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It looks like General Hospital will continue to have a kiki with mob princess Lauren ‘Kiki’ Jerome. Daytime Confidential is exclusively reporting that Hayley Erin (ex-Abby, Y&R) has been cast as GH’s new Kiki.
The 20-year old actress replaces Daytime Emmy winner Kristen Alderson, who opted not to renew her contract with the long running ABC soap. Alderson finished taping on January 15 and will air into early February.
In a video published on YouTube, Alderson detailed her reasons for leaving the role she originated in 2013. “This decision is purely spur of the moment, kind of an epiphany that I had, that I’ve been in this amazing little soap bubble since I was 6 years old and now I’m 23. I’ve never done anything else. I’ve never pushed myself. I never challenged myself to do other things, and not necessarily in the industry, but just things in life, like taking a class here or there for something other than acting, and getting back into singing, which you guys know I love to do, so that would be really exciting.” The actress said she’s prepared for the challenges and possible failures, and she “couldn’t be more grateful for the support” the fans have given her.
Hayley Erin played the role of Abby Newman on The Young and the Restless from 2008-2010. The actress was let go when then-head writer and executive producer Maria Arena Bell decided to age the character to her mid-20’s, tapping Guiding Light vet Emme Rylan (now GH’s Lulu Spencer-Falconeri) to take over the role.
Alderson sent a congratulatory message to Erin on Twitter earlier this evening.
The actress’ credits post-Y&R include appearances on True Jackson, VP, A.N.T. Farm, Melissa and Joey, The Rebels and Austin & Ally.
No start date for Erin has been announced.
Our Take: Debating whether or not a recast was necessary is a futile exercise. I hope GH uses this recast as an opportunity to reset the character. Kiki started off with much promise, but eventually morphed into a watered down version of Starr Manning that One Life to Live character GH isn’t allowed to mention. Hayley Erin is a good actress. She was very entertaining as Y&R’s teenage Abby and I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do on GH. Hopefully fans give her a chance to make the character her own. And hopefully GH doesn’t waste this opportunity to inject life into their stale young adult set. Also, super classy of Alderson to congratulate her replacement on taking over the role. That doesn’t happen very often.
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