Ex-Young and Restless Diva Victoria Rowell Says Les Moonves and Steve Kent Don't Want Dru Back!
By Jamey Giddens on October 24, 2012
Fans hoping for the day Victoria Rowell would reprise the role of Drucilla Winters on The Young and the Restless received bad news today. The always outspoken actress and author tweeted that Sony TV's Steve Kent, as well as CBS President Leslie Moonves, aren't interested in bringing her or the character of Dru back to the serial. Said Rowell:
Fans hoping for the day Victoria Rowell would reprise the role of Drucilla Winters on The Young and the Restless received bad news today. The always outspoken actress and author tweeted that Sony TV's Steve Kent, as well as CBS President Leslie Moonves, aren't interested in bringing her or the character of Dru back to the serial. Said Rowell:
For more of what Rowell had to say, click here!
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Comments
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
Victoria Rowell needs to let it go. Girl, give it up - turn it loose! Move on, turn the page. I'm saying this as a person who generally likes her. But if the head honchos are saying NO - it's time to move on. She has exhausted every avenue - from writing a loosely based autobiography, tapping her co-stars to advocate for her, getting the National Urban League involved, etc. I'm not saying VR's actions are totally wrong, but there's a risk when you go that route. CBS/Sony seem to be addressing the minority issue (or at least making an attempt) by hiring Susan Dansby (sp?) who still is writing for the show, one of the recent directors has an Arab/Middle eastern sounding last name (one of the better directors, I might add), hiring two new African American males (finally!) and at least two Latinos will be entering the canvas. They've even been hiring minorities for several of the small dayplayer roles for certain plots like cops, doctors, judges, etc - something before the Urban League was brought in. So, to me after all of this and they still don't want DRUCILLA to be brought back at this time - is it really about minorities on the show/behind the scenes...or it all of her activity just about her? And I'm not so sure CBS and Sony's objections are just about PB/MS/CK anymore. Just saying - PB's character has been losing to Victor Newman for a generation, MS was recently all huffy about losing her Phick pairing, and they were thisclose to letting CK go (her recurring status makes it easier to drop her if TPTB decide to do so with her having a contract or a guarantee). So I'm not quite as convinced TPTB are solely doing the bidding of those three actors.
I'm just saying, I'm trying to be objective. One of her tweets said something about not needing a Charlie Sheen moment to send her packing. I really wish she'd be the bigger person and just move on to something else. Why keep asking to be brought back where you obviously are not wanted?
FYI..that Urban league stuff happened years ago right after she left the show. And that was when they hired Susan Dansby who they never really give any work too. And yes, hiring day players and having folks on the show just for show is not diversity. Which is the entire point. VR isn't saying anything that we don't know and don't see on our screen 5 days a week.
16 August 2009
2 weeks 5 days
@Divatude
I'm not talking about when VR first left the show. I am talking about what happened just last year. It was reported right here at DC: http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2011/01/06/wowser-victoria-rowell-...
I'm not disagreeing that the last few years of Y&R have been less than stellar in terms of the minority storylines, but it seems to me that efforts are being made to improve that. Is it perfect? No, but it's not like CBS/Sony have done nothing in this regard. So her complaints have been heard. It just looks to me they just don't want to rehire HER. Again, I think that's a bad business decision (in terms of ratings), but it seems like they have made that decision and are going forward without Victoria Rowell.
30 March 2009
1 day 2 hours
This woman is starting to make Brenda Dickson look SANE.
23 February 2009
3 min 49 sec
Sony or JFP already fired Azar Habib
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
Awe yeah...that was when they brought on Susan Dansby who rarely writes for the show...and hired the actor that played Nate but only had about 4 shows. CBS/Sony, I tell ya the truth. They really make VR's case for her.
4 May 2009
1 day 20 hours
You know what? It's OK to be outspoken and all that, but then don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you in the @ss.
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
If this were the 60's I have no doubt that VR would have been long dead. Just saying...
30 April 2009
27 min 44 sec
I said this on another site and I will say it here.
