According to The Wrap, Executive Producer and Headwriter for ‘Young and the Restless’, Josh Griffith, has reportedly fired the soap opera’s entire staff of breakdown writers, and he plans to do the work himself.
‘The Young and the Restless’ Spoilers: Griffith Says He’ll Do Their Jobs Himself
The work of the breakdown writers is laying out storylines before scriptwriters take over to pen each individual script. An insider says that Griffith made this move in order to cut costs. But “the timing of the firings is suspect, given that [Writers Guild of America] negotiations were coming up and the show is celebrating a major milestone… ” the insider told the outlet.
‘The Young and the Restless’ Spoilers: Executive Producer Fires Breakdown Writers To Cut Costs
“Even more brutal is that four of the five writers of the breakdown staff are all women, one of them being African-American, who was hired with the intended purpose of expanding diversity behind the scenes per CBS’ directive.” This is coming only two months after co-executive producer Anthony Morina’s left the production, leaving Griffith as ‘Young and the Restless’ sole showrunner.
Another insider told TheWrap that, “There was some restructuring of the [writing] staff to streamline the creative process.” On the producer, Sony or Griffith’s order? “It was based on what made sense for the show creatively and mirrors the structure at other soaps.”
Someone from a different daytime drama also told the outlet that, “We understand the industry is going through transition, but it’s a slap in the face for five hardworking writers to be fired so the co-EP and headwriter can write the breakdowns and line his pockets with more residuals. Soap writers have long felt shafted by WGA, and this doesn’t help matters.”
Primetime drama typically produce 13-22 episodes in a year, so they usually operate with a head writer, co-head writer, as well as script writers. The script writers also write breakdowns. However, because they produce five episodes a week for a year, which is quite tasking, producers employ a number of breakdown writers to make the work easier.
