'The Young and the Restless' Executive Producer Jill Farren Phelps: 'Stuff Happens and People Leave. People Die. The Show Must Go On'

In the July 14, 2014 issue of Soap Opera Digest, executive producer Jill Farren Phelps gave a "state of the union" on The Young and the Restless, after winning a record nine awards at the recent Daytime Emmys.

"I think the show is really firing… I am very happy that we are showcasing our veteran actors and the story that allows Melody [Thomas Scott, Nikki], Lauralee [Bell, Christine] and Doug [Davidson, Paul] to shine. They are wonderful actors and they have such a rich history with Y&R."

When asked about how the quest to find a new Adam Newman (last played by Michael Muhney) is going, Phelps only said, "it's going," but did add that when the time comes for Adam to return, it’s going to "blow the canvas wide open."

Despite the Emmy success, Y&R recently hit all-time lows in the Women 18-49 and Women 18-34 demos, and a number of actors have come and gone.

"We want everybody to be happy all the time, but stuff happens and people leave. People die. The show must go on and it has successfully done so for over 40 years, and it will continue to," Phelps said. "We are aware of the fact that sometimes there is an adjustment that we ask the audience to make, but we believe that if they just stay with us, they will have their characters back and their stories will be told."

Phelps is very excited about the addition of Gina Tognoni to the cast as the new Phyllis.

"A lot of great women auditioned for Phyllis, which gave us an embarrassment of riches that we thought would be a potentially tough, really tough choice. And Gina nailed it. She stood up there and she nailed it. She was Phyllis. It was unanimous. I think everyone will soon know what it is about her that made us make that choice."