Four Y&R Characters That Didn’t Catch On

Heather Stevens Paul’s all-grown-up daughter, Heather, was reintroduced to Genoa City society in 2007 as the town’s latest assistant DA, but the show failed to capitalize on the audience’s built-in goodwill toward a legacy character, penning a woman who was oddly weak-willed both at work and in her personal life, which was punctuated by a string of failed pairings and a penchant for being manipulated by Adam. After nearly three years, Heather’s portrayer, Vail Bloom, was abruptly replaced with Eden Riegel, a fan fave for her ALL MY CHILDREN role, Bianca, but the move didn’t prove to be a magic fix for what ailed the underwhelmingly written figure, and late in 2011, Riegel got the ax — as did Heather, who was fired after being caught kissing a witness in the trial she was working. The following spring, Y&R put the theory that the third time is the charm to the test by bringing on yet another Heather, Jennifer Landon (ex-Gwen, AS THE WORLD TURNS), but fans’ Heather fatigue was clear, and just a few months later, she was on her way out of town yet again, this time, seemingly for good.

David Chow Expectations ran high when popular soap vet Vincent Irizarry, fresh off a long and successful run on ALL MY CHILDREN as David Hayward, was tapped in 2007 to play David Chow. Though AMC had great success in shaping its David into a love-to-hate villain, one with clear and consistent motivations, Y&R fans never came to understand what drove the myriad nefarious actions of this David, whose entry into the show saw him doing a very bad thing to a very beloved heroine (he gaslighted Drucilla to make her pay for killing his former lover, Carmen). Y&R tried to make a go of Mr. Chow by redirecting him into a fast-track romance with Nikki, but fans weren’t buying into their love. In short order, yet more unsavory details about his past, namely his previous marriages (and two mysteriously-dead ex-wives) and his real identity (suspected hit man Angelo Seraffini) emerged, and David was given a quickie ending when he got into a fatal limo crash after trying to poison Nikki in mid-2008.

Juliet Helton Because of her unenviable position as a third-party spoiler in the Cane/Lily pairing, the deck was stacked against poor Juliet’s success practically from the moment she was introduced in February 2017. Before viewers had a chance to learn much about the Brash & Sassy exec, much less develop a fondness for her, Juliet’s storyline went into “Lane”- demolishing overdrive when she and Cane had drunken sex while on a business trip, resulting in her unplanned pregnancy, a messy, tone-deaf sexual harassment suit and a date at divorce court for the Ashbys. Once all that damage was done, Y&R scripted a hasty retreat from the unpopular storyline, and in November, Juliet died after giving birth prematurely to son Sam, with only two characters (Cane and Hilary) attending her funeral. Portrayer Laur Allen took Juliet’s fate in stride, telling Digest, “I knew her days were numbered when she began to stir up a lot of drama in the Cane/Lily marriage. I know that quite a few characters who meddled with #TeamLane have come and gone over the years.”

Mia Rosales In 2018, Y&R ruffled fans’ feathers with its fast and furious introductions of various and sundry members of the Rosales clan: Arturo in March, Rey in August, Lola in September, and finally, Mia in November. With the new family’s generous screen time coinciding with the sidelining of veteran faves, viewers weren’t quick to warm to mischievous Mia, Rey’s estranged wife, despite the charisma of her portrayer, Noemi Gonzalez — and had little reason to care about the many scenes of Mia and Rey processing what went wrong in their off-camera marriage, or her making googly-eyes at Arturo and throwing fits of jealousy over Arturo’s involvement with Abby. Mia and Rey made a stab at a reconciliation when she got pregnant, but Arturo turned out to be the dad, and in May 2019, the expectant parents left town to start a new life together, welcoming a son off screen.