List of The Young and the Restless characters (2016)
"The Young and the Restless" is an American television soap opera. It was first broadcast on March 26, 1973, and airs on CBS. The following is a list of characters that first appeared on the soap opera in 2016, by order of first appearance. In the first half of the year, characters were introduced by executive producer Jill Farren Phelps until her replacement in the summer of 2016 by supervising producer Mal Young Young was first credited as executive producer on July 13, 2016. Co-executive producer and head writer Charles Pratt Jr. oversaw the creation and introduction of the characters until his replacement by Sally Sussman Morina. Sussman's tenure as head writer began taping on October 20, 2016, and is aired on December 7, 2016.
The Young and the Restless
In the 1990s, core black characters were introduced with the Barber and Winters families. Victoria Rowell (Drucilla Barber) and Tonya Lee Williams (Dr. Olivia Barber) were cast as the nieces of the Abbott's maid, Mamie Johnson, in 1990. The brothers Neil (Kristoff St. John) and Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) were introduced as love interests for Olivia and Drucilla. "The Young and the Restless" became popular among black viewers, which Williams and St. John attributed to the writing for the black characters. "I play a CEO at a major corporation, that's something we don't see that often," St. John said. "And the show doesn't use the old African-American stereotypes that we have been seeing on TV, like the hustler, the pimp, the drug dealer. We have come a long way." Though the characters held prominent positions in the fictional work place of Genoa City, they had little interaction with other characters outside of their jobs.