005 2007
Lifetime Achievement Award	William J. Bell Jeanne Cooper Lee Phillip Bell	creator co-creator	1992 2004 2007

TV Soap Golden Boomerang Awards

2006 "Hall of Fame Inductee" Eric Braeden (Victor Newman)

Writers Guild of America Awards

2003 "Best Daytime Serial" Written by Kay Alden, Trent Jones, John F. Smith, Jerry Birn, Jim Houghton, Natalie Minardi, Janice Ferri, Eric Freiwald, Joshua McCaffrey, Michael Minnis, Rex M. Best
2006 "Best Daytime Serial" Written by Kay Alden, John F. Smith, Janice Ferri, Jim Houghton, Natalie Minardi Slater, Sally Sussman Morina, Sara Bibel, Eric Freiwald, Linda Schreiber, Joshua S. McCaffrey, Marc Hertz, Sandra Weintraub
2008 "Best Daytime Serial" Written by Lynn Marie Latham, Scott Hamner, Bernard Lechowick, Cherie Bennett, Jeff Gottesfeld, Jim Stanley, Natalie Minardi Slater, Lynsey Dufour, Marina Alburger, Sara Bibel, Sandra Weintraub

Broadcasts outside the United States

In Australia, The Young and the Restless airs on Arena at 12pm, and on the timeshift channel, Arena +2, at 2pm. It previously aired on the Nine Network from April 1, 1974 to February 23, 2007, before joining the W line-up on April 2, 2007 to August 17, 2012, On July 20, 2012 it was announced that the show would move to Arena on August 20, 2012 after W rebranded as SoHo. Episodes are approximately 8 months behind those airing in the US at present.

