On May 23, 1978, fans of The Young and The Restless were introduced to Paul Williams. Forty years, Doug Davidson told his fans, “You all are so wonderful. I so appreciate your support and kindness and love. Thanks for a fabulous career.”
When someone asked him if that meant he was let go, he told them, “It seems so.” Then he told another fan, “It does hurt, to be honest.”
It really does. Out of all of the actors on the show, he has been on the longest. Then to be discarded like this is inexcusable. Especially him. I watched Y&R for a year and he was my favorite character on the daytime soap. Which is why he has been on the show for so long. Everyone likes him.
Y&R has been suffering in the ratings recently, and getting rid of the veterans is going to hurt them even more. Executives think you can get rid of the old timers without any repercussions, but you cannot. One daytime drama cleaned house and tried to skew younger. When their ratings tanked, all of a sudden all of those fired actors found themselves back on the job.
Soaps are not a young person’s show anymore. Therefore, you cannot ignore the viewers if you want to have some.
Hopefully, CBS will realize their mistake and rehire Doug Davidson.
