The Young and the Restless veteran director Sally McDonald is named the show's new co-executive producer

The Young and the Restless has promoted director and former Y&R producer Sally McDonald to the position of co-executive producer. The veteran has a long history with the top-rated soap opera and CBS, the network on which the show airs.

The Young and the Restless, Sally McDonald gets promoted

Soap Opera Digest broke the news of McDonald's appointment. She will be working with Josh Griffith, head writer/executive producer, Y&R. She began her career at CBS Television City over 40 years ago, working as a typist. She later became a production supervisor on such shows as Win, Lose, or Draw, Card Sharks, and The $10,000 Pyramid.

Today, CBS Television City is simply known as "Television City," as CBS sold off its ownership of the production facility in 2018.

McDonald became Y&R's production supervisor in 1989. She recalled to Variety last year that former executive producer Edward Scott gave her a shot at directing. McDonald first worked as an associate director before becoming a director.

She was a member of the show's directing team when it took home the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2011, and 2019. McDonald also earned a DGA (Directors Guild of America) award in 1997.

Cassie's death

McDonald has directed many memorable episodes of Y&R over the years. She recounted to Variety last year for a story on women directors on soaps that she directed the show in which Cassie (Camryn Grimes, now Mariah) was lying in a hospital bed, fighting to stay alive.

Cassie's parents, Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon (Sharon Case), were by her bedside. To emphasize the severity of Cassie's predicament, McDonald had a camera shoot from the patient's bed. Viewers saw Sharon and Nick desperately holding onto Cassie as if they were literally trying to keep her from dying.

“That was the true sense of what the shot was," McDonald shared. Asked about how someone can break into directing soaps, or doing anything in show business, McDonald recommended, "Find someone you want to emulate and be a ‘pest.’ Don’t stop asking questions.”

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While the article focused on women directors, McDonald noted that it was talent that mattered, ultimately. "There are some fine women directors out there," McDonald said. "I say that about men, too. If you’re talented, you’re talented. It doesn’t matter what your gender is.”

Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless on CBS and Paramount Plus.

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