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New “Young & Restless” Adam Newman Wants You to Tell Him If You Hate Him

Justin Hartley is hoping for feedback from fans

Oct 22, 2014 15:59 GMT  ·  By
Justin Hartley is the new Adam Newman on “The Young and the Restless,” taking over from Michael Muhney
   Justin Hartley is the new Adam Newman on “The Young and the Restless,” taking over from Michael Muhney

Starting November 5, hit soap opera “The Young and the Restless” is getting a new Adam Newman: Michael Muhney, the actor who had been playing the fan-favorite character for years, was fired in December 2013 and producers eventually decided on bringing Justin Hartley to replace him.

Hartley already has a few notches on his television belt, both daytime and primetime, with “Passions,” “Revenge,” and “Smallville,” but the Adam Newman role is probably the one he’s most excited about. Or so he seems.

Hartley knows he has huge shoes to fill

To promote his debut on the time-enduring soap opera, Hartley sat down for a chat with The Wrap, and it’s obvious that he’s nervous, excited, eager, and happy to get started as Newman – and that he’s all these things at once.

He knows he has huge shoes to fill, he’s aware of the scandal that broke after Muhney was fired and how the decision to let him go infuriated and alienated many loyal fans, and he knows his take on Adam might not be received warmly by all at first.

At the same time, he wants to leave his own mark on the character, though he admits that he can’t stray too much from Muhney’s portrayal. However, he jokes, he will bring more height to the role because he’s taller, and he will also try to bring more levity, in those scenes where there is room for some.

Hartley is determined to do justice to the character and he wants to have fun with it. He also hopes fans will at least give him a fighting chance in the role, even those who swore off the soap when Muhney was dropped.

If you hate him, let him know

Above all, Hartley hopes fans will be giving him feedback on his performance. Social media is an amazing thing when it comes to keeping a finger on the pulse of things, and he actually sounds as if he’s determined to stay online to see how fans react to his Adam.

If they hate him, he wants to know it and he even expects them to tell him so.

“People are going to have their opinions, which I think is great — I welcome it and I love it,” he says.

“And if you have four Twitter followers, you can say to them what you think about someone else. And you can talk to me! You can tell me that you hate my guts, you can tell me that you love me. It's great! I've been very, very fortunate to have had the kind of response that I've gotten, because I know it could easily go the other way,” Hartley continues.

Whether fans will accept him as Adam and as Muhney’s replacement still remains to be seen.

The Michael Muhney debacle, a situation handled horribly by producers

Rumors said that Muhney had been fired from the show because he groped and harassed a co-star, who then went to the brass and threatened she’d go to the police if he wasn’t let go immediately. The actor has denied all such allegations in the meantime (and truth be told, there is no evidence to suggest that said harassment ever happened), but producers failed fans when they refused to acknowledge in any way the furor his firing caused online.

Whatever the reason Muhney was fired, no one from the brass said anything about it publicly, as if they were hoping this would die down if they refused to acknowledge it. The opposite happened, and the more time passed, the angrier the fans got.

A ray of hope appeared a few months later, when another rumor said that Muhney had been spotted on set, which meant he was in negotiations to get his job back. Shortly before Hartley was confirmed as his replacement, Muhney broke the news to fans: he had been considered for the role again but things didn’t pan out. He was done with “The Young and the Restless” for good.

That said, are you eager to see the new Adam Newman on the soap opera? Do you think Hartley will do a good job as Muhney’s replacement, or do you plan on not even giving him a chance? Let us know in the comments section below.