Scott Elrod Joins ‘The Young and the Restless’ as Joe Clark

After nearly three years in Genoa City, viewers will finally get to meet the ex-husband of Avery Bailey Clarke (Jessica Collins)! TV Guide’s Michael Logan reports Scott Elrod has landed the contract role of Joe Clark.

Joe and Avery’s marriage hit the rocks when Avery began an affair with childhood friend Dylan McAvoy (Steve Burton), even becoming pregnant with his child at one point! So why is Joe coming to town now? Who knows? But according to Logan’s scoop, “Viewers can expect Joe to have more than a few tricks up his sleeve as he crosses paths with several key Y&R characters.”

Scott Elrod is expected to begin airing in early October. The actor’s previous TV credits include Men in Trees, CSI: Miami, NCIS: Los Angeles and Anger Management; film credits include Lone Survivor and the Oscar winning film Argo. Though this is Elrod’s first daytime soap role, this isn’t the actor’s first encounter with the genre. In 2006 he appeared in MyNetwork TV daily primetime soap Desire.

Hopefully Y&R ties Joe to the villainous Matt Clark (previously played by Eddie Cibrian and Rick Hearst). It would instantly put him at odds with Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon (Sharon Case) simply by being related to their former enemy. Whatever the show’s plans are for Joe, hopefully he brings some much needed drama to Avery and Dylan’s relationship.

I know people will be ready to scream, “Oh my god! More newbies!” Here’s the thing, new characters are necessary to inject new blood into the show. You can’t have the same 10 people interacting with each other all of the time. Elrod’s got an impressive resume and hopefully his character is interesting enough to connect with fans.