The Buzz - BuzzWorthy Radio

BuzzWorthy Radio: Victoria Rowell!

BuzzWorthy is proud to announce that Drucilla Barber Winters herself, Victoria Rowell, will be making her first appearance on the show!

With the whole Internet soap community swirling with possible return rumors for the actress, this is the show where we kick off the campaign for Victoria/Dru to return. That is where the fans come in!

Fans of Y&R/Dru/Victoria can write to Maria Arena Bell at yrbb@tvc.cbs.com! Fans want to see her return, we'll make it happen.

We will also be talking about "The Woman Who Raised Me," in in conjunction with this interview. What is your favorite Dru story/moment? How can we see invigorate the Winters family since it HAS been on a decline? Start writing those e-mails and letters, fans! LET'S PLAY BALL!

Duration:: 1h 6m
Broadcast on:: 25 Aug 2009
Audio Format:: other

With so many options, why choose Arizona State University? For me, the only online option was ASU because of the quality. Their faculty was really involved with their students and care about your personal journey, the dedication to my personal development from my professors. That's extremely valuable to me. Earn your degree from the nation's most innovative university online. That's a degree better. Explore more than 300 undergraduate graduate and certificate programs at asuonline.asu.edu. Making healthy choices for your family this year just got so much easier. Beehive meals helps you stay on track with affordable freezer meals that are ready when you are. Just grab a meal from your freezer, put it in your slow cooker, and dinner is served. Plus, our limited edition soup menu is here to warm up your winter meals. Beehive meals, easy, healthy, and delicious meals that bring your family together. Use promo code beehivelistener@beehivemeals.com today. Long talk to the radio. Come get you live. It is buzzworthy radio, but you can get the latest buzz. And all your favorite shows and stars. Buzzworthy. Start. Now. And good evening, everybody. Welcome to a new edition of Buzzworthy Radio. I'm your host, Novell J. Lee coming to you live on this Monday, August 24th, 2009. It's 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 5 p.m. Pacific Coast Time. It is my privilege to welcome you all into this show today. It is an honor that we are going to be blessed with the presence of Victoria Rowell, an inspiring actress that I've watched on my screen for many, many years. And very, very much an inspiration to a lot of women, not just women, but a lot of people out there in this world. It is my pleasure to welcome her on the show right now. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Absolutely. So we got it started off right off the bat. Everybody wants to know we were talking it up on Twitter that you are here to address these Y&R rumors. So let's address these rumors. What is going on? You know, it's just really in the last week, would you say? There's been this incredible groundswell, I would say a grassroots effort by my extraordinary fans. I want to send you all my love to get, I guess, Maria Vell to consider, which is an interesting word to use, but to have Drew Silla climb back up the cliff. Now, you know, I had said some time ago when this was addressed, while I was on the road on my book tour, would I ever come out of the woods or come out of the brook or climb back up the cliff? I never said I never would. You were misquoted then, I didn't get it. So anyway, it's been a lot of fun. I just flew back into LA today and it's just been amazing. Everywhere I go, people are talking about how they are participating in trying to get me back on the show. Now, of course, I'd heard that since I've left, you know, we're writing in, but it just seems to be multiplied by, I don't know, how many times squared. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, everybody, especially right now, wants you back on this program. Why do you think that is? I just want to turn the question on you. Why do you think that is all of a sudden? Why have you seen the show lately? Now, don't put me in that. Don't put me in that position. I mean, I'm working on my second book, so it's hard for editing secrets of the soap opera diva. I edited right up until this call. I had to put the manuscript down, but we'll talk about that in a second. Yes, we will. Why do I think they want you now? I'm watching it and I talked to Chris about this a couple of weeks ago. It just seems like they don't know what to do as far as what the Winter's family is concerned. I mean, yes. What's left of it? I mean, you're going to, you have this ovarian cancer story on which I'm sorry, it's not character driven. It's a plot driven to get to a point of redeeming the character of Kane Ashby. Can I stop you for a second? Stop me, stop me right now. You need to bring me up to speed, darling. Who's left of the Winter's family, the original Winter's family? Neil and Lily. Olivia is not going to be seeing that much anymore if at all and that's about it. Wait, we went from eight to one and a half? Oh, okay. All right, now we can keep going. I see, I see the problem. Not just that. I know that you did this interview with Nelson Braco, who is like my best friend forever, where he mentioned to you about the Devon and Tyra getting it on. Well, let's just back up for a second. You tell me that Tonya is not, you know, frequently seen. Right. And that the Winter's family that was once very prolific in the storytelling on the program. And if you'll recall what addressed the tremendous outpouring that came, I guess, in the late '80s when Bill Bell fulfilled a desire by the Black female audience that said, we don't see an image of ourselves. You have a maid. And we love Mamie, and I would love Mamie to come back. I need not made me to come back. But, you know, we know we need the pine salt sponsorship. We need all of our sponsorships, but really Black women aren't really caressing that pine salt bottle that hard. Oh my gosh. You know, we're really not slopping the floors. So I think the women, you know, Bill Bell certainly saw that and put, you know, a likeness of many people of color on the screen. And of course, we were rewarded with that and shut up. Number one. But I'm discouraged to hear that so many of that original cast are no longer being seen. And it's very, very shocking to me in that the shows watched by, I think we could say, over 20 million people weekly. And that the