Daytime TV Star Eric Braeden Has No Patience For Actors Who Bash Soap Operas

There's a long-held stereotype that movies are more prestigious than TV shows. With the advance of streaming, there's been a veritable small-screen renaissance that began around the early 2000s with shows like "Succession," and "Game of Thrones," which dominated the zeitgeist. But, what has largely been left behind in the debate is daytime television, like soap operas, which are assumed by many to be beneath both primetime TV and movies. And yet, it would be a grave error to think that soap operas don't require any level of skill and preparation. Just ask Eric Braeden, who plays Victor Newman, the iconic antihero on "The Young and the Restless." 

It's a role that he's held since 1980, and the Emmy winner is not impressed with actors who don't take soap operas seriously. In 2025, Braeden was on the very first episode of the "Soapy" podcast, which is hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart, from "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Days of Our Lives," respectively. Rikaart brought up how some people who work on soaps, or even just daytime TV more generally, consider it a "training ground," which he really didn't appreciate, and Braeden heartily agreed with him.  

"It's a stupid prejudice based on absolute ignorance," the actor asserted, in response to those who look down on his work. Eric Braeden, who grew up in Germany during World War II, also discussed how he'd personally received lackluster responses from colleagues when he shared that he was in a soap opera. But the "Young and the Restless" star pointed out that they're "all dead, or they're all gone, or they haven't worked in years," noting, "I'm still at it." In a business known for being fickle, a decades-spanning career is impressive.

It's worth noting that the fan-favorite "Young and the Restless" star has advocated for soap operas for years. Eric Braeden even put Eva Longoria on blast for slamming soaps, after the actor made disparaging comments about her time on the long-running show, when she was just starting out. Braeden told the CBC in 2017 that he considered soap operas to be the "hardest working industry in our business." It all comes down to the incredibly fast pace, with the Emmy winner arguing, "For actors, it is the hardest test. I do between 10 and 60 pages a day." Soap operas like "The Young and the Restless" film five or six episodes a week, compared to primetime shows, which spend a week or more on a single episode. 

"The Young and the Restless" also puts out around 250 episodes each year. That's quite the schedule. Somewhat shockingly, Braeden confessed to People that he "didn't even know what a soap was" when he first started out. Once Braeden started on "The Young and the Restless," he wasn't immediately a fan of the show's quick pace. Moreover, the actor was actually only supposed to be in the role for three months. It was Victor Newman's fascinating backstory that convinced him to remain on the show in the long run. 

"He talked about having grown up in an orphanage, where he had been left by his destitute mother since he was 7 years old," Braeden recalled. "Once I played that scene, I saw an enormous amount of emotional possibilities for the actor to play, you know? That's why I stayed, really." Fans are certainly glad he did since we can't imagine the show without him.