Exclusive: Huge casting scoop at Y&R

Looks like there's never a dull roar over at The Young and the Restless. Yesterday, the hit soap announced that they finally have a solution to comatose Phyllis, formerly portrayed by powerhouse Michelle Stafford, who left the show last August and just joined General Hospital. The show announced yesterday that they'd cast Gina Tognoni as the new Phyllis Summers, who will debut in "late summer". Tognoni definitely is not new to the soap opera genre, having previously been recognized as Kelly Cramer on One Life to Live and Dinah Marler on Guiding Light. While some say Tognoni is a bit young for Phyllis, and I concur, I'm nonetheless happy that the show chose to cast a soap opera veteran over yet another newbie to the genre.

However, today, news broke that the soap has chosen to replace David Tom as Billy Abbott with Burgess Jenkins, who has had numerous primetime roles and is new to daytime. Honestly, I was not surprised at all that the show chose to replace Tom in the role, who just returned in February after previously portraying the role as a teenager from 1999 to 2002 (winning a Daytime Emmy for the role in 2000). But it soon became easy to see that there was a reason for Tom not gaining very much notibility after leaving Y&R in 2002. So to say, he's not the strongest of actors. At first I thought he had some good chemistry with his onscreen wife Amelia Heinle, but as time passed I realized that there wasn't really much there, let alone chemistry with anyone else.

Despite there being a lot of fanfare with his long awaited return (first announced in November), Tom being replaced just doesn't surprise me. What I think happened was that the brass at CBS Daytime wanted to give Tom another shot in the role because he was clearly liked during his first run. Bold executive producer Jill Farren Phelps, who probably had her own idea of who she wanted to portray Billy, agreed to give Tom another shot in the role. Now, she has decided that it isn't working and has cast Burgess Jenkins to take over. (I don't know if this is actually the case, this is just what I think happened.)

I usually try to go into a recast for a role with an open mind. However, it takes me time to get used to them as the character. Unfortunately, it seems that actors have a tendency to exit just at a time where I have gotten used to them and have started to like them a bit (the case with David Tom). I will go into both Gina Tognoni as Phyllis and Burgess Jenkins as Billy with an open mind, however, the last time Y&R cast a "primetime" actor to replace someone in the cast was the sad, sad tale of Blake Hood being replaced as Kyle Abbott with Hartley Sawyer, a completely terrible actor who was finally let go after a short-lived 8-month run as the character (in fact, his character just fizzled out in January; his absence was explained sometime later.) So, I'm praying to Lord Jesus that Jenkins is a good actor and a nice fit for Billy Abbott. And I am praying that this is the end of replacements over at The Young and the Restless, at least for awhile. Give me a chance to get used to everyone together. Catch Y&R weekdays on CBS.

'The Young and the Restless' Shocker: Fake Cassie is Mariah!

Yet another nice plot twist has taken place over at The Young and the Restless. This past week, viewers learned that Fake Cassie, a lookalike to the late Cassie Newman portrayed by Camryn Grimes who had been hired by Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) to mess with Sharon (Sharon Case), is also in fact Mariah, the scheming ex-fiancee of Tyler (Redaric Williams) who had been messing with his relationship with Abby (Melissa Ordway), offscreen, for months on end. And now, we finally have a face to put to the name. And it's a face we've known and loved since she was a little girl!

Grimes originally portrayed Cassie Newman, the daughter that Sharon gave up for adoption as a teenager, beginning in 1997. Some time later, she became a major character when Sharon and husband Nick (Joshua Morrow) obtained custody of her. Grimes, just a little youngster, received widespread praise for her portrayal of Cassie, becoming the youngest person ever to win a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000 (she was 10). In 2005, after Cassie had become a rebellious 14-year-old, the writers chose to kill her off in a tragic car accident that would eventually lead to the demise of Nick and Sharon's eleven-year marriage. Ask anyone; the tragedy of young Cassie's death was felt in storyline for years to come. And it still is felt in storyline today.

Grimes reprised her role several times after she was killed off as a ghost to her onscreen parents. In 2013, she was announced to be making another return that was said to be long term. Grimes, now grown, began portraying a full grown version of Cassie's ghost who helped Sharon scheme to win Nick back. The storyline, which received a lot of negative reception, went on for months (thanks for that, Josh Griffith). Sharon barely talked to anyone else but Cassie, who was really never there and a hallucination caused by her subconscious after she stopped taking her bipolar medication. After agreeing to start taking them again, Cassie seemed to be gone. But then, she reappeared and we all groaned, because we as viewers were over the scheming ghost who wouldn't go away. But then Sharon was able to touch her hallucination. What was this madness? Cassie was real, and hired by none other than Sharon's former father-in-law and ex-husband Victor. When he found out from Nick and Sharon's son Noah (Robert Adamson) that Sharon had been talking to Cassie's ghost, and after he overheard Sharon's former therapist say in public that she had a secret that would devastate Nick, Victor ran into a woman that was a spitting image of Cassie. He hired her to pose as Cassie's ghost and get her secret out of Sharon, which she subsequently failed to do.

After Nick found out that Victor had hired this woman to pose as his dead daughter, all hell broke lose. He wants nothing to do with his good old dad and their entire family is stunned at what Victor has done. Meanwhile, the fascinatingly boring couple of Tyler and Abby lingers on. They have minimal chemistry and barely any storyline other than this Mariah, who was essentially driving their story from offscreen, which is a big no no. Then, out of the blue, Tyler runs into Fake Cassie and asks Mariah what she's doing there. Bingo! It all makes sense now. Fake Cassie was clearly hiding something. She was always following them. The only thing that wasn't explained and probably should've been was the fact that Tyler had remarked a few times in the past that Mariah looked like his former crush Lily (Christel Khalil). There had been rumors that Khalil would portray Mariah and she would be a strange Lily doppelganger, which also would have been great, but I still find Fake Cassie being Mariah to be another great twist, just as the twist that Ghost Cassie was real.

Camryn Grimes might just be the key that unlocks the door to interesting for Tyler and Abby. Because honestly, I can't take anymore of Abby freaking out over nothing and getting all whiny. I enjoy Melissa Ordway's portrayal of her, at times, but then at others she just proves that she's still growing as an actress and boring stories are the absolute last thing she needs. I also find it brilliant how the producers and writers found a creative way to bring Grimes back, at least for awhile, after her original character died 9 years ago. And Fake Cassie/Mariah's intrigue doesn't stop there; she is also involved somehow with cult leader Ian Ward (Ray Wise), is she possibly one of his cult correspondents? Watch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS.