100 Fun Facts About The Young and the Restless

On which network has The Young and the Restless aired since its debut?

CBS. Co-creator William J. Bell had once written comedy at one of the network's own stations, years before he brought it The Young and the Restless.

In which fictional Midwestern town is The Young and the Restless set?

Genoa City. On screen it is a metropolis of rival business dynasties; the real Genoa City is a Wisconsin village of about 3,000 people on the Illinois line.

Who has played Nicholas Newman on The Young and the Restless since 1994?

Joshua Morrow. The part was his first professional acting job, and he has never left it: in 2024 he marked 30 years as Nick.

Which actress, known as Ashley Abbott on The Young and the Restless, joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2014?

Eileen Davidson. She originated Ashley in 1982, and on another soap in 1997 she made television history by playing five roles at the same time.

Which Young and the Restless actress kept her job as a United Airlines flight attendant after joining the soap?

Kate Linder. Her part as maid Esther Valentine began in 1982 as a single day's work, and four decades on she was still flying for United on the side.

When The Young and the Restless premiered in March 1973, its co-creator was still head writer of which NBC soap?

Days of Our Lives. William J. Bell had rescued it from likely cancellation in 1966, and he stayed on as its head writer even after launching his own show on a rival network.

Which soap pioneer, creator of Guiding Light, hired and mentored Y&R co-creator William J. Bell?

Irna Phillips. Bell spent years writing As the World Turns for her, but the prime-time spinoff they created together in 1965 was gone within months.

What change did The Young and the Restless make in February 1980?

Expanded to an hour. Its network had just cancelled the long-running Love of Life, and the longer show soon moved on from its original families to a younger set of characters.

Which two families did The Young and the Restless originally revolve around?

The Brooks and the Fosters. The Brookses were rich newspaper owners and the Fosters poor; in the 1980s the show phased both out for a younger set of characters.

Which actress has played Jill Abbott on The Young and the Restless since 1987?

Jess Walton. She arrived when her previous soap, Capitol, was cancelled, took over a part Brenda Dickson had created in 1973, and won a Daytime Emmy for it in 1997.

On The Young and the Restless, the long feud between Jill and Katherine Chancellor began with Jill's affair with whom?

Katherine's husband. Jill, her paid companion, fell for Phillip Chancellor; after he won his divorce, a drunk Katherine drove off a cliff with him in the car, and he died of his injuries.

Which actress played Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless for four decades, until her death in 2013?

Jeanne Cooper. She joined in the show's first year and never left; her real-life son later appeared beside her on it several times, playing a priest.

Which real operation on the actress playing Katherine Chancellor was written into The Young and the Restless in 1984?

A facelift. Far from hiding her own surgery, the actress let the cameras in, and real footage of it aired while Katherine had the same operation in the story.

Which L.A. Law star is the son of the actress who played Katherine Chancellor?

Corbin Bernsen. His mother even guest-starred on L.A. Law as the mother of his character, and the part earned her an Emmy nomination in 1987.

For how long was Eric Braeden's Victor Newman first meant to appear on The Young and the Restless?

A few months. Victor was written as a villain to be killed off, but the character stayed, and in 2024 Braeden marked 44 years in the part.

Eric Braeden played Captain Dietrich in which 1960s war series?

The Rat Patrol. He was still billed as Hans Gudegast then; a studio that later cast him as a film lead pressed him to change it, and 'Braeden' comes from his home village.

Which real-life millionaire did Eric Braeden play in the 1997 film Titanic?

John Jacob Astor IV. The real Astor was the richest man aboard; he helped his wife into a lifeboat, was refused a place beside her, and died in the sinking.

Jack Abbott and Victor Newman have long fought over which company?

Jabot Cosmetics. It is the Abbott family business: Victor once seized control of it, and Jack spent years scheming to win it back.

On The Young and the Restless, Victor Newman was born under what name?

Christian Miller. Left at an orphanage at seven by his destitute mother, Cora, he gave himself a new name on the way to becoming a tycoon.

On The Young and the Restless, what was Nikki Reed's job when she first met Victor Newman?

Stripper. She was working at a club called the Bayou when the tycoon walked in; he taught her the ways of high society, and they became the show's central couple.

The Young and the Restless star Melody Thomas Scott first appeared on screen as a child in which 1964 Alfred Hitchcock thriller?

Marnie. Hitchcock cast her at eight as the younger self of Tippi Hedren's character, and as a teenager she went on to act opposite John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

Who has played Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless since 1989?