predominant audience is African American women. Yes, that's correct. I find it shocking that the very audience that sustains the show keeps it at number one. That audience can't have who they want on screen. What's that about? We can put a Black president in the Oval Office, but you can't put a Black family on the number one daytime show that's capped at number one by Black women. Exactly. Let's make some noise. Exactly. I mean, and this family has been predominantly featured for over 20 years on this number one rated drama, and now to basically be disseminated. It sounds like it's been disseminated. It has been. I mean, and me speaking for an African American man watching this show, I'm highly, vastly upset. Well, let me ask you a question. Is it true, then? Is it true that the step foster mother, let me just talk a storyline. I'm not going to talk names. That a step foster mother, who's Black, slept with her Black foster son? Yes. Let me stop you there. Let me stop you right there. I introduced that foster care storyline to the young and the restless at that time it was Jack Smith, and I wrote a synopsis. I presented it, and the show put it up on screen on the tube that summer. And that character of Devon caught fire. It was extraordinary, and of course, Brighton McClure won the Emmy later on. That storyline about foster care, which addresses over 513,000 foster children in our nation today, received congressional recognition. And the predominant population, unfortunately, in foster care, are Black and Brown children. And you mean to tell me that they had that young man sleep with his stepmother? That's kind of sneaky. That's kind of unredeemable. What's that about? It's a little bit, and Brighton, Brighton's a very good actor. He deserves a lot more than what was given to him on that story on the loan that they're showing right now. Yeah, but the storyline aside, we're talking about real life. We're talking about me presenting something that had integrity and substance and depth. And in my opinion, that kind of action is unredeemable. In my opinion, what's happening is the last vestiges of the Black characters being pushed aside, because how do you redeem that action? Really can't. How do you rescue that? And isn't that putting a dark face on foster children? Isn't that putting a negative face on foster parents? We went from congressional recognition to piss poor. What's that about? Speaking that truth, ladies and gentlemen, Victoria Riles right here right now. Before we get into the book that you're writing right now, the new book, we do have a lot of color that's got on the line right now. If you want to take some, you want to take some. Yeah, I will, but I also want to say this, Black women don't sleep with their foster children. I'm a national spokesperson for foster care and adoption with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Services for over a decade. I spent 18 years in foster care and none of my foster mother slept with me or slept with any of my foster brothers. So shame on the young and the restless for taking a congressionally recognized storyline and NAACP image award-winning storyline and sabotaging it like that. We can do better. Prove that you can, Maria Bell. Prove that you can. This is, and this is, this is my question to you, with the continuation of this storyline after you left, because it is, it was the real, it was so raw. Today I continue to do the research on that even after you were gone because it, like, like we just said, it seems like they hadn't done that. Well, I mean, it, it depends on who you want to focus on. Now we have to talk about the business of, of running a soap. Who do you want to focus on and who do you want to give the storylines? Who do you want to invest in? And so if you want to invest in a storyline, that means you're going to invest in the actors. Okay. And if you're going to write about subject matters such as foster care, well, it's very wide and very deep. And if you can think it, you can write about it because foster care embodies so many different kinds of people, not only black and brown children, obviously, but white children, American Indian children as well, all children. All right. All right. All right. Let's take this call. This one is from Brian from Vermont. Brian, you're on the line. How are you? Hey, how's it going, buddy? Good. How are you? I'm pretty good. Hey, Victoria, how's it going? It's going great. I'm a huge fan. I think you're really talented. Thank you. And yeah, I really think that the young and restless is not the same without you on there. And they definitely need to bring you back because you're amazing. I was wondering, like, I also loved your chemistry with Eric Braden. I love working with Eric. He's an awesome actor. He is. Like, and like, what do you think of your chances of getting back on there? Like, I know, I mean, I've tried to send emails and stuff, but. Well, you know, chances, I just think that it is dependent upon exactly what you're doing, right, where we have fans out there. There's a ground swell. There's a grassroots nature to this, I feel. And I have to thank you for your concern of bringing Driscilla back because she was, she's a very relatable character, very realistic. And I think extremely authentic. And that's what made her day current, even though you don't see her on screen. I think that's pretty amazing. It is amazing. Like, and I'm a white guy. But, I mean, like, I totally support, you know, you and Kristoff and that whole winter's clan. I mean, I thought that just you guys in general were such a huge part of that show. I mean, especially you, and obviously I'm a huge fan. But I mean, without you on there, it's like different. And another thing is you didn't just have so much chemistry with them. You also had it with everybody else. Like, you know, like, whole cast in general. You were just awesome on there. It's just, and the show was a great show. I'm not going to say it's not. But without you on there, it's just not the same. I really appreciate your comments and your question. And ultimately, it's up to the brass to bring an actress or an actor back to the show. But I think that my brand certainly has a lot to offer. And I appreciate you recognizing that. Well, thanks so much. And I really hope that they get you back on there because, if not, they're making a big mistake. Well, I appreciate it. What is this email that you wrote into to write? So, one