Rebuilding ‘The Young and the Restless’: What Jamey Giddens and Dan O'Connor Must Do to Modernize a Daytime Institution
Bryton James, Shemar Moore, Vivica A. Fox, Nathan Owens, Sean Dominic, Zuleyka Silver, and Christel Khalil - CBS
The CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973-) is finally taking positive steps towards representation for people of color. Following the departure of Josh Griffith as head writer a few weeks ago, Jamey Giddens was appointed co-head writer alongside soap-writing vet Dan O’Connor. Giddens is the first writer of color to hold such a position on the #1 daytime drama. With fresh creative blood in the mix, fans hope to see a return to form for the soap while keeping it alive for the next generation of viewers. Griffith and O’Connor have a unique opportunity to bring back the emotional realism, layered family storytelling, corporate intrigue, romance, and psychological depth that defined the glory days of the William J. Bell era while adapting those strengths to today's audiences.
Dependency on Legacy Characters: Previous regimes relied too heavily on legacy characters, such as the supercouples Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott), and Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and Diane Jenkins (Susan Walters). Respectfully, Victor and Nikki are one of the most iconic supercouples in soap opera history. However, the time for these once-pivotal characters to take center stage has come and gone. Giddens and O’Connor can improve the soap by transitioning the narrative focus to the younger generation and new characters. Instead of placing Victor and Nikki at the center of the action, Giddens and O’Connor should rely on the up-and-coming generation of Newmans, Winters, and Abbotts to keep storylines fresh and exciting.
Investing in the Next Generation: There is so much potential to explore with the next generation. In particular, Victor and Nikki share two children, Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nicholas (Joshua Morrow), who could naturally take the reins and be the heads of the Newman family. Nicholas started picking up steam on the canvas in May 2026, when an addiction storyline was introduced. During his recovery, Nick has reconnected with his former love and mother of three of his children, Sharon (Sharon Case). Nick’s addiction storyline addressed the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, and this kind of issue-based storytelling is what keeps viewers engaged for decades.
Furthermore, with the reintroduction of Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) in 2025, it’s the perfect opportunity to bring back his and Lily Winters’ (Christel Khalil) children. Twins Charlie and Mattie were last seen in Genoa City in 2019, and their dynamics with their parents and the larger Winters family would make for compelling story arcs. Similarly, Giddens and O’Connor can use these characters to revitalize the young-adult audience.
‘Young’ and ‘Restless’: One key element missing from the soap is angst in its storytelling. To bring back real angst and gripping tension, the soap needs to move away from repetitive corporate loops and focus on messy, high-stakes personal relationships, authentic family feuds, and grounded emotional storytelling that impacts the core legacy families. Moreover, shifting the narrative from legacy players to youthful characters, with a focus on ambition, romance, risk-taking, and reinvention, would be a positive step toward adding more excitement to the canvas.
In particular, the character of Audra Charles (Zuleyka Silver) has been involved in constant corporate conflicts since her introduction nearly four years ago. While soaps need a character that fans love to hate, those players aren’t always sustainable in the long term. Giddens and O’Connor need to expose more layers of her character, such as developing romances outside of the corporate sector, integrating her into the young adult scene, and exploring her background. Romance is arguably her biggest area for opportunity, considering Charles isn’t related by blood to anyone on screen, so the possibilities are endless. Significantly, Charles is one of the soap’s few characters of color, and expanding her role while developing more people of color characters can help increase diversity and representation on the canvas.
The Winters Family: One of the most iconic African-American families in soap opera history, the Winters family is in serious need of revitalization. The biggest flaw from previous creative teams is isolating the Winters from the rest of the story rather than integrating them organically into the world of Genoa City. Over the last few years, the Winters have become re-intertwined with the Newmans through Devon Hamilton’s (Bryton James) marriage to Abby Newman (Melissa Ordway). Giddens and O’Connor can revisit the decades-long feud between the two legacy families by exploring the impacts of Abby and Devon’s marriage on their familial relationships. Similarly, a business conflict between Victoria and Lily could open new doors of conflict for the family.
Last but not least, the return of Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) puts the Winters family back at the forefront. In a familial sense, it gives Lily a parental figure in her life and Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) the opportunity to know his dad. Significantly, Malcolm’s diagnosis of aplastic anemia enables the soapto explore people of color’s relationship with healthcare and medicine.