Peter Bergman. He came straight from ten years as Dr. Cliff Warner on a rival soap, All My Children, and in 2024 he marked 35 years as Jack.

Which actress originated troublemaker Phyllis Summers on The Young and the Restless in 1994?

Michelle Stafford. She has left the part twice and come back both times, most recently in 2019 after five years on a rival soap.

Which Young and the Restless villain, presumed dead in a fire, crossed over to William J. Bell's second soap in 1992?

Sheila Carter. The scheming nurse slipped out of the burning house, turned up in a new city with a clean slate, and was still on the second show's cast list more than 30 years later.

Which sister soap, also created by Bell, regularly shares actors and crossovers with Y&R?

The Bold and the Beautiful. The Bells launched it in 1987, set in the Los Angeles fashion world, and their son Bradley took over as its head writer in 1993.

What is the title of the opening music of The Young and the Restless?

Nadia's Theme. Written for a 1971 film, it was renamed after ABC set it to a 1976 montage of gymnast Nadia Comăneci, who never actually performed to it.

Which actor played Neil Winters on The Young and the Restless from 1991 until his death in 2019?

Kristoff St. John. He joined in January 1991 after his previous soap was cancelled, won an Emmy the next year, and stayed as Neil for 28 years.

At which Los Angeles studio complex did The Young and the Restless begin taping in 1973?

Television City. Stages 41 and 43 became the soap's long-term home, and when the complex was sold in 2018 the deal kept the show taping there.

Which actress won a Daytime Emmy in 2000, aged ten, for playing Cassie Newman on The Young and the Restless?

Camryn Grimes. Cassie was killed off in 2005, but the show kept bringing the actress back, first as Cassie's spirit and then as her long-lost twin, Mariah.

Which long-time ratings leader did Y&R dethrone as the top-rated soap in the 1988–89 season?

It then held the number-one position solo until 2020, more than 1,500 consecutive weeks.

What did Y&R become the first daytime soap to do on June 27, 2001?

Broadcast in high definition. Daytime was expected to be the last corner of television to go HD, because its audiences were small, yet the soap got there in 2001.

When Y&R launched at noon in March 1973, which long-running NBC quiz show was its direct competition?

Jeopardy. Art Fleming's original Jeopardy! had held the noon slot for most of its run; NBC moved it out the following year, and it left the air in January 1975.

Which Desperate Housewives star got her start on The Young and the Restless?

Eva Longoria. From 2001 to 2003 she played Isabella, an unstable schemer who was finally sent to an asylum; Desperate Housewives followed a year later.

Which Baywatch star spent seven years on The Young and the Restless early in his career?

David Hasselhoff. He played a young doctor on the soap until 1982, when he moved to prime time to star in Knight Rider.

Which Criminal Minds star played Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless in the 1990s?

Shemar Moore. He played Neil's brother Malcolm from 1994 to 2002, hosting Soul Train on the side for part of that run, before leaving daytime for Criminal Minds.

Which actor played private eye Paul Williams on The Young and the Restless from 1978 to 2020?

Doug Davidson. He stayed in the role for 42 years, taking time along the way to host a nighttime version of The Price Is Right.

Which actress has played Victoria Newman on The Young and the Restless since 2005?

Amelia Heinle. She took over from Heather Tom in 2005, and two years later married Thad Luckinbill, who played J.T., the man Victoria went on to marry on screen.

Which Young and the Restless actor topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 with a cover of 'Rock On'?

Michael Damian. Producers cast him after seeing him interviewed on American Bandstand, and gave him the part of Danny Romalotti, a struggling singer.

Under what title does the show air in France, on TF1 since 1989?

In Italy it was Febbre d'amore and in Turkey Yalan Rüzgarı, 'The Wind of Lies', chosen to keep the Y&R initials.

In 1988, a study found 70 percent of people with a television on which Caribbean island watched Y&R daily?

Trinidad. The anthropologist Daniel Miller found viewers there had no trouble relating to the soap's family dramas, however far the lifestyles on screen were from their own.

In 2022, which Young and the Restless star became the first Black woman to win the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress?

Mishael Morgan. She won as lawyer Amanda Sinclair, her second role on the soap: her first character, Hilary, had died after a car crash in 2018.

What visual innovation set The Young and the Restless apart from other soaps when it debuted?

