Josh Griffith Y&R exit became public after he resigned from his head writer duties at The Young and the Restless by the end of June 2026. Cast and crew were told on June 26, and the show is moving ahead without a named replacement.
June 26 at The Young and the Restless
Griffith had held the head writer job since 2019 and served as executive producer since 2023, so this is not a routine handoff. It removes the person steering both the day-to-day writing room and, until May, the production side of the soap.
In May, he stepped back from those production duties and Sally McDonald took them over. That split is the clearest sign the transition was already under way before the resignation became public, and it leaves one leadership slot open at the center of the show.
Griffith’s 2026 stories
The timing also cuts against the way Griffith had been talking about 2026 stories earlier in the year. He said, “It’s going to be jam-packed with intrigue, mystery, suspense, and love. We have some fun surprises up our sleeve for 2026.”
That promise matters because he was not a new arrival testing the waters. Griffith first worked on The Young and the Restless from 2006 to 2008, returned from 2012 to 2013, and later wrote for Days of our Lives in 2015 before another stint on the soap.
What the vacancy leaves
His recent run also included introducing Claire Newman and Audra Charles and resurrecting Matt Clark, which means the next head writer inherits characters and story threads already in motion. For a soap, that is not a clean restart; it is a live rewrite of material that has already been planted.
Griffith’s career reaches back to 1988, when he began writing for Santa Barbara, and to 1997, when he co-created Sunset Beach with Bob Guza. Those credits explain why this exit is being watched as a leadership change, not just a staffing note.
The unresolved piece is the writing chair itself. Who will replace Griffith as head writer of The Young and the Restless?