Character Development: Several legacy characters have been reduced to supporting roles over the years on The Young and the Restless. This is especially true for the Winters family, including Devon. Having developed meningitis and later deafness as a result, and overcoming both in his young adulthood, a compelling story arc would be for Devon and Abby’s son, Dominic Newman-Abbott-Winters-Chancellor (Ethan Ray Clark), to be rapidly aged and develop one of these conditions. This arc would open tons of opportunities, such as Devon exploring past trauma, sharing his trauma with Abby, and relating to Lily. Furthermore, it would be compelling to explore the effects of these conditions on Dominic as a young child/tween surrounded by family, compared to Devon, who was nearly an adult and used to taking care of himself.
Love in the Afternoon: Despite a small resurgence in popularity over the past year, the golden days of daytime television are long over. As such, few soaps have been able to recreate the magic of supercouples from the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s for a contemporary romance. For the soap, it’s largely been a writing issue, and several current romances have supercouple potential.
A great example of a contemporary supercouple is Abby and Devon, who come from two of the most iconic families and have a child to continue the Newman-Winters blended family. However, previous writing teams have struggled to hit the appropriate beats to create a proper supercouple. Giddens and O’Connor can create storylines for the couple with inter-familial conflict, surprise returns of past romantic suitors, and even long-lost children, provided any retcons don’t taint the history of the show or characters too intensely.
The next generation of the soap’s characters are key to creating the contemporary supercouple, as they have far less history than legacy players and endless possibilities for romance. A great example is the recently discovered long-lost daughter of Victoria, Claire Newman (Hayley Erin). After arriving in Genoa City in 2023 with a plan to take down her family, Claire had romantic entanglements with Holden Novak and Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor), which were short-lived. Restoring these romances or creating a triangle between the three would put them at the center of the drama, generating interest in the young-adult scene while intertwining legacy families. As a soapy twist, circumstances could even lead to Claire having an affair with her step-aunt Abby’s husband and Holden’s adoptive cousin, Devon.
Strengthen Family Storytelling: Reinventing the Winters and Newman families is essential to the soap’s success. The relationship between Abby and Devon is a key element in revitalizing these core families. Unfortunately, happy couples don’t make for great soap operas, and these two need more drama in the mix to achieve supercouple status. A compelling and classic obstacle would be an affair, either Devon with Abby’s stepniece Claire, or Abby with Holden or Nate Hastings Jr. (Sean Dominic). Any one of these events would create turmoil and compelling conflict between the families. At the same time, it would shake things up for Abby and Devon, forcing them to fight for their love and decide if they’re truly meant to be.
Improve Pacing and Long-term Planning: Over the years, it seems this soap has been caught in an endless story loop.. A key improvement Giddens and O’Connor can make is more show and less tell. Viewers want to see the action unfold rather than characters talking about it non-stop, and too much build-up leads to disappointment. At times, it seemed like previous writing teams didn’t fully plan out how they wanted storylines to go, and they missed several beats as a result. Planning out story arcs in advance, with long-term repercussions and ultimately a resolution in mind.
Balancing Modernization with Tradition: Ultimately, Giddens and O’Connor must reinvent the soap for a 2026 audience while retaining the elements that have kept lifelong fans coming back for years. Surprisingly, holding onto loyal fans is the easier part, as legacy characters and families are what made viewers fall in love with the soap in the first place. However, attracting new viewers is ultimately what will keep the daytime drama running for years to come, which is where the next generation of Genoa City heroes and villains come in.
Younger viewers want to see themselves represented on the shows they watch. Therefore, the next generation of characters needs to be presented with social and cultural ideas and values that reflect the quintessential Gen Z life. For example, Claire could run social media and marketing for Newman Enterprises, broadening the company’s reach to a wider audience through TikTok and Instagram lives. Similarly, a younger Newman heir, such as Faith, could work on the marketing team of Newman Enterprises for school credit, and for added drama, she could discover someone revealing a major secret that was caught on camera. The key is retaining classic institutions that lifelong fans are accustomed to, such as Newman Enterprises, while refreshing the universe for a modern audience.
Casting and Canvas Balance: Lastly, but certainly not least, the soap is painfully lacking in terms of representation for people of color. Revitalizing the Winters family and repositioning them as front-and-center characters is a good start, but that’s just the beginning. The soap needs more characters of color who aren’t related to each other to mingle with the rest of the canvas. Furthermore, viewers want to see themselves and the diverse world they live in represented on screen. Without true diversity, we can’t be sure how much longer The Young and the Restless will survive.