Moody lighting and unusual camera angles. Soaps had been shot like radio with pictures; this one's shadowy, sensuous look changed how the whole genre was photographed.

Which Young and the Restless star played little Richie Crawford on the sitcom Family Matters as a child?

Bryton James. He made more than 200 episodes of the sitcom from the age of four, then joined the soap in 2004 as Devon, a foster teenager taken in by the Winters family.

On The Young and the Restless, which look-alike waitress, played by the same actress, was switched with Katherine Chancellor?

Marge Cotrooke. Kidnappers once swapped the waitress in for Katherine; years later Marge died in a car crash wearing Katherine's clothes, and everyone believed the grande dame was dead.

The Young and the Restless creators William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell were both natives of which city?

Chicago. He began there as a station comedy writer and she was one of the city's broadcast journalists, though their soap has always been taped in Los Angeles.

Mark Grossman, Justin Hartley and Michael Muhney have all played which troubled Newman son on The Young and the Restless?

Adam Newman. Hartley played Victor's black-sheep son from 2014 to 2016, then left daytime for the prime-time drama This Is Us; Grossman took the part over in 2019.

Which actress first played department-store heiress Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless in 1983?

Tracey Bregman. She took Lauren across to the show's sister soap for several years in the 1990s, then brought the character home in 2001.

Lauralee Bell, daughter of the creators of The Young and the Restless, has played which character since 1983?

Christine Blair. Bell was offered a bit part on her parents' soap as a teenage model nicknamed Cricket; it grew into a contract role and one of the show's leads.

On The Young and the Restless, sisters Drucilla and Olivia Barber arrived in 1990 as nieces of which character?

Mamie Johnson. Mamie kept house for the Abbotts; her nieces, a runaway teenager and a doctor, went on to anchor the show's Barber and Winters families.

On The Young and the Restless, lawyer Michael and his wife Lauren Fenmore head which family?

The Baldwins. Michael began as a villain who was censured and then spent four years in prison; once paroled he won back the right to practise law, and his family is now among the show's leading four.

Which future Magnum, P.I. star played Jed Andrews on The Young and the Restless in the mid-1970s?

Tom Selleck played the publicist who romanced Lorie, one of the original heroines, about five years before a red Ferrari and a moustache made him a prime-time star.

Which future action-movie star played teenager Brandon Collins on The Young and the Restless in 1993?

Paul Walker earned a Youth in Film Award nomination for the role, eight years before The Fast and the Furious made him an international star.

Which pop star played herself on The Young and the Restless in 2008, posing for a magazine shoot?

Katy Perry posed for Restless Style, the glossy run in the story by Nick, Phyllis, Jack and Sharon, in the same summer that her first hit single reached number one.

The fictional hometown of The Young and the Restless was named after a real community in which US state?

Wisconsin has a real place of the same name on U.S. Route 12, lying between the home of the soap's creators and their yearly summer retreat at Lake Geneva.

Eric Braeden of The Young and the Restless won a 1973 US national championship playing which sport?

Soccer was his game: he played fullback for Maccabee Los Angeles and scored a penalty kick in the final of the National Challenge Cup, seven years before he first played Victor.

Which Young and the Restless heiress was conceived using a stolen sample of Victor's sperm?

Abby Newman owes her existence to Ashley Abbott, who used the sample in secret; as an adult she was nicknamed the Naked Heiress after flashing photographers.

Which Young and the Restless schemer was killed off in a 2011 whodunit, then turned up alive in 2022?

Diane Jenkins had faked her death and stayed away for a decade, leaving her son to be raised by Jack; Susan Walters, who played her in the 2000s, came back for the return.

Which ex of Victoria Newman did Nikki strike with a fire poker in 2018 on The Young and the Restless?

J.T. Hellstrom was presumed dead for almost a year, then walked back in during the final moments of a March 2019 episode to reveal that he had survived.

Dina Mergeron's final storyline on The Young and the Restless followed her decline from which illness?

Alzheimer's disease slowly took Dina's memory between 2017 and 2020, and the performance won Marla Adams a Daytime Emmy in 2021, almost four decades after she first played the part.

Which ice hockey legend acted alongside Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless in 1981?

Wayne Gretzky was only 20 when he made the cameo; later famous guests on the soap have included Lionel Richie, Il Divo and Enrique Iglesias.

On The Young and the Restless, Sharon was diagnosed with which condition after burning down Victor's ranch in 2012?

