How This ‘Young and the Restless’ Newman Nearly Became a ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ Forrester

Mark Grossman has been bringing The Young and the Restless’ Adam Newman to life for the past seven years, making the role his own after the character had been presumed dead for a few years. Now, the secret is out that Grossman almost became another CBS soap legacy character back in 2019.

A Soap Opera Casting Shocker

During a recent casting panel discussion hosted by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Days of our Lives’ Marnie Saitta, The Young and the Restless’ Greg Salmon, The Bold and the Beautiful’s Christy Dooley, and Beyond the Gates’ Kim Coleman talked about their careers and what went into finding the perfect actor for any role. That’s where Salmon explained his thought process regarding re-casting Adam. The role had previously been played by Justin Hartley, who had gone on to primetime fame on This Is Us.

“That was a really tough role to recast,” Salmon said. “Before Justin, there were two other people who played the part. Adam Newman is central to the show. This is Victor Newman’s son, so it’s an incredibly important character … I remember Mark came in and read with Eric Braeden and a few other members of the Newman family. His energy was just off the charts. It felt like this is how Adam should be. Eventually, I think the audience really accepted him.”

After Salmon told his story, Dooley revealed how Grossman almost never made it to Genoa City.

“He tested for us,” Dooley admitted. “Mark came in and read for the role of Thomas Forrester, and he was my choice for the role.”

Ultimately, Matthew Atkinson landed the part of Thomas and has played Ridge and Taylor’s prodigal son ever since. Before landing his B&B role, Atkinson played Austin Travers on Y&R from 2014 to 2015, proving that the soap role is small, indeed.

The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful air weekdays on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus.