The Young and the Restless has been running on CBS for nearly five decades now.
Over these years, the show has created numerous fictional residents for the fictional town of Genoa City.
However, not all of them have met the same fate.
Some of the actors joined and never left while some of the actors left despite making a good
impression among the audience.
In this video, we will be talking about some of the top Y&R actors who are no longer a part of the show.
Let’s find out the real reason they left Y&R and what these actors are up to at present.
It has been more than 6 years since Billy Miller said goodbye to Y&R.
He had played the role of Billy Abbott for six years when he decided to leave the show for good.
Many of his fans wondered if he had been fired from the show when the news was first confirmed.
But that is not the case.
Apparently, Miller’s contract had ended and he decided not to renew it.
Right after leaving Y&R, he landed a major role in ABC’s General Hospital, where he
stayed through 2019.
Most recently, he was seen in a recurring role in Apple TV+’s newest crime drama series,
Truth Be Told.
Apple has renewed the series for a second season but we are yet to know if Miller will return or not.
Brenda Dickson is one of the original cast members of Y&R who originated the role of
Jill Foster on the show.
She played the part from 1973 to 1980, and then from 1983 to 1987.
Brenda’s departure remains one of the most controversial exits in Y&R history.
After being fired from the show, the actress had filed a lawsuit against the show’s creator,
William J. Bell, for allegedly blacklisting her and ruining her career.
She even claimed that Bell had hired “Mafia cartel judges and attorneys” to ruin her life.
Later, in 2013, she published her book, My True Hidden Hollywood Story, where she wrote
in detail about the unfair treatment she faced at the Y&R set.
Before that, in a 2008 blog post, she wrote,
Following the controversial exit from Y&R, Brenda has not appeared in any movies and TV shows.
Michael Muhney is another actor who faced a controversial exit from Y&R.
The actor who played the role of Adam Newman on the show for almost six years was fired in 2014.
Muhney announced the news on Twitter, causing a firestorm among the disappointed fans.
Gossip tabloid, TMZ, reported in one of its articles that the abrupt firing of Muhney
was the result of his allegedly inappropriate behavior toward his co-star, Hunter King.
He made it clear during an interview on The Peloton Brief Podcast: Real Talent with Phil
Gaimon that the allegation was completely untrue and was made up by a Florida-based blogger.
In the podcast, he went on to reveal the real reason he was let go from the show was due to his ego.
Despite admitting the fact, Muhney was once again called out by a Twitter user in July last year, to which he replied,
Right afterward, he posted another tweet demanding TMZ for an apology.
Speaking of his post-Y&R acting career, Muhney has appeared in a handful of movies and TV
shows like The Track, Correcting Christmas, Search Engines, and The Good Doctor.
Most recently, in November 2019, he was seen in a short comedy Sidepiece, starring opposite
the Becca on Call star Jenness Rouse.
The veteran soap star, Steve Burton, joined the Y&R family in 2013, playing the role of
Dylan McAvoy, the illegitimate son of Nikki and Paul Williams.
To join Y&R, Burton had left his role of 21 years in General Hospital.
However, only four years after joining Y&R, he announced his departure on Twitter writing,
“Hey everyone, with lots of reflection, I have decided to move on from @YandR_CBS
at the end of my contract in Dec. I've had an amazing [time].”
In his other tweets, he revealed that he was ready to move on to new adventures in life.
But then he ended up returning to General Hospital and reprising his role as Jason Morgan.
Since then, he has once again been serving as a series regular on the show.
Meanwhile, after Burton’s exit, Y&R has not recast the role of McAvoy and has also
not shared any plans of bringing the character back on the canvas.
Daniel Goddard was fired from Y&R in 2019 after more than 12 years on the show.
He announced his exit on Instagram, writing,
arc knowing the rich meaning behind it.”
The abrupt firing of a fan-favorite actor did outrage several fans but many viewers
had long assumed that something like this would happen.
It was because Goddard’s storyline on Y&R heavily relied on that of Christel Khalil,
who dropped to recurring status in 2018.
Meanwhile, several Y&R viewers also theorized that the firing had something to do with the
on-screen pairing of Goddard and Beth Maitland.
Goddard has often made it loud and clear on social media how much he adores the “Lane” pairing.
So when the writers paired his character with Traci, he was allegedly annoyed and ultimately fired.
However, neither Y&R nor Goddard ever made the real reason behind his firing clear to fans.
Since leaving the soap, the actor has not appeared in any other TV shows or movies.
Gina Tognoni played the role of Phyllis Summers on Y&R for five years before Josh Griffith
finally decided to let her go.
Apparently, Tognoni’s contract had expired and Y&R had decided not to renew it so that
they could bring in the original Phyllis, actress Michelle Stafford, back on the show.
After Gina was fired, she went on to release a statement on Instagram saying,
An inside leak stated that Gina’s replacement was the result of her ties with the show’s
ex-head writer, Mal Young.
Griffith had claimed that he was bringing back Stafford in place of Tognoni because
he wanted to give the audience the old familiar feeling back.
In the process, he even cut actors like Jason Canela, Noemi Gonzalez, and Alice Hunter from the show.
But then, he hired a brand new actor instead of Michael Muhney in the role of Adam Newman.
Griffith’s biased decisions led Tognoni’s fans to believe that she was cut off just
because she was friends with Mal Young.
Ever since exiting Y&R, Tognoni has not appeared in any TV shows or movies.
Victoria Rowell originated the role of Drucilla Winters on Y&R in 1990.
17 years later, the character was written out, showing Winters fall from a cliff and never be found again.
Years after departure, Rowell took the matters to court, filing a lawsuit against CBS and
the producers for “not letting her back.”
Deadline reported in its article that Rowell was not permitted to work on Y&R and/or B&B
due to her advocacy for the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The lawsuit stated that she was being “impoverished and blackballed because she had chosen to
speak out against the discrimination and injustice that she had endured and witnessed happen
to other African Americans.”
In defense, CBS released a statement saying, “We were disappointed to learn that, after
leaving the cast of The Young and the Restless on her own initiative, Ms. Rowell has attempted
to rewrite that history through lawyers’ letters and a lawsuit that has no merit.
We harbor no ill will toward Ms. Rowell, but we will vigorously defend this case.”
To this, Rowell’s reply was, “Sony has the final word.
I really don’t have news to share.
I worked tirelessly on diversity.
It is well-documented.
I love the show.
They know I would love to return.
Kristoff tried.”
After leaving Y&R, the actress has appeared in a handful of shows and is currently playing
a major role in the UMC series, The Rich and the Ruthless, a series created, produced,
and directed by Rowell herself.
Don Diamont is currently a staple member of The Bold and the Beautiful family.
However, in the past, he had a major role in Y&R.
For more than two decades, he played the role of Brad Carlton, a gardener-turned-business
tycoon on Y&R, who was killed off in a tragic drowning incident in 2008.
Diamont landed the role of Bill Spencer, Jr. right after he was fired from his previous gig.
Speaking of the opportunity, he told in an interview with Entertainment Weekly,
Also in the same interview, he revealed the real reason he was written out of the show.
Lynn Latham had changed the entire backstory for Carlton, providing him a new identity
as Navy SEAL, George Kaplan, who was on the run to protect his grandmother.
In a shocking plot twist, he drowned in a lake trying to save Noah Newman.
After his firing from Y&R, B&B producer Brad Bell created the character of Bill Spencer, Jr. on B&B with Diamont in mind.