that you put on Twitter, I think it was the, I don't know, I can't remember. I think it was at CBS or something. I received, I won't tell you my source, I received an email. And what is both worthy using? What are you guys using? What are we using? Why don't we be at tbc.zs.com? It's what we're sending right now to the head brass to get you back on this show. We need your initiative to invigorate not just the winter, but the entire show as a whole. It just seems like they lost something. I support the campaign. I support the campaign and anyone who's twittering and asked me for the address to write into, I share that address. So, thank you. Oh, that's awesome. I really hope we get back on there because, like I said, it's a good show, but you know, like, you just added so much to that show and that'd be really nice to see you back on there. Thank you very much. Thanks, man. Take care. Take care. Is there another caller? Yes, there is. All right. We got the New York caller. Now, what's happened here on the line? How are you? Yeah, I know that Scott knows about how you're doing. Hey, Hey Victoria. I'm glad to go ahead and hear you. Go ahead and go ahead to hear all the interest in bringing you back. Go ahead. There really is a gap right now. I'm glad that even with go ahead though, right now, really is going ahead getting a lot to do with that story with the cancer, like Novell said earlier. No, that's really a lot of it's more of Kane's story along with Willie, than going ahead and Willie's story on her own. And go ahead. It's really a shame that go ahead. The Wendy's family is being neglected and go ahead and just lost the place that they used to have on the show. Well, I have a question. When you mentioned cancer, I, you know, I've had both black and white mothers growing up in foster care. And I can tell you if if a child is sick, they'd be at the bedside. Right. It's just unrealistic. I'll just say all mothers would flock to their children, especially if they have a terminal illness. So I don't see the reality in that. But go ahead. I'm listening. Yeah, right. But yeah, I mean, basically, they do have Neil and Devon are there for her. But a lot of what's driving the story really is that just before she found out she had cancer, Willie went ahead and married Kane Ashby, who everyone has thought for years, was the long lost Phillip Chance was the third. And recently, they revealed that he's not Phillip Chance was the third. He was really still alive. He was living in Australia for years. I thank you for all the back story, but I see that the cancer is now plot driven as the previous person said. So I see it's driving someone else's story, and that's a problem for me. I will say that families don't raise themselves. Families, that's what I think has always made the Young and the Restless so realistic, is that there really were true families anchored in relationship. And, you know, the Winters family did not raise themselves in the wild. Where is the family to frame the story? Where's not Mamie? I'm not even talking about Jusilla. Where's not Mamie? Where are the grandparents of Willie? There were grandparents. There's the mother, Jusilla's mother, whose name was Lily, that Jusilla's daughter was named after. Ben Guillory would love to come back on the show and see his granddaughter. I don't understand the lack of familial framing. I understand we're in an economic downturn, but come on. And they do a lot of name dropping like they did mention in one of the shows last week, Willie's grandparents sending a note, but I had a note, that's it. And then the same thing with Olivia that go ahead and talk to your words on the show when Willie was first diagnosed. And now it's like, oh, okay, Lily, Dr. Winters told us what you need. We'll go ahead and get to it. Okay, news flash, news flash. Realistically speaking, and I hope YNR catches it. Catch it. Catch it YNR. A black family would have a prayer circle going. There would be a prayer circle. Let me break that down for you. That would be at the church. You would have, let's say, Tanya Lee Williams character Olivia. She would reach out to Aunt Mamie, and then she'd reach out to her friends in Genoa City. And there would be a prayer circle. Pull in a few extras. Come on, break off some quine. And let's have a prayer circle for Lily. That would really help get back a lot of viewership because that's the authentic piece you get from having a black writer, or someone who's consciously thinking about the storyline and willing to share. If you think about Two Scott too, what else Victoria just said, if you can have went down the amount with Dylan the show was Brad, and his character sent out to be Jewish, and they incorporated Jewish. Yes, but Dylan, you can't write what you don't know. Right. You see, you can't write what's not in the room. Right. Yeah, and that's actually one of the flaws with that story is that when you lay from, you know, she went ahead and said, great, go ahead. Okay, Don's Jewish, Brad's Jewish, but from what was on the screen, and I'm Jewish myself, so I can tell you this, they didn't go ahead and go to Don and ask him for any details because every time they went ahead and got something wrong, go ahead. I was going ahead and literally go ahead and astonished it. It was like, you know, oh, let's make them Jewish just for the sake of the story. Not for presenting a real thing. And they did something like what Victoria is suggesting right now. You know, they really should go ahead and get someone who can do it right because otherwise, you know, it's not going to, otherwise, it's not going to work. It's just going to be more, you know, plot to go ahead and say, hey, we're doing it, but not really meaning anything in the story. Well, you want to show to thrive. You want a number one show to thrive, and there's a reason why it's number one, but I don't think that you take advantage of it being number one. I think you continue to do your very best. I think the last thing a quality show wants to do is, you know, aggravate an audience, insult an audience, but you have to do the research. And I'm not right now. That's the big problem. Okay. Well, thank you for your call. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Definitely. Definitely true. Definitely true. You ready to take another one? Sure. All right. This caller is from Delaware. I believe I got to say right. 