‘Young And The Restless’ Drama: Long-Running Soap’s Top Boss Fires Entire Writing Staff, Vows To Do The Job Himself
The Young and the Restless top boss Josh Griffith abruptly fired at least five writers from the popular soap opera’s breakdown writing staff this week and has vowed to do their jobs himself, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a sudden development to come just before the top-rated CBS daytime drama celebrates its 50th anniversary, and as the show’s writers prepare to enter negotiations with the Writers Guild of America, all five members of the soap’s breakdown writing staff have been unceremoniously relieved of their duties.
According to TheWrap, Griffith made the sudden decision in an effort to save money and will now take over the fired writers’ roles – which included mapping out the storylines across each episode – all on his own.
But Griffith’s decision to hand at least five writers the pink slip has caused scrutiny for The Young and the Restless co-executive producer and head writer – particularly because four of the five writers let go this week are women and because the firings came just before WGA negotiations.
“The timing of the firings is suspect given that WGA negotiations were coming up and the show is celebrating a major milestone with its 50th anniversary,” one insider told TheWrap.
“Even more brutal is that four of the five writers of the breakdown staff are all women,” the source continued,” one of them being African-American, who was hired with the intended purpose of expanding diversity behind the scenes per CBS’ directive.”
This week’s series of firings also came shortly after Griffith’s co-executive producer, Anthony Morina, was also given the pink slip by Sony Pictures Television – suggesting the popular CBS soap opera’s entire writing staff is being restructured.
“There was some restructuring of the writers staff to streamline the creative process,” one show insider confirmed.
“It was based on what made sense for the show creatively and mirrors the structure at other soaps,” the insider added when asked whether this week’s firings were a Sony directive or Griffith’s own decision.
The Young and the Restless is one of the four only daytime soap operas still being aired and has been ranked the No.1 daytime drama for the last 35 years.
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“We understand the industry is going through transition but it’s a slap in the face for five hardworking writers to be fired so the co-EP and head writer can write the breakdowns and line his pockets with more residuals,” one writer from another soap opera said this week.
“Soap writers have long felt shafted by WGA and this doesn’t help matters.”