Shelly Altman has been promoted to Head Writer and Jean Passanante has been named Head Writer for THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, daytime's number one drama. Additionally, Tracey Thomson has been promoted to Co-Head Writer. The announcement was made today by Steve Kent, Senior Executive Vice President, U.S. Programming at Sony Pictures Television.
“Shelly has been an important part of the Y&R writing team since joining the show last year and Jean brings with her a wealth of daytime writing experience. We are excited to have these two talented daytime veterans leading our writing team at Y&R,” said Kent. “We are also thrilled to have Tracey take on a new role and we look forward to her creative input to the show.”
Altman has been a writer for THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS since 2012. Previously, she served as a writer and co-head writer on several daytime dramas, including ANOTHER WORLD, ONE LIFE TO LIVE and, most recently, GENERAL HOSPITAL. Altman has been nominated for five Writers Guild Awards and six Emmy Awards. She won an Emmy for her work on GENERAL HOSPITAL in 2008.
Passanante has also written for several daytime dramas, including ANOTHER WORLD, ALL MY CHILDREN, AS THE WORLD TURNS, ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GENERAL HOSPITAL. Passanante has been nominated for four Writers Guild Awards and has won four times for her work on ALL MY CHILDREN (2001, 2002) and for her work on AS THE WORLD TURNS (2007, 2009). She has been nominated for eight Emmy Awards and has won four times for her work on ONE LIFE TO LIVE (1994) and AS THE WORLD TURNS (2002, 2004 and 2005).
Thomson wrote for GENERAL HOSPITAL from 2006 to 2008, for ALL MY CHILDREN from 2008 to 2010 and she returned to GENERAL HOSPITAL from 2010 to 2012. She joined the writing team at THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in 2012. Thomson has been nominated for two Writers Guild Awards and won for her work on GENERAL HOSPITAL in 2012. She has been nominated for four Emmy Awards.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS has been the number one rated daytime drama for more than 24 years and is in its 40th season. The show is broadcast weekdays on the CBS Television Network and is produced by Bell Dramatic Serial Company, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
I'm not in love with this news but hopefully they will have a fresh take on story and bring it back to the glory days.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but this is not good news for Y&R. "Passanante has also written for several daytime dramas..." should read "Passanante has also helped to ruin several daytime dramas..." The only question is which actor/character/couple/storyline will be destroyed first. Take cover, Y&R actors. This is not going to be pretty!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that .. lol! .. But seriously, this co-co-co-head writer thing sounds like a recipe for a powerful, soapkilling executive producer to assert and wield even more control over storyline.
ReplyDeleteAnd thinking back over the last 15 years since Bill Bell stepped down, how eye-rolling does it seem at this point that his two proteges, Ed Scott (EP) and Kay Alden (HW), had to get into some silly, ego-driven, dust-up over who got to cast that Grade B character named Sean Bridges and couldn't work together to continue the Bell brand.