How Long Does It Take To Film An Episode Of The Young And The Restless?

Many soap operas have withstood the test of time. However, "The Young and the Restless" consistently proves itself to be a titan of daytime television. The enduring soap's first episode aired March 26, 1973, and it's remained steady in the ratings ever since (via The Hollywood Reporter). Dedication from its loyal fanbase has contributed significantly to the program's long-term success. Plus, with the advent of streaming services, viewers that would otherwise not have the opportunity to watch can finally do so.

"The Young and the Restless" centers around a core group of families and their business endeavors. The mix of family ties with business moves creates the drama that has kept fans watching for decades. Some of the major players in Genoa City include the Newman family, the Abbotts, the Winters, and the Chancellors. These characters bring out a plethora of emotions in the people who watch, but the actors behind them make it all happen. 

In fact, more goes into creating an episode of "Y&R" than people realize.

The cast of "The Young and the Restless" deserves a large portion of the credit for the show's continued success. They work tirelessly to create a program beloved by millions around the world. Filming scenes can be time consuming. The show airs five days a week, which requires extraordinary effort from the performers. Many arduous hours and extensive pages of dialogue go into each episode to create the final product.

In an interview with Soaps.com, GRO's Jamey Ice went into detail about the amount of hours required to film. According to Ice, "We were there from 7:30 a.m. until around 2:00 p.m. We shot several scenes in this one location. It took several hours." He also went on to reveal that they film around "five or six episodes a week." 

Memorizing the dialogue and nailing the scene is far more complex than it comes off on television. According to Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott), "95% of what you see is like one take," per an interview with Entertainment Tonight. With only one shot to get things right, the actors have to be at the top of their game, and there's no room for error. Filming can take longer if other factors are in play, such as a love scene. They aren't nearly as romantic in reality as the final version on television would like viewers to believe.

Actress Hunter Haley King (ex-Summer Newman) spoke about the reality of those steamy love scenes with Kyle Abbott. In an interview with Soap Central, she revealed, "I am the worst at love scenes! I think they're awful. And I will laugh the whole time when I'm uncomfortable, so I'm an actor's worst nightmare. I just think they're so weird and awkward."

If love scenes weren't daunting enough, the sheer amount of dialogue actors on "The Young and the Restless" memorize would be. To keep the show moving at the pace daytime television requires, the actors have a lot of extra work. It's not uncommon for performers to memorize dozens of pages in one sitting for a single episode. Things move quickly, and not much time is given. Sometimes, actors have mere hours to memorize that quantity for their series of scenes.

Actress Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Mitchell) discussed the vast amount of dialogue in an interview with Soap Central. She said, "You have to go home and you have to learn 30 pages of dialogue and be at work at 6:30 the next morning and on camera at 8:30." Long hours of filming, awkward scenes, and endless pages of dialogue are sacrifices actors on "The Young and the Restless" are willing to make to create the show.

Even though scenes are zoomed through while filming, actors have hours of filming per day. The rigorous schedule paves the way for the ability to film multiple episodes in a week. With things moving so quickly, many storylines get filmed at once. The CBS soap certainly churns out no shortage of content.