302, you're on the line. How are you? Oh, Janine? Yeah. Hi. Sorry. Hi. Sorry. I'm really, really excited to speak to you. I just wanted to ask you what you think about the fact that it appears to, and I'm a black woman, and been watching the show since the very beginning, what do you think about the fact that it appears that they're trying to pretty much destroy the character of Neil? Neil, who has always been, in my opinion, a strong, upstanding figure and role model for not only young black man, but black man period. No matter, I mean, he had his time to be stale down a couple of times, but he was always a role model. All of a sudden, they had him cheat on his wife and just very torretly and just nonchalantly with no remorse whatsoever, take up with the mistress. To me, if you read the message board during this time, people were demanding, they wanted Neil off the show. It's pretty bad, and it makes me very sad. I just want to know what you think about that. There's a lot of interference. I hear some, can you hear us okay? I don't hear you. Okay, here. I hang up, my phone might have some static, so I hang up and listen to you on the radio. No, no, it's okay. It's okay. It went away. Here's the thing, I feel like you have to ask yourself a bigger question first, and that is, and when I say you, I mean generally speaking, are people writing in? Are people writing in and making recommendations and expressing how the show affects them and what their likes and dislikes are? Maria Bell is the head writer, and I think unless she knows, and the writing staff here, what you're saying, it's never going to come to light. So it's one thing among yourselves to say, oh, I didn't like that. I was insulted. That was all wrong. There would be a prayer circle. This would never happen. Drew would be there. Neil wouldn't do that. That's one thing. That doesn't count. What you must do is write in, and you must email, and let the production company know that this does not work for you. And if something doesn't work for you, what do you do? You change it. You change it. I think there's a lot of that. I do believe there have been a lot of people writing in, because the character that we found so disgusting and appalling has now left the show. The one that her name was Tyra, the character's name is Tyra, she's the one that they're stuck with, and then Divine's stuck with. She's now been written out of the show. And I think before that, they seem to be trying to develop some storyline between she and Neil that we're all supposed to just accept, but it's kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let me start you right there. Okay. There's a very, very important piece here that we must not gloss over, and let me just say this, that yes, your predominant audience, the predominant audience of the young and the rest as we know is African American. However, just because an actor is black and an act, that popular actor or actress is no longer on the show, it does not mean that you can replace her with another canned actor or another canned actor. What happens is what happens in performance is that a relationship occurs that transcends the screen, and that's called authenticity. That's called real, and you cannot put a price tag on it. It's called ratings, and it's called an audience. And so I hear what you're saying, but I thought it was very important that we not gloss over that point where someone may be broadcasting, maybe banging their head against the wall saying, why did that black actress work, and why did that black actress work? Because it doesn't work like that. There's something soulful that happens between the audience and the actor, and it's a marriage of sorts, and that's what we're talking about. That's the magic. Another thing too that I'll say this quickly before I go is that it's also in the presentation as Mr. Bill Cosby said it once on his show, it's how you present something to people. Maybe if they had brought that character on as some more respectable that we could respect, but they brought her on the top of a giver's can lid, and nobody was very unappetizing, and nobody was having any of it, and I'm very glad to see that she's going. I'm sorry that an actor's out of a job, but what they need to just do is just bring you back and just put back the winner's family back and start all over again. So thank you for talking to me. I'm for that. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Goodbye. Bye-bye, sweet. Who's next? How do you get a name? Who's next? All right, who is next? All right. Collar, you have no area code, so you've got to speak up right now. Collar, you're on the lines. Guys, Collar? Hi, how are you? Good. Good, good. You know what? I stopped watching the show after you went off, and I really would like to write in if you would give me the email address, because I just thought Drew was a wonderful part for the show, and I didn't relate to wonder why they would -- I kind of got upset because it seems like when black women -- because I'm a black woman -- when they're attractive, it seemed like they tried to play us down. They were letting you wear different kind of hats, and you didn't need to. You have beautiful hair, like all the rest of them. Oh, I love hats. I love hats. The only thing about the hair when the hair was falling out, you know, when they wrote the hair falling out story line, I got to differ because when hair falls out, especially women, the hair is a crown. Hats are a crown, and you would do something to make yourself feel better, whether you're a cancer victim or whether you have some type of alopecia. You would do something to, you know, sort of make that better, whether it's a hairpiece or whether it's a hat, or the hats are really important, but continue. That's -- no, that's to explain it, because I was thinking, you know, sometimes you might miss something, you know, because you're working, and I just catch that. So I'm glad you explain that to me, because I'm going, "Why do they do Drew like that?" It's going to be the email. It -- darling, help me out with that email. It's yrbb@tvc.cbs.com. We've got to run it up in the chat room for you too, so -- Oh good, good, good. Sometimes it doesn't come out right on the, you know, on the phone. Oh yeah, I know. I appreciate that. Thank you. I got it. Oh, thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, Drew. Bye, darling. Bye. I'll take as many calls as you want, but did you want to ask more questions or? Yes, I did. I did. Let's talk