Main article: Screening of daytime soap operas in Australia

In Belgium, the show airs on RTBF-La Une as "Les Feux de l'Amour" at 12:00 (dubbed in French) and is 3 years behind the U.S.
In Belize, Channel 5 Great Belize Television airs it on schedule with the US at 1:00 pm Central Time. Rival Channel 7 Tropical Vision Limited airs on schedule as well at 3:00 pm, Central Time.
In Brazil, the show aired on Sony Entertainment Television for a brief time during the 1990s.
In Canada, the Global Television Network airs new episodes a day ahead of CBS in the United States. Most Global stations use The Young and the Restless as a late-afternoon lead-in for their local newscasts, but times vary by market. It also airs on NTV in Newfoundland and Labrador which airs the program on a same-day-as-CBS basis.
- In the French-speaking province of Quebec, a dubbed version airs on TVA, with the title Les Feux de l'amour (Fires of Love), about eight years after initial airing.
In Cyprus the show started from the 1986 season in June 1992 from private channel ANT1 Cyprus and continued until 2002 when ANT1 decided to drop all its foreign soap operas after the end of Santa Barbara.
In the Czech Republic Mladí a neklidní gets about 2/100 of ranking and according to the Czechoslovak film database, it is the worst of the TV series ever.
In Finland the show has been airing on MTV3 under the title Tunteita ja tuoksuja ("Senses and scents") since 1998.
In France, the show screens on TF1 as "Les Feux de l'Amour" (Fires of Love) at 2:00 pm, since August 16, 1989. The show started from episode #3263 (aired on CBS on January 10, 1986), so the first 13 years were never viewed. The episodes are currently 3.5 years behind the US. The show is famous in France.
In Germany, the show aired on ZDF from March to December 2008. The network canceled the show because of bad ratings. The episodes were two years behind the US and the show is known as Schatten der Leidenschaft (Shadows of the Passion).
In Greece, the show was aired on ANT1 from 1991 to 1999. On 2000 it moved to ET1 (Public TV Channel) and it was showing until 2011, when it got cancelled due to low ratings. Episodes were six years behind the US. It's known as "?"?????? ???"?? (Atithasa niata) (literally Untameable Youth).
In India, the show began airing in February 2007 on Zee Cafe at 20:00. The channel started with episodes from 2004.
In Italy, the show aired till October 2009 on Rete 4, using the Italian title Febbre d'amore (Love Fever). Episodes were three years behind the US. The Young and the Restless' first Italian broadcast was in 1983. In July 2011 the soap opera started on CanalOne. At this channel the episodes are eight years behind the US (August 2003).
In Israel, The Young and the Restless aired as ?????? "???? ??"?"? on Cable TV's The Family Channel (later renamed as "Channel 3" & "HOT3"/"Yes Stars 3"/"Yes Stars Base", from the origin of cable TV broadcast in Israel in 1990. Episodes aired approx. 4 years after US, making the show debut with 1986 episodes, 13 years after its original start. The show enjoyed good ratings, partly due to its evenings schedule at 19:40, just before evening news & prime time television, with reruns the morning after (09:45) & at times omnibus edition at weekends in the local channel. Though a permanat fixture & trademark of the channel specifically & cable TV in general (Upon launching satellite TV in Israel, the provider "Yes" needed to buy the competing channel largely because of the show), the cable eroded viewership regularly with changing scheduling, leading to pulling it off the air for several months in 2005. Due to viewers' protests, The show returned from where it left off, until it was eventually cancelled in early 2010, with US episodes of summer 2005 (shortly after Cassy Newman's death), along with Days Of Our Lives.
In Jamaica, the show airs on CVMTV at 7pm.
In the Republic of Macedonia, episodes from 1998 and 1999 were shown on Sitel TV a couple of years ago. Currently, reruns are shown.
In Mexico, Cablevision on American Network channel 475
In the Netherlands RTL 8 will broadcast Y&R beginning at 1 February 2011. The episodes are almost 2 years behind the US.
In New Zealand, The Young and the Restless used to air on TV ONE. Episodes were four years behind the US.
In Norway, The Young and the Restless aired on FEM from 2007 to 2008.
In Poland, The Young and the Restless aired from September 1997 to August 2000 on Polsat, with 780 episodes broadcast. On September 1, 2008 the network began airing the show again, starting with episode 7090 from March 2001. The Polish title is ?ar m"?odo"?ci, which translates into Fervor of Youth.
In Philippines, aired from 1987 to 1989 on ABS-CBN.
In Romania, "The Young and the Restless" airs on ProTV as "Tân?r ?i nelini?tit" ("Young and restless") since July 3, 1996, short after the channel's launch in December 1995. It airs weekdays at 4.00 p.m. with rebroadcasts at 12.00 p.m. The show is used as a lead-in for the channel's newscast. The show first aired in Romania with the 1991 storyline, being 5 years behind the original US broadcast and the first 18 years were never broadcast and a synthesis of those 4000 episodes were broadcast a week earlier to give the viewers a preview of what to expect.
In Serbia, B92 aired the show briefly in 2007, as "Mladi i nesta?ni". It also aired on TV Palma for a period of time in the 1990s, titled "Mladi i nemirni".
In Slovenia, the show aired on Kanal A as Mladi in nemirni. It was recently moved to its women oriented sister channel POP Brio. It was announced that the show will soon be canceled.
In South Africa, the show airs on e.tv from 16:40 to 17:30. The show was originally aired in South Africa in the early 1990s, dubbed into the Afrikaans language, and entitled 'Rustelose Jare' (Restless Years). In 1999 The Young and the Restless was canceled but the show returned to South African television screens in June 2004, with no overhead foreign translations. Episodes are between 11 and 12 months behind that of the USA.
In Sweden, the show aired on tv4 and tv3 from 2002 to 2005. The show was called Makt och begär, which means Power and desire.
In Switzerland, the show airs on TSR at 11:10 as Les Feux de l'Amour and episodes are three years behind the U.S. airings.
In Trinidad, the show airs weekdays on CBS at 12:30 on a same-day-as-CBS basis. It has been airing in Trinidad since the 1980s. In 1988, 70 percent of Trinidadians who had access to a television watched daily episodes of The Young and the Restless, a series that emphasized family problems, sexual intrigue, and gossip.
In Turkey, the show used to air on TRT 2, atv, show tv. It was called "Yalan Rüzgar?", which means "Wind of Lies" between 1988 and 2005. The name was derived from the initials of The Young and the Restless.
In the United Kingdom, The Young and The Restless has aired on many TV channels starting in 1990, when episodes from 1987 debuted at 14:30 on BSB Galaxy in a regular weekday timeslot. When BSB merged with Sky in November 1990, the soap moved to Sky's flagship channel Sky One and aired at 11:00 weekdays until the end of 1992. When BSB's original 3 year contract to air the soap expired, Sky chose not to renew it. In 1993, Y&R was picked up by UK Living (then known as simply Living, now Sky Living) in a prime-time 19:30 slot, picking up where Sky left off. This lasted until late 1995. In 2007, Zone Romantica, now CBS Drama began broadcasting the show at 10am 3pm and 12 Midnight weekdays [four years behind US]. In 2009, when CBS went into partnership with and took over the Chellozone Channels the show was relegated to just one showing a day at 12 midnight [in favour of repeating shows such as Dynasty and Dallas in the daytime] It was attracting around 18-20,000 viewers at midnight in the last week of its broadcast in the UK in August 2010.

