‘The Young and The Restless’ POLL: Hunter King On Recurring Status – Will Her Regular Presence Be Missed? VOTE!

Hunter King (Summer) has shifted to recurring status on ‘The Young and the Restless’. (Y&R) Her upgrade to full-time cast member stature on CBS’ prime-time comedy ‘Life In Pieces’ necessitated this anticipated change. But, how will it affect Y&R’s fans?

The Summer character was born approximately 10 years ago in real time. Phyllis’ (then played by Michelle Stafford) baby was potentially Jack’s (Peter Bergman), or Nick’s (Joshua Morrow), child at the time. Jack famously delivered Summer inside a halted elevator at Newman Towers. Poor Sharon (Sharon Case) was written into the middle of a paternity controversy that wasn’t fully resolved until just a few years ago, resulting in Nick conclusively learning that he’s Summer’s biological father.

Y&R allowed King to nicely develop the role of Summer after the character was time-shifted from a child to an older teenager in 2012. King subsequently worked a number of major arcs during the past four years. Fen (Max Ehrich) was a friend since childhood who Summer got into trouble with for a number of reasons, all of which were eventually resolved. Kyle (most recently played by Lachlan Buchanan) was someone she knew for years and eventually developed romantic feelings for. Austin (Matthew Atkinson) was a rush-crush who became her first husband but was later killed by Mark Harding (Chris McKenna). Building through this summer, Luca (Miles Gaston Villanueva) nearly became groom number 2 before he was sent to prison.

King’s solid work during the period when Stafford’s character was in a coma and when Gina Tognoni broke that spell deserves mention. However, there is a segment of the fan base that would disagree. Like Mariah (Camryn Grimes), this portion of the audience could only see King’s character as ‘Snowflake’ and didn’t feel that she added to Genoa City’s atmosphere.

Attractive women who are successful actors can become targets for various reasons. Non-fact-based conjecture regarding King was doggedly cited regarding the sudden departure of a former cast member a few years ago as evidence of this point. To-date no one officially connected to Y&R, the actor noted himself or King have ever verified shrill speculation. The truth is, only the people who were directly involved actually know what happened, if anything.

The ubiquitous nature of the internet and the opinion-driven aspect of social media exposed how technology can be willfully used for negative reasons through the situation noted above. To her credit, King won back-to-back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series in 2014 and 2015, which was the challenging time period in question. As always, all balanced souls wish King well in her developing career.

All fans of ‘The Young and the Restless’ express their opinions on a regular basis. Will they miss seeing King full-time now that she’s transitioned to recurring status on Y&R? Vote in our poll below!