about -- I want to -- before we -- I see you all in there, be patient, but I want to talk about this book. I want to get you all about this next book that you're writing. Oh yeah. Tell us a little bit about this. Well, I love writing. I mean, I've been writing for -- well, since I was a child, actually. And I've been very fortunate to have friends who are in the literary world or write scripts. Obviously, write books. And my mother was a writer of sorts. And so I've just always been fascinated by words and stories, and I think it's profoundly important. And in any event, working with Bill Bell, he was someone that really, really understood the words between the lines that weren't on the page. He knew how to pull story out of air, which is great. And it was very, very inspiring to me being in Hollywood and writing on the side, not published at that time. But it was another part of my writing journey, studying his scripts. I've kept almost all of my scripts, believe it or not. Not every single, but I have a tremendous archive of my scripts. And if you're going to be a writer, you've got to want to read, and you've got to want to study. And so I have, and so I did, and got in the New York Times with my first book. The second book that you're referring to is my first novel, and it's titled Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva. And that'll be hitting the stand summer 2010, June 2010. I'm actually on the schedule already. Yeah, it's going to be really a lot of fun. It's fiction. I had a lot of fun. But go ahead. What do you want to know? I really wanted to know, keeping those scripts part of your inspiration for getting into the whole writing thing. For this novel, for this second one, keeping those, keeping those there. And also, how would you, right now, from everything that you heard tonight from the callers and myself, how would, if you could answer this, how would you fix why it are? Besides the stuff you mentioned earlier, what else would you do to fix the show? Well, I can't say that I'm up to speed on the story lines, except for the ones that people have been twittering about, and in a very human way, they're upset. And not only black women, I mean, women and men are upset about a variety of things, most poignantly, I think, with character Devon sleeping with his foster stepmother. I would think that we would need to explore the writing team. I really, really, really believe it would behoove the show to organize and hire a black writer, not only because the black writer would bring a flavor to the writing that would be superlative, but would also not only write for black family, but for the whole show. It's like someone who's black that does hair professionally. Well, they do all hair. They don't do just black hair. They do all hair. But if we're number one, and we are number one, the young and the restless, is number one, why are we so far behind in terms of diversity behind the camera? And so I'd like to see diversity. Let us not turn to economic downturn and financial tsunamis. Let us look to fairness and the disparity therein and share the wealth. You know, I understand that NBC cut out five hours of programming. There is a wealth of talent out there dying for a job, not to mention films that have been on hold. And since Y&R is a number one program, I know people that do films that would consider doing the young and the restless if they had the opportunity. These are people of color in particular, but not exclusively people of color that would like a shot. But we're talking about how one would suggest resolution to thinking audience. And I think that we need to look at the inner workings of the enterprise. Absolutely. Absolutely. This, I believe, I know this next card is from Illinois. You're on the line to explain. Are you a bad person? Hello, Victoria. It's an honor to talk to you. I'm a huge fan. Thank you. I've seen you started on young and the restless when Drew was around the way. And it is a huge absence. I mean, since you've been gone, you just don't know what you have till it's gone. And I hope that the young and the restless realizes that there's been a vacuum in the winter's family since you left. It's just you were the anchor. And I just hope they come to their senses and bring you back. And I just, there's just nobody I can think of in daytime that has taken African-American woman that has just been so the way the character evolved. And it just, it was amazing what you did in the time that you were there. And hopefully that it's really, I love, I love your work. So I just hope you come back. Thank you so much. Is there anything that I want to add to what the gentleman said that one of the things just to piggyback your, your previous ask, one of the things that I would love to see the character do is go back to her classical ballet. I never understood why that was shelved. And so many people asked for it. And believe it or not, I still get up on point. So I was just surprised that that, that that wasn't used more. Maria Bell is a big fine arts advocate. And I know that it was sort of used as a segue briefly, I think in storyline with Lily. But this is an opportunity to really underscore the importance of arts in people's lives. The elderly depend upon it in nursing homes. Children depend on it in terms of a learning tool. Many children don't learn the same. They learn through music and dance and painting and writing. And the idea that we have this extraordinary opportunity on the number one show and the nation in daytime television licensed, I believe, to over two dozen countries around the world. We have an extraordinary opportunity to teach and show. And we really need to continue to be ahead of the curve. As far as I came off, I'll do whatever I can do to write emails and that to try to get you back or let my voice know. Is there anything that, because I've never done this before as far as being vocal about that, is there something that we can put in the emails and the letters to get their attention? Do you have any insight into that? No, I don't. Actually, let me just be clear. I was approached a week and a half ago. And it was brought to my attention that there was this huge grassroots campaign going on. I think it's great. I've always said that I wouldn't climb back up the cliff or up from the dregs of the swamps, so wherever Jerusalem is. But trust and believe, I love the fans. If I'm invited back, that'll be a conversation. But I