For the tenth time in the show's history, The Young and the Restless was named Outstanding Drama Series at the Daytime Emmys.
This year's win was unique in some ways. The man who was responsible for stewarding Y&R in 2018 -- and responsible for both writing and creating the material that won Y&R its Drama Series trophy -- is no longer part of the Y&R team.
Mal Young, known for his work on the UK soap EastEnders, was hired at The Young and the Restless in 2016. Young made massive changes to the show -- changing its storytelling format and improving production values, but also chopping many of the fans' favorite performers. At the end of 2018, Young did an interview in which he stated that he was done working at Y&R.
"I'm so proud. I wanted to stay a few years, and I wanted to see if I could change things, you know, improve the lighting and various elements like that," Young said backstage when he asked how he felt about his post-Y&R wins. "To win the lighting award and the wardrobe [at the Creative Arts ceremony] and then the directing [tonight], it just feels like it was the result of what we as a team worked on for the last two to three years. It feels really good."
Despite being the top-ranked soap for more than three decades, this was Y&R's first Drama Series win since 2015, when the show tied with Days of our Lives. The show earned its first top soap honors in 1975.
