Emmy-winning
All My Children star Debbi Morgan will be joining the cast of
The Young and the Restless later this year. A Y&R spokesperson has now confirmed the news of Morgan's addition to the top-rated CBS soap.
Soaps In Depth magazine first reported that Morgan was close to signing a deal with Y&R last week, but
TVGuide is reporting that Morgan didn't sign on the dotted line until yesterday.
This is not the first time that Morgan has had an interest in joining the Y&R canvas. In a visit to Soap Central Live, Y&R vet Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla Winters) revealed that Morgan had once written a letter to Y&R execs asking to join the show.
"I tried to get Debbi on The Young and the Restless as a distant relative, and The Young and the Restless passed -- for what reason, I do not know," Rowell revealed. "It was a silver platter situation. And we were heartbroken. Debbi even wrote a letter, which I delivered to the producer at the time, and unanimously, once again, it was turned down."
Morgan has the unusual distinction of playing the same character -- Angie Hubbard -- on three different soaps. Morgan created the role of Angie on
All My Children in 1982. She remained with the soap for eight years. She reprised the role in 1993, but on
Loving -- not AMC. When
Loving concluded its run in 1995, Morgan joined Loving's spinoff soap,
The City, for two years. In January 2008, Morgan returned to
All My Children after having been away from Pine Valley for nearly 20 years.
While Morgan will be forever known to daytime viewers as Angie, it's not the only daytime role she's played. After leaving AMC in 1990, Morgan headed
Generations. She remained there for about a year. In 1997 and 1998, Morgan tackled the role as tough-as-nails Dr. Ellen Burgess on
General Hospital's spinoff,
Port Charles. Morgan's PC character made occasional appearances on GH. Morgan also appeared on
The Bold and the Beautiful over a six-month period that spanned from October 2006 to June 2007.
Ironically, Morgan's official move from
All My Children to
The Young and the Restless came on the same day that ABC announced that it had reached a licensing deal to allow production of
All My Children to continue after its September 23 finale on ABC. ABC announced in April that it would be replacing AMC and
One Life to Live with reality and talk show programs.
It remains unclear if Morgan would have opted to continue on with AMC in its new web-based format -- or if she can still be involved with the series now that it will not be airing on broadcast television.
Morgan won an Outstanding Supporting Actress Daytime Emmy in 1989. She was nominated as Outstanding Ingénue in 1986, and Outstanding Lead Actress in 2009 and 2011.
Y&R has not yet confirmed what character Morgan will play on the show, but insiders widely expect Morgan to have story opposite Kristoff St. John (Neil Winters). Many are speculating that she may be a recast of Victoria Rowell's popular character, Drucilla Winters. More details are sure to come in the coming weeks leading to Morgan's debut on the number one daytime soap.
When Morgan does hit Genoa City, the actress should find it familiar. Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott), Jeff Branson (Ronan Malloy), Genie Francis (Genevieve Atkinson), Amelia Heinle (Victoria Newman), Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Mitchell), Billy J Miller (Billy Abbott), and Eden Riegel (Heather Stevens) are all former AMC stars. In fact, Morgan and Bergman's AMC characters were once engaged!