did not start this campaign. I appreciate it, and I respect it, but I'm not advocating for myself. I would have to be approached. Okay, so that definitely clears up everything. Because I was here in a script already penned out for Jerusalem's return that was growing around the internet. That's not true. No one's called my representation. No one's called my representation and no one's called me. But I think what's interesting is the psychology of it all. I know many daytime actors who have the same tenure as I do, some more, some a little less. And they don't ever need a national campaign to bring them back to a show. And so I have to ask, why is that the case with this particular character? Is she that strong? Does she intimidate? Or do I intimidate a particular group of people behind the scenes? I mean, it's very suspicious. I think. And Matt, I don't know if you feel the same way. I'll when you answer this question, as far as I'm concerned, Drew had a presence on the show and not just with the Winters family. Yes, but does that carry? But wait, well, let's not blur the line. Is that carrying over to real life and behind the camera? Because I really do care about the show. I care about, I care about change and I care about integrity and I care about if you're going to give me a suitcase that another actor had in another scene. And I care about the hair and I care about continuity and I care about with coming out of my mouth because I know who's watching at home. And I care about ratings. So, did that get in somebody's way? Did that step on someone's toe? I mean, tell me. Does it carry its weight off the camera? That's a very good question because the part of you feel like it doesn't on most cases. If it did, it'd be a lot better than what we have been getting. Should we weigh in? Should we weigh in with a caller? Yeah, please. Matt, do you want to fill in with that one a little bit? How do you feel about that? Yeah, Victoria brings up a lot of good points. It just doesn't make sense. It really doesn't because there is, I don't even know what to say because you really got to get into the minds of what's driving all this. Those are valid questions and I have, yeah, I don't even have the insight into it. Well, what drove you to go ahead and be a part of this? What's going on now with this campaign? What's driving you to do this now? Because once Victoria was off the show, it was her not being there. It just took that whole effort of the families in general city and it's gone. They've been having a hard time finding things that work and with her from the beginning, she was just a big anchor to that family is gone. So it's so obvious as a viewer to it. And just when I've seen these tweets on Twitter and that about possibly her returning, it just made me so excited because I loved the show. I've watched it for 15 years and I want your silly back on the show. It's so sorely missed. Thank you. Oh, you're very welcome. I really appreciate that. I also want to thank the fans for following me around the United States for the last two and a half years. I really appreciate it. There hasn't been a lecture or a book signing that you haven't come to and asked me, "Are you coming back?" But I have to thank you for buying the book, for buying the women who raised me and I know you're going to buy Secrets of a So Farber Diva. But more than that, you brought me your love and I really, really appreciated that. So that's a big shout out to everybody. And all you folks up in Canada too. That's right. That's right. I mean a lot of these fans. You know, they love, they support everything that you're doing. And they wouldn't be here if they didn't work for you like that. Well, it's a family affair. And I think that strong personalities sometimes get misread. And I think sometimes people fear what they admire. I think that, you know, communications certainly broke down while I was there. And that's not, you know, a platform I want to work from. I want to work in a place where we're all in the sandbox together. Kicking butt. And I certainly got that even though we didn't get to do it enough with Eric Braden. And a number of actors on the show obviously, Kristoff St. John and I were, you know, we've been, you know, married for a dog's age. And that's always been fun. We've already worked, we've always worked it out. You know, and there are a number of actors. We can go down the whole laundry list where it's been an extraordinary experience, brighten the core in particular. But go ahead. I'll let you, yeah, I just wanted to say that. And again, I'm big fan Victoria and I really hope we hope to see you again on Yonge and the Russell's. Thank you. Not the same without you. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the Bell Show and thank you for having me. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Talk to you. Thanks, Nabelle. Talk to you all. Bye. That's great. That's great. I think we have, we have time for about two more before we wrap things up here. Let's get this one from Maryland from the line. Hey, Maryland. Maryland, I know you don't have one. Now, I know you've got an answer. If you're not going to answer, I'm going to take this one from Massachusetts. Yeah, yeah. Let's do Massachusetts. Let's do Boston. All right, Massachusetts. Here we go. Hey, my Bob Burke. How you doing? Okay. Now I grew up in Roxbury and you're a tester. Go ahead. Who's that? This is Rodney from, I'm from Brockton, Massachusetts. Hello. How are you and as well? I'm good. I miss you on the show. The show is not the same. I found you. The winter's missing their backbone. You wore the backbone of the winter family. Don't get it twisted. You're the best. My question is, I'm going to go a little different direction. Go ahead. I miss the chemistry between you and Dipetta Sherwood when she was literally. Now you and her have had that mother daughter chemistry that, I don't know why. She's a mini-drill. What is she? She was a midrill. She was a Spitfire just like Victoria on the show. I don't know if she, did she learn that from you? Did you give us some pointers? Because she was, she was excellent. I know if that's a Crystal Kalita. I think she's good, but she's not really. If the better Sherwood was really, what was your opinion when they got rid of her? I don't know what was your thoughts on that. I didn't have a thought. I was blindsided. I got a phone call over the weekend and they said, Dipetta's been let go