TV Tropes describes it as a "More Popular Replacement" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MorePopularReplacement). There are probably plenty of side character recasts that people generally loved but can you think of main character recast success stories?

Sharon Gless as Chris Cagney on Cagney and Lacey.

TV Tropes describes it as a "More Popular Replacement" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MorePopularReplacement). There are probably plenty of side character recasts that people generally loved but can you think of main character recast success stories?

I can't think of many from sitcoms or primetime dramas; but this was a fairly common occurrence on daytime soaps when I watched them. I can think of three examples of recasts that became more popular than the original actor or actress.

---Rachel Wyndham as Rachel Cory on Another World--- Maybe not "more popular than" but certainly at least "as popular as" the original actress Robin Strasser; Rachel took the character in a new direction; from a villainess to a heroine, a change that occured over time as the new actress made the character her own.

-----Erika Slezak as Victoria Lord on One Life To Live--Slezak, winner of a historic six daytime Emmy awards for Lead Actress, was actually the third actress to play Viki (original actress Gillian Spencer left the role for other projects and replacement Joanne Dorian was recast as producers weren't happy with her work). Slezak in turn became not just the fan favorite, but the face of OLTL and played the role for 41 years.

-----Robin Strasser as Dr. Dorian Cramer Lord on One Life To Live--- Strasser like Slezak was the third actress to play this role; but undoubtedly became the one most synonymous with it and became the most popular of them all. In particular her work opposite on-screen rival and former step-daughter Viki (played by Slezak) was a driving force of this soap opera.

Yes, the Victoria Wyndham replacement of Robin Strasser, as they say, took the Rachel character off in a new direction.