The flipside of @DRW50 thread.

Let's talk about the actors that had big shoes to fill by taking over from actors who made their characters popular and failed to make the grade.

They either were dropped fairly quickly or hung around, always playing second fiddle to the previous actor in the role.

Y&R

Darius Mc Cary taking over for Shemar Moore as Malcolm. This was ??? Shemar made such an impression. The role called for a cool sexy actor with a certain physicality which Darius lacked. There was no lack of suitable actors around but for whatever reason the went with an unlikely choice.

GL

Nicole Forrester as Cassie replacing Laura Wright.

ATWT

Pamela King as Lisa. She spent her first few episodes in shadow but once King was shown, there seemed to be a general outcry of "That's not Lisa!!' Within a few months Eileen Fulton was back.

Pheobe Dorin as Penny. A few years after Rosemary Prinz left, Dorin was cast as Penny. But again there was negative reaction and Dorin was dropped, pretty much relegating that iconic character to history. Prinz returned for a few brief appearances over a decade later.

The patron saint of bad recasts.

Susan Batten taking over the popular role of Connor Walsh on As the World Turns.

GL

John Bolger as Phillip Spaulding. Bolger wasn't a bad actor, but he never won over a majority of the viewers. He's stuck in some "Phil now wants to write" story with horrible black and white vignettes among other less inspired drama. It left such a sour taste, TPTB never tried recasting Phillip again--it was Grant Aleksander or nothing.

Michael Dietz as Alan-Michael

Barbara Crampton as Mindy

ATWT

Christina Chambers as Molly. Just completely wrong for the part. It was so bad, she was quickly written off in spite of being in the middle of a hot story, Jack's disappearance/amnesia, and wasn't heard from for nearly five years.

Y&R - Shari Shattuck as Ashley. I think the only reason she stayed as long as she did (3 years!) is because of the huge malaise Y&R was under for much of that time and because they were waiting to get Eileen back.

Y&R - Sarah Aldrich as Victoria. I don't know if she could have made the part work if they hadn't gotten Heather Tom back.

ATWT - As @P.J. mentioned in the other thread, Glynnis O'Connor as Margo. This may be another case where Ellen Dolan being available made the choice easier, but she's the only Margo viewers didn't support.

ATWT - Jason Kincaid as Tom Hughes. From the little available of him, he's not awful, but he's an odd choice for a leading man.

AMC - Gwyn Gillis as Ann Tyler. She did play the part for 3-4 years, but they also chose to kill the character off...

B&B - Ingo Rademacher as Thorne Forrester.

GL - Michael Dietz and Michael Dempsey as Alan-Michael Spaulding. Bryan Gaskill as Dylan Lewis. Geoffrey Scott as Billy Lewis, Ann Hamilton and Barbara Crampton as Mindy Lewis (I thought Scott in particular was horribly wrong).

Search for Tomorrow - Louan Gideon as Liza Sentell.