and Crystal's back in and I went, huh? I was shocked. I was not given an option. I was not given the right of first refusal on that one. And as you say, no disrespect to Crystal. She's, you know, a shark and a hard worker. I will say that when Dipetta came on the scene, people left and right said, "Oh my God, she is so your daughter." I thought she got short changed. I got, I think that the way that that was handled, it could have, it could have been handled with more grace. It was a bit gritty. Exactly. And I also missed, I think you also have some good camera. You and Sharon in case, when you and Sharon, you and Sharon are the best friends. But you believe they were best friends. And you can help right now. So Sharon, she's a hot mess right now. So she grew right now to like slap her a little bit and get her back in check. That was where you can count on you as Rassilla. Because Rassilla was like, I felt like she was everyone. She's like everyone's friend. You can go and talk to her. She told you like it was. You don't get that on the show right now. It's just missing so much right now. And they've brought Tonya Lee Williams back to do nothing. So I don't understand. We really do need Rassilla back on the show. I will write, I will email, blog, whatever I need to do to get you back on the show. Did you hear L. Sharpton is going to be picketing outside the show next week? Is that true? I'm joking. That was about the joy. Relax everybody. Relax. Relax. Relax. Back up. Back up. Sit back down. Back up. Back up. Look back up now. All right. All right. I almost offered that one for the split second there. Hold up. Hold up, right? Hold up, right? Hold up. It was an honor to talk to you, Ms. Raul. Thank you. Thanks for the honor to talk to you and hopefully you'll be back. It's not this year, maybe next year, but the winners need their backbone back. They need their backbone back. Okay. Okay. I really appreciate the call. Thank you, Ms. Raul. All right. Do you have one more call? Oh, and I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yes. Do we have time for one more call? No, no, you're not going to say. Yes. We do have a question in the chat room, which I completely forgot about. Go ahead. We wanted to know about Eve's Bayou. Oh, yeah. With that. What was that like working with Debbie Morgan in that movie as well as doing that movie? Oh, well, speaking of Debbie Morgan, am I, I'm just so proud that she's been nominated for a daytime Emmy. I am too. Oh. And I'm her host family when she comes into Los Angeles. Oh, wonderful. That's wonderful. Debbie is an extraordinary person. She has an extraordinary instrument. It's very rare. It can navigate primetime, daytime, feature film. I mean, who can say that they've worked with both Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington, Oscar award winner, and Oscar nominee. I mean, she's she's someone that has incredible power in her performances. And I know all my children, you know, they're extremely happy to have her back home. Working with Debbie, our scenes were together. We shared the film. And who knows, maybe one day we'll have the opportunity to share the screen together in one scene. But I love working with Casey Lemons. And of course, I had the opportunity of working with Samuel Jackson. But you know, my feelings, you know, in terms of what could fix a show that I love, loved then and still love today, are well documented. I mean, I really don't have to go into every nut and bolt. It's well documented. I think a lot of it still has not changed. I don't know why he wouldn't take the opportunity to mentor and prepare the show for the next generation. I mean, when you think in terms of, for instance, ballet companies, they used to be with American Ballet Theatre, you have American Ballet Theatre II, you have Joffrey II, you have School of American Ballet and you have New York City Ballet. I mean, just that in the ballet world, Twilight Thart is an apprentice company. DTH had an apprentice. What I'm saying is, is that why aren't we apprenticing? Why aren't we setting up our show for the next generation of actors? How can you do that when you whittle a cast down to one and a half two people? Yeah. How is that preparing? How is that setting the example as a number one day time show watched by over 20 million people per week and seen around the world, including in Africa? Yes. How is that teaching us how to do television right, real color television? If I can add on to that too, with that point, I want to backtrack a little bit as to when we had the last, the last color before the Massachusetts color and why they probably think you would make, you would have such an emphasis being back on the show. There's no strong woman, no strong black woman, not as a black woman, but no strong woman on this show anymore. Drew was a strong woman. That could be a problem. That's a problem. Sometimes that's a liability to walk the walk and talk the talk. Not everyone's excited about me betraying a strong black woman, on and off the stage. When I come into work, I'm not there just to recite lines. I care about what's going on behind the scenes. I care about the details and I care about the disparity. And it can't grow up spending 18 years in a welfare system as a foster child and not come out an advocate. And unfortunately, it's not all embraced. I'll say Bill Bell definitely embraced my spirit and incorporated it into the work we collaborated it on. But I can't say everyone since it has. I've been punished for it. I've taken a lot of heat and a lot of punches. And I'm not here on the phone to document that. I'm here to say that I love performing for my audience. I love the legacy of Bill Bell and his wife, Lee Philip Bell. I do respect Maria Bell. I think that she would be open to dialogue if she believed that it would improve the quality of the program. I understand we've lost a lot of viewers. There's a way to get them back that they have to be willing to swallow their ego. Hopefully we can make that happen. Definitely make that happen. And this last caller is from California. I want to get this last caller in here. 818 Erica, California, you're on the line. Would that be me? Yeah. Why are they there? Hi. I didn't press the one so I wasn't actually expecting to speak here. How are you doing? This is Carla. We've actually spoken before and we were talking. You had a project in mind a couple of years ago about Queen Charlotte. And I can