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| Melissa Claire Egan and Burgess Jenkins as Chelsea and Billy |
In a recent interview with Soap Opera Network, CBS Senior Vice President of Daytime Angelica McDaniel revealed why David Tom was let go from the role of Billy Abbott and replaced by Burgess Jenkins. Or did she? According to McDaniel, "We were so lucky to have David Tom reprise the role, but at the end of the day, we just had to make a hard decision. It was not an easy one, and it was not one that was taken lightly, and it was not one that was made quickly."
She added, "We just decided with where the show is, and where we needed the character to go, and where we are with the rest of the cast, it was just, again, a hard decision that we had to make. But you know, we wish the best for David Tom… He’ll always be part of the family and you know again, a hard decision, but we wish him the best."
Y&R recently released its summer promo, spotlighting bikini clad babes, and shirtless men. Burgess Jenkins is one of those men. If we connect the dots, can we guess why David Tom was let go?
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| Burgess Jenkins |
*'The Young and Restless' Casting Carousel Continues (Gina Tognoni & Burgess Jenkins In, David Tom Out): Why David Tom Deserved a Better Chance at Success
*David Tom: 'Too Young' to Play Billy Abbott Again?
*New Billy on 'The Young and the Restless' Again: From Billy Miller to David Tom to Burgess Jenkins
3 comments:
Recasting just so Billy would be a hunk shows what is wrong with YR. David Tom was doing great.Ughhh
This kind of move has happened before (especially with kids we watch grow up that are suddenly replaced by an older hunky young adults) but with Y&R's current situation the recast just made me very sad about the state of the show. The storylines don't make me "feel" anything at the moment and this moves just reinforces the belief that the priorities for the show (aside from making a budget) are shallow and superficial ones, and NOT about telling compelling long-term stories. Meanwhile. B&B is doing just about everything right. There are lessons to be learned there but it's not clear whether anyone at Y&R, CBS or Sony think there's anything wrong with the show that a new hunk with a nice chest wouldn't fix. It's like they looked at the show, didn't notice there are no great stories, bad music or cheap looking sets, and said to themselves, "I think we're just about perfect, all we need to do is replace David Tom with a hunkier guy." We've seen this before with shows that eventually got canceled. Once it's clear to the audience that they care a lot more about a soap's integrity, history and quality than those running it, even the most diehard fans start to turn away.
David Tom WAS doing great. As I have said before, he was never going to be Billy Miller. But it was very comforting having a familiar face in the role. He had great chemistry with Melissa Claire Egan, is a great actor, and it's just a shame that it all came down to wanting someone to take his shirt off.
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