Deep Soap: Update - Eric Braeden Returns To ‘Y&R’

After weeks of “exclusive” interviews proclaiming that he was really, truly leaving The Young & The Restless, Eric Braeden has returned to the show. Braeden stated that he felt Sony disrespected him by requesting he take a paycut by e-mail instead of over cigars and bourbon, as men are supposed to do. According to The Wrap, he agreed to cut his salary from approximately 1.5 million dollars a year to a mere 1 million.

Why the change of heart? It is possible that Braeden realized he missed playing Victor Newman? Rumors that if he left permanently his longtime costar Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki) would be written off as well may have made him reconsider. I am going to put on my tinfoil hat and speculate that Sony won the public opinion war. Fans sympathized with Braeden’s unhappiness at being forced to take a pay cut in the middle of his contract until two non-soap sites, Entertainment Weekly and The Wrap, “found out” that he would still be making a million dollars a year. Suddenly Braeden’s claims that Sony wanted to pay all of its actors the same low salary seemed disingenuous. Two days ago The Wrap wrote that Y&R was considering hiring other actors. Today Braeden had a change of heart. Looks like the studio took a page out of Victor’s playbook.

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