The idea of The Young and the Restless’ Billy (Jason Thompson) and Diane (Susan Walters) running Jabot together as co-CEOs is admittedly a unique one. For a multitude of reasons, the two sharing the limelight seems like an almost impossible scenario.
For starters, Ashley (Eileen Davidson) would likely blow a gasket. Diane may have saved Ashley from choking to death weeks ago, but these two ladies are far from besties. In fact, they’ve shared a mutual disgust for one another for years, and we don’t see that changing. Translation, Ashley probably wouldn’t support Diane getting such a promotion at the Abbott family company. .
There’s also the fact that Billy and Diane are only amicable at best. It wasn’t that long ago when he expressed his concern that she was gaining too much power at Jabot and questioned her intentions.
For Diane’s part, she’s been rather honest with Jack (Peter Bergman) that he should be willing to fire Billy and replace him with Kyle (Michael Mealor). The mutual lack of respect for one another in business that exists between Billy and Diane doesn’t exactly sound like the breeding ground for a stellar partnership.
We should also acknowledge the fact that there is currently no open position as co-CEO of Jabot. Jack is the CEO and Billy serves as his immediate number two.
With all that being said, in the episode that aired on October 30, Diane proposed the idea of Jack retiring and becoming somewhat of Jabot’s CEO Emeritus, essentially taking on a role similar to what Victor (Eric Braeden) was doing over at Newman Enterprises before he stepped back into the CEO job.
Diane suggested with Jack retired, he could then make Billy and Kyle co-CEOs. Given that Kyle is adamant that he won’t return to the family corporation unless he has a co-CEO job and Jack doesn’t want to fire Billy, this is a solution that would likely appease Jack’s son and brother. Jack didn’t say he was on board with the concept, but he didn’t reject it either.
What Jack has yet to discover is that Kyle has pledged his allegiance to Tucker (Trevor St. John) and Audra (Zuleyka Silver) in their takedown plot of Jabot. We’re certain that once Jack finds out Kyle is capable of such a selfish betrayal, the Abbott patriarch wouldn’t be keen to have Kyle working back at Jabot. