The Young and The Restless Storylines - 2000s Ratings Erosion

2000s Ratings Erosion

Along with every other daytime soap, The Young and the Restless has suffered audience erosion, with particularly noticeable losses from 2000 to the present day. The show, in response to the bleeding, took some power away from longtime producer Edward J. Scott and head writer Kay Alden, and started to instead rely on head writer John F. Smith and later (in 2006) head writer/executive producer Lynn Marie Latham.

Another highly publicized move was the 2004 rehiring of Shemar Moore to reprise his role as Malcolm for a limited run. Moore was extremely popular with African-American viewers, and the show lost a healthy chunk of that demographic upon his 2002 departure. Although fans were happy to see him return, Malcolm's new storyline garnered mixed reviews at best, and the ratings barely nudged. In another high-profile storyline, Nicholas and Sharon's teenage daughter Cassie was killed off. In spite of rave reviews from the soap press, the ratings remained consistent. In August 2006, the show killed off patriarch John Abbott. These episodes nudged The Young and the Restless to some of its highest ratings (6.4 million viewers in August 2006) in some time.

The writers also created a number of retcon storylines during the 2000s. In 2003, it was revealed that Jill was adopted, and Kay was actually her birth mother; Billy and Mac were told about this moments before they consummated their relationship. In 2004, Jill's birth father Arthur Hendricks (David Hedison) briefly visited, and mother and daughter fought over him while Kay again battled her drinking problem. Another controversial storyline involving Brad Carlton and his true identity as George Kaplan has been playing out since July 2006. Fans are reported to have mixed emotions over the introduction of Nazis to the storyline. Also in 2006, the real Phillip Chancellor III was revealed to have been switched at birth by Kay, and the Phillip III that was seen in the 1970s-80s was someone else's.

In 2007, the show began to reintroduce infamous story plots to draw back some devoted fans. The infamous Jack vs. Victor war began to surface again in November 2006, with Jack secretly manipulating Victor's new company, NVP Retreats, and Victor wanting revenge. Also, with the death of John, the basic "estate inheritance" storyline, made famous with many characters including Kay and Jill, played out between the Abbott children and Gloria, who was John's wife before he died.

Years 2006 and 2007 also saw two murder-mystery plots, as Carmen Mesta (Marisa Ramirez) and Ji Min Kim (Eric Steinberg) were killed off.