Theme song and other music

Main article: Nadia's Theme

"Nadia's Theme" has been the theme song of The Young and the Restless since the show's debut in 1973. 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 ABC television network's sports summary program Wide World of Sports lent the music for a montage of Romanian gymnast Nadia Com?neci's routines during the 1976 Summer Olympics; 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. The song remained unchanged, save for a three-year stint in the early 2000s (decade), when an alternate, more jazzy arrangement of that tune was used, using portions of the longer closing version of the original theme.

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 Genie Francis, came and went without being added).

Ratings

As of 2010, The Young and the Restless has managed over 1,000 consecutive weeks in the #1 spot for daytime dramas. 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. 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. As of 2008, the Tuesday episode of The Young and the Restless on average is the most-watched daytime drama showing.

When introduced during the 1972"73 season, the show was at the bottom of the ratings, but rose rapidly: ninth by 1974"75 and third by 1975"76. By 1988"1989 it had dethroned long-time leader General Hospital as the top-rated soap, a position it has held ever since.

Ratings history

Season	Rating	Season rank
1972-73	5.0	15^th
1973-74	6.2	13^th
1974-75	8.4	9^th
1975-76	8.6	3^rd
1976-77	8.7	4^th
1977-78	7.8	5^th
1978-79	8.6	3^rd
1979-80	8.8	3^rd
1980-81	7.8	6^th
1981-82	7.4	5^th
1982-83	8.0	4^th
1983-84	8.8	3^rd
1984-85	8.1	3^rd
1985-86	8.3	2^nd
1986-87	8.0	2^nd
1987-88	8.1	1^st
1988-89	8.1	1^st
1990-91	8.1	1^st
1991-92	8.2	1^st
1992-93	8.4	1^st
1993-94	8.6	1^st
1994-95	7.5	1^st
1995-96	7.6	1^st
1996-97	7.1	1^st
1997-98	6.8	1^st
1998-99	6.9	1^st
1999-00	6.8	1^st
2000-01	5.8	1^st
2001-02	5.0	1^st
2002-03	4.7	1^st
2003-04	4.4	1^st
2004-05	4.2	1^st
2005-06	4.2	1^st
2006-07	4.2	1^st
2007-08	4.1	1^st
2008-09	3.7	1^st
2009-10	3.8	1^st
2010-11	3.6	1^st
2011-12	3.5	1^st

^(debut)
^Tied in rating (8.1) with General Hospital; however General Hospital drew more viewers in millions.
^The Young and the Restless was number-one solo (for the first time) for the 1988–89 and has retained this position ever since.