Soap fans, good news has come our way! The Young and the Restless has been renewed and not just for the 2024-2025 season. TVLine reports that the daytime soap opera got a four year pick up which means we can count on the program airing through the 2027-2028 television season.
In an era in which only Y&R, The Bold and the Beautiful, and General Hospital are broadcasting on network TV, to hear that at least one will be sticking around for years to come is music to the ears of longtime soap fans like myself. Hopefully, Bold and GH will receive the same treatment. According to the outlet, a CBS outsider has claimed that the network will trigger the option year in The Bold and the Beautiful's current agreement which will keep the show on through the 2024-2025 season but there's been no official announcement that it's been renewed. The agreement expires in May.
Why has The Young and the Restless gotten a multi-year renewal? Quality. It's not just that the show has been the No. 1 daytime drama for 36 years and counting or that on average this season it's maintained a 3.5 million viewership. It's also the kinds of stories the soap has been running particularly as it's celebrating 50 years on air.
This renewal comes in the midst of a storyline that brought Victoria Newman's daughter, Claire, back into the plot while a mad woman named Jordan (played by the incomparable Colleen Zenk) guns for Nikki who's struggling with yet another bout of alcohol dependence. Ashley Abbott can't tell fact from the reality her brain has spun. Tucker is back to his old tricks. History is repeating itself with a triangle between Danny, Christine, and Phyllis. And that's only scratch the surface!
Yes, as soap fans we have our qualms about repetitive storylines and characters acting out only to service the plot. But The Young and the Restless continues to provide appointment television for fans who are deeply invested in the stories being told in Genoa City. It's also a generational program. Whether you've dropped in and out of the soap like me, or you've been watching consistently for years on into decades, we all have a story about when we first started watching.
It's my hope that in four years, we'll be celebrating yet another renewal for the soap. From Monday to Friday, soap fans welcome this series into our homes. We share couches with loved ones and react to what unfolds onscreen together or we immediately call one another to start yelling about the soap. It's a family tradition for some and the basis of friendship for others. The soaps are universal for this reason, and they're a staple of television that should stick around for generations to come.