I applaud Victoria Rowell for what she has done to date. The person that makes the noise is the one that gets the flack...but ultimately, they also pave the way. VR is forever bashed for her audacity to tell the truth...which is simply that CBS needed better diversity behind the scenes. She is called crazy because she fights for inequality? She is called difficult to work with when other actors behind the scenes have had fisticuffs? But for some reason, VR has done something so horrible that she can't return? What she did was reveal the inner workings, and no one wants their dirt out..especially when there is a racist twinge.
So keep up the fight Vickey. If CBS ever changes, you will be on the list of people that helped pave the way. Change is never instant, but it is long lasting.
27 November 2009
1 week 2 days
"Then the thought of Victoria Rowell being in a scene with Terrell Tilford's Greg Evans caused me to start laughing again!"
Actually, Ms. Rowell played opposite Terrell Tilford on Single Ladies this past season. She has been quite busy, doing appearances on shows like Single Ladies and Let's Stay Together.
I have every faith she will find other opportunities to express her talents. But the fact remains that daytime has no appreciation of its own, from the talented actors it has mistreated and rejected (like Victoria Rowell, Ellen Holly, and even the unemployed Erika Slezak and Susan Lucci) to the legacy of now-defunct soaps. Daytime is one of the few genres that disdains its own audience. I'm losing patience...
22 January 2011
3 min 9 sec
Just about EVERY member of the cast, men and women, on this show is a drama queen. I wonder why she's being singled out.
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
True...that was exposed long ago.
17 August 2012
8 weeks 6 days
Here we go again - is this the only way she can keep her name relevant?
Can't stand her............
26 May 2012
58 min 8 sec
Well this doesn't exactly come as a shock.
I'm sorry for Victoria Rowell, I love her as an actress, and I love the character of Dru Winters. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. It is a commonly known fact that employers do not want difficult people back on their show. Especially in these times and ages, it is clear they want people who come in and do the best job they can and then go home. Diva-esque antics don't go over well. When you burn your bridges, you burn your bridges.
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
I'm sorry for Victoria Rowell, I love her as an actress, and I love the character of Dru Winters. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. It is a commonly known fact that employers do not want difficult people back on their show. Especially in these times and ages, it is clear they want people who come in and do the best job they can and then go home. Diva-esque antics don't go over well. When you burn your bridges, you burn your bridges.
Then Y&R don't want many of the actors they have on that show. Not EB and certainly not MM.
14 June 2011
3 hours 14 min
This makes me very sad.
This talented, lovely actress would improve/add to Y&R in three areas: 1)Diversity, 2)Overall performance quality (I find her presence gets others to up their game), and 3) Bringing eyeballs to watch which more often than not, gets the ratings up. It can't just be the Phyllis and Victor show (with sides of Nick, Sharon and anybody else)... 
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
I'm sorry for Victoria Rowell, I love her as an actress, and I love the character of Dru Winters. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. It is a commonly known fact that employers do not want difficult people back on their show. Especially in these times and ages, it is clear they want people who come in and do the best job they can and then go home. Diva-esque antics don't go over well. When you burn your bridges, you burn your bridges.
Then Y&R don't want many of the actors they have on that show. Not EB and certainly not MM.
26 May 2012
58 min 8 sec
Then Y&R don't want many of the actors they have on that show. Not EB and certainly not MM.
Make no mistake, if MM left, I don't see him being welcomed back with open arms.
It is very sad, because these kinds of things have nothing to do with the acting itself. VR is a VERY talented actress, and/but there is a reason for that. She is feisty, she has good intuition. She knows what works and what doesn't. I'm thinking she knows it TOO well, for it to go over with the Sony execs. But: the irony is, if she were the kind of goody-two-shoes type of actress, then she also would not be the actress she is. So you can't take one personality trait away without affecting the other. Too bad they can't see things that way.
25 October 2011
18 weeks 3 days
Then Y&R don't want many of the actors they have on that show. Not EB and certainly not MM.
Make no mistake, if MM left, I don't see him being welcomed back with open arms.
It is very sad, because these kinds of things have nothing to do with the acting itself. VR is a VERY talented actress, and/but there is a reason for that. She is feisty, she has good intuition. She knows what works and what doesn't. I'm thinking she knows it TOO well, for it to go over with the Sony execs. But: the irony is, if she were the kind of goody-two-shoes type of actress, then she also would not be the actress she is. So you can't take one personality trait away without affecting the other. Too bad they can't see things that way.
