The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless (often abbreviated as Y&R) is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictionalized version of Genoa City, Wisconsin. First broadcast on March 26, 1973, "The Young and the Restless" was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week. The show expanded to one-hour episodes on February 4, 1980. In 2006, the series began airing encore episodes weeknights on SOAPnet until 2013, when it moved to TVGN (now Pop). As of July 1, 2013, Pop still airs the encore episodes on weeknights. The series is also syndicated internationally.
Kelly Andrews (The Young and the Restless)
In January 2014, "The Hollywood Reporter" confirmed that Watros' pilot "Finding Carter" had been ordered into a full series by MTV. Immediately following, it was reported a casting call for the role of "Molly" was put out by "The Young and the Restless", which a character description that closely described the character of Kelly, causing alarm that Watros may vacate the role. In February 2014, it was confirmed that Watros would depart the series in order to pursue the pilot full-time. In her place, CBS hired former "All My Children" and "As the World Turns" actress Cady McClain into the role of Kelly. "TV Guide" further confirmed that the immediate recasting of the role would likely be due to the potential, romantic pairing with Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman). "TV Guide" further reported that Watros will last tape on March 14, and will last air on April 16, 2014. McClain began shooting on March 26, and made her on-screen debut on April 24, 2014. In an interview with "On Air, On Soaps" with Michael Fairman, McClain spoke on the process of gaining the role of Kelly. She revealed, "I got an email from "Y&R" casting director, Judy Blye Wilson asking me to send a reel of my work over for the possibility that they may need to recast Cynthia Watros, because it looked like her pilot was going to get picked up. Luckily, Jon Lindstrom had just helped me make a beautiful reel of some of my soap and film work. We sent that over, and then it was quiet for awhile. I know they were looking at a lot of actresses, who of course, wanted to be on Y&R, but I stayed in the running. Then, I sent in another reel of my work from "All My Children" last year, and I was still in the running (laughs), and then I got the phone call and an offer, and that was pretty much it!" During her first day of work (March 20), McClain worked alongside Bergman, David Tom and Kristoff St. John. McClain further clarified her first airdate to be April 16, 2014, six days earlier than originally reported. In an interview with Michael Logan of "TV Guide" magazine, McClain spoke on the pressures of replacing Watros, stating, "There's much more pressure being an instant replacement. Boom! Usually when this happens on a soap there's a break of a few months or at least weeks. And Cynthia was mind-bogglingly good and really made her mark with some award-worthy work. So I'm like, 'Oh, s—t!' But I'm bringing my A game and hoping the fans will accept me." Following continued speculation, McClain confirmed her exit in the June 15, 2015 issue of "Soap Opera Digest". She made her final appearance on May 29, 2015.