Bipolar disorder explained a turbulent year in which she married her former father-in-law twice, took control of his company and set fire to the main house.

Cane Ashby arrived on The Young and the Restless in 2007 as a bartender raised in which country?

Australia was written in after the casting: Daniel Goddard auditioned with an American accent, and the writers reshaped Cane's past once they learned where the actor was from.

On The Young and the Restless, where did Victor Newman's mother leave him when he was seven years old?

An orphanage was his home until his teens, when he walked out and began working his way up to become one of the world's wealthiest tycoons.

Which Young and the Restless patriarch kept appearing to his children as a spirit after dying in 2006?

John Abbott did not stay gone for long: Jerry Douglas kept returning for years as a vision who scolded Jack for his schemes while reminding him how much he was loved.

Which Young and the Restless character did Victor hire in 2014 to pose as the ghost of Sharon's late daughter?

Mariah Copeland looked so like the dead girl for a reason: she proved to be her twin, taken at birth while their teenage mother never knew she had delivered two babies.

Which Young and the Restless rock singer did obsessed fan Phyllis con into believing he had fathered her son?

Danny Romalotti divorced his wife and married Phyllis out of duty to the boy, and was devastated to learn years later that another man was the real father.

Which Young and the Restless hangout has been owned at different times by Nick, Sharon and Kevin?

Crimson Lights passed to Kevin after a lottery win in his family paid for his share, and Sharon took it over again years later when it was left to her.

Which Young and the Restless child was struck by a car and killed in 2013, her corneas saving a boy's sight?

Delia Abbott had opened the car door, and her dog Dash ran off, while her father Billy was buying ice cream; her corneas went to little Connor, who was facing blindness.

Which Young and the Restless character went deaf from meningitis, then inherited Katherine Chancellor's fortune?

Devon Hamilton began as a homeless teenager taken in by the Winters family; in 2011 he learned he was Katherine's long-lost grandson, and two years later she left him the bulk of her estate.

Whose heart did Victor Newman receive in a 2009 transplant on The Young and the Restless?

Colleen Carlton was declared brain dead after falling into a lake while escaping a kidnapper, and her mother Traci chose to give her heart to a man the Abbotts had fought for years.

Which Oscar winner for Cool Hand Luke played the father of Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless?

George Kennedy took the part in 2003 as a small-screen comeback after a run of independent films; his Academy Award had come for playing the chain-gang convict Dragline.

Which Independence Day and Kill Bill actress played Stephanie Simmons on The Young and the Restless in the mid-1990s?

Vivica A. Fox left the soap in 1995 and broke through the very next year with two box-office hits, one of them as the girlfriend of Will Smith's fighter pilot.

Which future star of Gossip Girl and You played young Phillip Chancellor IV on The Young and the Restless?

Penn Badgley was barely a teenager when he took the role in 2000; the character came home years later as a grown man going by the nickname Chance.

Which Twin Peaks actor first played the cult leader Ian Ward on The Young and the Restless in 2014?

Ray Wise, best known as Laura Palmer's father Leland, was hired for the part in January 2014 and returned as the scheming cult leader in 2015 and again in 2024.

Which 1990s mystery series, sharing a star with The Young and the Restless, staged a killing on the soap's set?

Diagnosis: Murder could do it because Victoria Rowell worked on both at once for seven years; in that episode she appeared as her pathologist and as Drucilla.

Eric Braeden, born Hans Gudegast, took the stage surname he uses on The Young and the Restless from what?

His home village of Bredenbek, where his father had once been mayor, inspired the name; he adopted it in 1970 for his first starring role in a film.

The Young and the Restless theme became a 1976 hit after ABC set it to footage of which Olympic sport?

Gymnastics routines from the Montreal Games were cut to the tune by Wide World of Sports, and the single that followed peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On The Young and the Restless, what job did 18-year-old Jill hold when the soap began, supporting her struggling family?

Manicurist was her trade at a beauty shop, where a wealthy regular named Katherine Chancellor hired her as a paid companion and began the longest rivalry in American soaps.

On The Young and the Restless, where did Victor Newman lock up Michael Scott, the lover of his first wife Julia?

A bomb shelter became the photographer's prison, in a storyline since described as the turning point that fixed Victor as the soap's great villain.

Which billionaire, who arrived on The Young and the Restless in 2009, proved to be Katherine Chancellor's long-lost son?

Tucker McCall came to town with a secret agenda to take everything from his long-lost mother, and went on to marry into the Abbott family as well.

