The Bold and the Beautiful: Former cast member addresses the elephant in the room

The Bold and the Beautiful: Jacob Young speaks out

Soap veteran Jacob Young portrayed Rick Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful from 1997-1999 and again from 2011-2018. He also had the role of Lucky Spencer on General Hospital from 2000–2003. From 2003-2011 he portrayed JR Chandler in the soap opera All My Children. B&B fans enjoyed Rick being paired with Maya Avant (Carla Mosley) and continue to hope the couple will one day return to the show. Mosley was let go from her role after Young left the soap after refusing to renew his contract.

The actor was recently asked by Soaps in Depth if he would ever return to B&B as Rick and he gave a loaded answer by addressing the biggest issue fans have with the CBS soap. Young has not been on the show for three years, but there are probably current cast members as well as former ones who feel as he does but will not say anything. The elephant in the room that Young addressed is the way the daytime drama shuffles the characters around and focuses on the same ones for months at a time.

The Bold and the Beautiful: Cast members deserve better

Last summer The Bold and the Beautiful gave the majority of the screen time to Steffy Forrester (Jackie Wood), John Finnegan (Tyler Novlan), Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton), and Hope Spencer (Anika Noelle). Right now everything focuses on Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan), Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), Paris Buckingham (Diamond White) and Brooke Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang).

Fan favorites like Dollar Bill Spencer, (Don Diamont), Justin Barber (Aaron D Spears), Pam Douglas (Ally Mills) and Charlie Webber (Dick Christie) are not getting the air time that viewers desire. The other three remaining soaps do a great job of rotating cast members during episodes and you do not see character who disappear for months at a time on a regular basis on General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and Days of Our Lives. Following is what Young said to Soaps in Dept and the powers that be need to read it.

“They hyper-focus on a couple of storylines at a time and that just doesn’t work for me. I wanted consistency,” he shared. “It doesn’t have to be five, eight episodes a week, but just consistent. You write somebody off the canvas for a month, and then they show up one day a month. It’s not good for the character and it’s not good for the audience, in my opinion.”

The Bold and the Beautiful: The formula works

B&B viewers noticed some time back before the pandemic that Hope, Steffy, Katie Logan Spencer (Heather Tom) and Brooke all went to Paris at random intervals and were off -screen for several months at different times. Some viewers believed the actresses were not on screen because they were having cosmetic surgery done as when they returned they all look more youthful. Now it seems more likely that the powers that be were rotating them.

During his interview Jacob also said:

“After being on the show twice… it was a good time, working with the actors that I got to work with,” Young confessed, “but there’s just not enough work to go around.”

If The Bold and the Beautiful does not begin to do better for the actors they may loser other talented cast. As long as the viewers continue to watch the show, however, nothing will change. Brad Bell's formula seems to be working despite complaints from fans and what Jacob Young has said. B&B is the number 2 soap behind Yhe Young and the Restless. Only a big dip in the numbers would cause the powers that be to realize the way they do business is not popular.