SPOILER- Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki)

[bellcurve]

And that makes it right?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, not like this current writing regime hasn't been phasing Nikki out for over a year already...

[bellcurve]

LOL. YEP!

[MarkH]

VERY true.

[DeeeDee]

They did.

[DRW50]

You can't really correct something like this. Once you dump or marginalize every vet aside from Jeanne Cooper, you can't go back. You're left with a lot of dead weight who have repeatedly proven over the past year that they cannot carry the show. Michael Muhney, Billy Miller, Liz Hendrickson, Christel Kahlil, Sharon Case, Josh Morrow, Michelle Stafford (who to her credit did just take the cut and not say anything), the Scoobies, some of them are very good, but they aren't going to be enough. DAYS had people like Suzanne Rogers, John Aniston, Joe Mascolo, Lauren Koslow, to fall back on. Y&R seems to be working to get rid of their entire upper bracket of vets.

I also don't see how, if it's true they are paying 7 figures to the person they are hiring to replace Eric Braeden, that they are really saving any money on this vet dumping spree.

[JimTolkien]

It can be done but of course there will be risks and fallout, how much we don't know until it happens. But I have no doubt Sony & the show probably prepared themselves for it..sort of like I live in Miami and prepare for hurricanes every year and when they do happen to hit, there is always something I didn't count on.

I guess we will see how his and Nikki exits will be written out for now. I guess we might not be getting another extravagant wedding for these 2!!

[DRW50]

I think they prepared themselves in how to get rid of the actors they want out, but I don't think they prepared themselves in how to sustain the show. Never have I seen a team who are as bad at bringing in new characters as this one is.

[Jonathan]

Such a fascinating thread. I'm not a fan of Y&R nor of MTS, but this backstage drama is juicy. I feel your pain guys. I've had to endure it on my own show. The Man is killing our soaps.

[alphanguy74]

Of course not... why the hell would you get that from my post? Am I writing in German or something?

[bellcurve]

Well, I was just-a wondering. Am I not allowed to ask?

No. Obviously you're not that clever.

[Scryber96]

It was reported that even with taking the pay cut, Braeden would still be making seven figures...just a much lower seven figures. So the new hire may be willing to work for the amount that Braeden wasn't, which is an amount that Sony had already figured they could afford to pay someone without breaking the budget.

[DRW50]

Yes, but Eric Braeden has been with the show for almost 30 years. He is, in many ways, their public face. I think that means he should get more money than someone who is new to the show, and who has not really been in a major TV role in decades. If their focus is on saving money, then I'm sure they can find someone who will be a lot cheaper. You don't always have to go for a name, or a semi-name. Was that River story anything beyond mediocre even with Michael Gross in the role?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yep.

Also, when they don't really use half of the cast, yet they refuse to write dead weight characters off or trim it on their own when the contract cycles are up for some actors. But they wait until Sony reexamines the contract cycles of veteran cast members who are the public face of the show, so that these actors can be forced out, not necessarily because of the pay cut, but because of the way these situations are handled these days. Where's the sense in that? Also, why add TWO actors to an already bloated cast to fill the void of one characters? Where is the sense in all of this? If your show is in a budget crisis, you don't expand, you use what you have or you trim costs (in this case, their bloated cast).

Y&R will slowly find out what drove GL to near bankruptcy earlier in this decade, and the show never really recovered from the budget problems it neglected earlier this decade, as we all know.

[DeeeDee]

All actors who have shown tremendous amounts of loyalty & devotion to The Bell Family.

Egos & salaries of the cast aside when running a business there are ways you treat people & ways you don't.

Especially when you're at the top of the heap & not the bottom.