talk to you later about that. But anyway, like I said, I wasn't really expecting to talk. I was really just listening because my computer was acting up. The caller previously from Massachusetts made a comment about the chemistry between you and David Asher would. Yes. And I was just going to say that there was one episode I was watching that was when, I guess it was when she and Danny had gotten married or I don't remember exactly, but your dialogue or Drusilla was dialoguing with Danny. And Lily's character was standing behind you, chirping about something. And you turned around and you simply said, "Hi!" And I remembered that scene for the longest time because I said, "Where does she pull this from?" Knowing your background and understanding, you know, the mixed heritage would say. I just thought, "Wow, this woman is so observant." And you could only have been around black women to have come up with that one utterance. Well, I appreciate that acknowledgement. It just so happened that my mothers were Jewish. They were European. They were Jamaican. They were African-American. But the place that I pull, thank you for saying where does this come from. I have a reserve above my pelvic bone. And I used everything I had when I walked on that set. I learned my lines three different ways. And I think you knew that. And I think that's what you saw. I came prepared because I was passionate about what I did. And you cannot, you cannot ask for everyone in the schoolyard to be excited about that. Right. And so all you can do is you. I loved accessing different personalities that I had come to know in my journey. Drusilla is a compilation of many people I know. Strong women. And they served me very well. But I do want to add to the overall conversation that CBS launched a re-addressing of diversity earlier in the year. And I hope we get to see that on The Young and the Restless. Yeah. I hope so as well. And I will just kind of echo what everyone else is saying. I'm not necessarily a daily follower of the show. My parents watch it, so I like to keep abreast of what's happening. I kind of chat about it with them. But the writing on the show, in my opinion, has just become unbelievable, which is what I think you guys were saying earlier. And I'm hoping that they find a way to, as you've been saying, bring back the diversity, or I don't know if they're bringing it back, but at least start up in front of the camera, behind the camera. And because I'm a writer and more producer, I'm always for promoting certainly behind the scenes. I mean, it's not that they're a lack of writers and diversified writers. We exist. I'm one of them. Right. And it has to be a matter of willingness at the executive level to break the cycle, incorporate diversity in the writing team. I think we'll see an extraordinary change. Complacency is something that, and I'm not accusing anyone of being complacent, I'm just saying complacency is easy to be had when you have a cushy job like a soap opera. Right. When you know a paycheck is going to come in every week, you can phone in things, you can phone in performances, you can phone in anything. And you really have to get a wake call today because your job can be gone tomorrow. And you have to understand that there's someone else around the corner that has a fire under their ass and they're willing to do whatever it takes to do the job and do it well. And that's where we have to get to. Never mind all the high school nonsense. Let's do business. And if it's about keeping a show at number one, if it's about keeping your ratings, if you really love your audience, then you're going to do what needs to be done to make it what it should be. And young in the rest, this is one of the most loyal audiences that I know of. And you deserve better. So demand it. It's called the power of the purse. Yeah. Called the power of the wallet. Demand change and you shall get it. Just ask President Obama. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming on. Have a good night in California. Thank you. Yeah, take care. Bye bye. Where is this time going? Wow. I think I could sit on here and do this show for like another hour with you. I'm not kidding. This has been amazing. I'm so blessed and so honored that you were here with us tonight. And everything that you said was on point and on key about everything that has been going on. And fans, I encourage you, keep writing in and stuff. You want to still look back on. Let your voice be heard. You were doing a great, you were doing a great job tonight. Keep on continuing it. Yrbme@tvc.cbs.com. Check out her books, The Woman Who Raised Me, and also her book coming out in 2010. They asked, are you doing a book tour for that one when that comes out? Oh, not only am I doing a book tour, but on weekends, I'll be doing a one woman show that will accept the secrets of a soap property. So get ready dolls. Get ready for that one. You find out about that. Definitely let us know. I want to promote that for sure. Absolutely. It's been such a pleasure. I just want to thank everyone for listening or calling in. And I especially want to thank everyone at Buzzworthy for inviting me on the show. Absolutely. And I want to give you your congratulations as well, Miss Newlywed. I definitely want to make sure I got that out there before you left because I didn't get to wish you that. So congratulations. Yes, I'm Mrs. Radcliffe Bailey now. Uh-huh. Yes. Very much. And we love to have you back on your Emmy time. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Wow, you guys. Thank you guys so, so much for tuning into the show tonight. It was a pleasure to have you all here for this show. I want to thank everybody in the chat room. I want to thank everybody who called in. Make sure you guys are with us within the week, into next week. We're going to be in California for a few days. If you want to find us, we are going to be as the young and the restless events that's taking place this Friday and this Saturday. We're also going to be at the daytime Emmy Awards. So make sure you guys check us out there. But from all of us now, this isn't about really sending off from Buzzworthy making sure you guys get the latest buzz with Buzzworthy. We'll see you guys next week. Check us out online with our recap videos of what's up place over the weekend. Follow us on Twitter @buzzworthyradio and join our fan page on Facebook @buzzworthyradio.net. See you guys. Take care. [ Silence ]