Question: when was the young and the restless first aired?
Answer: March 26 , 1973

The Young and the Restless Also known as Y&R Genre Soap opera Drama Created by William J. Bell Lee Phillip Bell Written by Mal Young Directed by Sally McDonald Owen Renfroe Conal O'Brien Casey Childs Michael Eilbaum See below Starring Present cast Former cast Theme music composer RC Cates Sharon Farber Rick Krizman Dominic Messinger Opening theme '' Nadia 's Theme '' by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin , Jr . Country of origin United States Original language ( s ) English No. of episodes 11,000 ( as of September 1 , 2016 ) Production Executive producer ( s ) Mal Young ( and others ) Producer ( s ) Supervising Producers John Fisher Anthony Morina Producer Mary O'Leary Coordinating Producer Matthew J. Olsen Associate Producer Jimmy Freeman See below Location ( s ) CBS Television City Los Angeles , California Camera setup Multiple - camera setup Running time 30 minutes ( 1973 -- 80 ) 60 minutes ( 1980 -- present ) Production company ( s ) Bell Dramatic Serial Company ( 1973 -- present ) Corday Productions ( 1973 -- present ) Screen Gems ( 1973 -- 74 ) Columbia Pictures Television ( 1974 -- 2000 ) CPT Holdings , Inc. ( 1988 -- present ) Columbia TriStar Television ( 2000 -- 2002 ) Sony Pictures Television ( 2002 -- present ) Distributor Sony Pictures Television Release Original network CBS Picture format NTSC ( 480i ) ( 1973 -- 2001 ) HDTV 1080i ( 2001 -- present ) Audio format Mono ( 1973 -- 87 ) Stereo ( 1987 -- present ) Original release March 26 , 1973 ( 1973 - 03 - 26 ) -- present ( present ) Chronology Related shows As the World Turns The Bold and the Beautiful External links Website