Backstage Shakeups at THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS

As the CBS soap prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, some major backstage changes are happening at THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS. On the heels of co-executive producer Anthony Morina being let go, now it is being reported that all five of the show’s breakdown writers have been fired, and remaining co-executive producer and headwriter Josh Griffith will be taking over their duties.

“The timing of the firings is suspect given that the Writers Guild of America negotiations were coming up and the show is celebrating a major milestone with its 50th anniversary,” an insider told The Wrap. “Even more brutal is that four of the five writers on the breakdown staff are all women, one of them being African-American, who was hired with the intended purpose of expanding diversity behind the scenes per CBS’ directive.”

“I was one of the writers who lost their jobs,” Sara Bibel tweeted. “I will always be proud and grateful for the six years I spent at Y&R. During my tenure, I wore almost every hat: scriptwriter, co-headwriter the year we ran the tables at the Daytime Emmys (2018-19), script editor, and outlines.”

With the sheer amount of material needed to create five episodes of a daytime drama a week for 52 weeks of the year, soaps will employ breakdown writers who are responsible for mapping out storylines across multiple episodes. Another show insider also said that the restructuring at Y&R was “to streamline the creative process.”

And while that same insider claimed that the decision “was based on what made sense for the show creatively and mirrors the structure at other soaps,” shows like GENERAL HOSPITAL and DAYS OF OUR LIVES still employ breakdown writers alongside scriptwriters.

Sony Pictures Television and CBS both declined to comment on the situation.