Very insightful post...very insightful.
7 November 2009
3 hours 27 min
It is too bad that she didn't understand a long time ago, that she would never be back on Y and R. I really don't understand why she doesn't give it up and move on. Oh! I forgot, no one wants to hire her.
28 June 2012
43 min 1 sec
It's obvious to me from the almost 50 posts already that the fans are very passionate about her regardless of her supposed on set antics.
The thing that Sony forgets is that the fans mostly don't care about that and they only care about what is on their screen.
With the shrinking soap audience everyone should give this relationship another chance since it is what the SOAP VIEWING fans want. Surely there would be a discussion with Ms Vic before she was hired back.
I don't think Sony has a clue really, and I doubt they read the fan sites.
They are missing a prime opportunity to bring her on with the recent changes. Execs just aren't in touch.
28 September 2011
17 hours 50 min
Victoria Rowell also tried to get Debbi MOrgan hired at Y&R back in 2004/2005 but CBS/Sony wanted nothing to do with it or her. But when it came time for them to try to replace Dru without relaving Dru with a big name, they called her up.
She is very vocal about diversity and I think that many networks don't want to deal with that...they are fine and happy with the sttus quo.
@ Divatude58 I wish Sony and CBS would wake up and realize they need someone like Drucilla to wake the Winter's clan out of their coma. CK is the #1 snoozer out of the Winter's clan.
15 March 2009
20 hours 47 min
so over her and her drama queen antics. talk about beating a dead horse, given how cray cray she comes across 99% of the time, I can see why they don't want her back
11 December 2008
11 weeks 3 days
I still don't get why VR wants to come back to a show and a cast that she has derided so incessantly. There's no rationale to thinking all of her bridges were not burned even before she wrote that book where she insulted everybody all the way through. I like Dru, but even if I wasn't on YR, I wouldn't want to work with VR - if for nothing else but the drama factor. Who needs that type of drama at work everyday? I have a girl at my job that I want to fire right now just because she's always keeping stuff stirred up and plays the victim at least once per week. It's exhausting, so I can't imagine what it must have been like to manage VR.
Girlfriend, go find some dignity. Give it up, turn it loose. (Looking for my EnVogue CD now...)
16 May 2012
7 weeks 3 days
Sorry isn't she known to be a lot of trouble on set? I can see why they wouldn't want her back, most of the time if you're difficult and have a bad rep you don't get asked back unless you really add value to the company and I from what I have read she doesn't.
3 March 2009
21 weeks 6 days
2 October 2009
1 day 15 hours
Daytime Pays For Prime Time, Says Donna Mills (ex-Laura Donnelly Elliott, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, ex-Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner, Knots Landing!
The soaps were indeed money-makers in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, & part of the very early 1990s!
Brian
2 December 2011
17 min 36 sec
With the shrinking soap audience everyone should give this relationship another chance since it is what the SOAP VIEWING fans want. Surely there would be a discussion with Ms Vic before she was hired back.
I don't think Sony has a clue really, and I doubt they read the fan sites.
They are missing a prime opportunity to bring her on with the recent changes. Execs just aren't in touch.
We often haven't agreed but I agree with you on all your points stated here.
As much as I think Y&R needed a change from MAB, this new regime is something of an experiment. It doesn't guarantee that Y&R will survive 4 years from now. The jury is still out on how many viewers they can actually bring back to this show.
7 February 2012
3 hours 9 min
Why would she want to go where she is not wanted?
The writing is crap.
Didn't she write a book about her former employer? Wouldn't bode well in the real world don't think it would bode well in Hollywood.
It's been 5+ years woman, give it up.
13 February 2010
1 day 22 hours
Wow, this woman is a total idiot. By calling the heads of both CBS and Sony racists, she's officially done. VR has sealed her own fate. Good riddance.
18 July 2012
2 days 8 hours
Amen! sanka9, you took the words right out of my mind.
I honestly can't believe people are still pissing and moaning about this. It's time to move on people!