Which Young and the Restless housekeeper went to work at the Chancellor mansion in 1982?

Esther Valentine is the soap's long-running comic relief, and her daughter Chloe grew up embarrassed that her mother was so content to be a maid.

Whose paternity test did Sharon switch on The Young and the Restless, making Jack appear to be the father?

Summer Newman believed for a time that she was an Abbott; the results had been switched while Sharon was off her medication, in a ploy to win Nick back.

Which Afghanistan war veteran on The Young and the Restless was revealed in 2013 as Nikki Newman's long-lost son?

Dylan McAvoy had been taken away by nuns after she passed out while giving birth in a church; his father later proved to be her childhood friend, the chief of police.

What was the working title of The Young and the Restless before its creators decided the name no longer fit the times?

The Innocent Years was dropped because the Bells felt young America had lost much of its innocence; the new title was chosen to reflect the mood of the early seventies.

Which Canadian network airs new episodes of The Young and the Restless a day ahead of the American broadcast?

Global uses the soap as a late-afternoon lead-in to the local news on most of its stations, and Canadian viewers see each episode before American ones do.

Exterior shots on The Young and the Restless long used the skyline and landmarks of which real US city?

Pittsburgh supplied the skyline for many years, with a local hospital, a downtown office tower and even a state prison standing in for the soap's own locations.

Victor Newman once let his family believe he was dead on The Young and the Restless while living in which US state?

Kansas was where he met and briefly married a woman named Hope, and he went back there again later, after she had been widowed.

Which Knots Landing star played twin brothers William and Jeffrey Bardwell on The Young and the Restless?

Ted Shackelford, known to prime-time viewers as Gary Ewing, played district attorney William until the character died in July 2007, then returned three weeks later as his identical twin.

Which actress played Phyllis on The Young and the Restless from 2014 to 2019, winning a Lead Actress Emmy in 2017?

Gina Tognoni won the part with an audition reported as flawless and held it for nearly five years, until the role's first actress agreed to come back.

Which actor originated Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless in 1980 and quit the role in anger in 1989?

Terry Lester felt his character was being squeezed out of the story in favour of a younger heroine, said so to the daytime press, and made his last appearance that September.

Which actress originated Jill on The Young and the Restless in 1973, then sued after being let go in 1987?

Brenda Dickson filed a $10 million lawsuit against the studio, and in the same year released Welcome to My Home, a vanity film that showed off her house and wardrobe.

Which actress won a 1985 Daytime Emmy as Traci Abbott on The Young and the Restless, a role first planned as short-term?

Beth Maitland made such an impression that the brief part became a contract, and in the story Traci grew from an insecure teenager into a best-selling novelist.

In which Asian country did Victor Newman have Billy Abbott jailed on trumped-up charges on The Young and the Restless?

Myanmar held him on false drug-trafficking charges until Victor paid for his release, hoping he could be a bone marrow donor for his sick daughter.

Which Young and the Restless club, opened by Nick after he quit the family firm, did Dina accidentally burn down?

The Underground was Nick's fresh start away from the family business; Dina, by then in the middle stages of her illness, started the fire without meaning to.

How did fortune hunter David Kimble die on The Young and the Restless while trying to escape the police?

In a trash compactor: he slid down a garbage chute to hide and, trying to climb back out, set the machine going himself.

Lily Winters was diagnosed with which illness on The Young and the Restless just after marrying Cane in 2009?

Ovarian cancer led to a hysterectomy, but two of her eggs were preserved first, and a friend later agreed to act as the couple's surrogate.

Eric Braeden of The Young and the Restless played Dr. Otto Hasslein in a 1971 sequel from which film franchise?

Planet of the Apes cast him in its third film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, a year after his first starring role in Colossus: The Forbin Project.

On The Young and the Restless, Jack Abbott fathered his son Keemo during army service in which country?

Vietnam was where Jack fell in love as a 19-year-old soldier; decades later, news of Keemo's death led him to a granddaughter he had never known about.

Which Hollywood studio's television arm produces The Young and the Restless with the Bell family's company?

Sony Pictures Television inherited the soap from Columbia Pictures Television, which had packaged it for the network since the 1970s.

Nikki Newman of The Young and the Restless, a survivor of alcoholism, was diagnosed with which condition in 2013?

Multiple sclerosis was revealed to viewers in February of that year; her earlier troubles had included an addiction to painkillers that began after a riding accident.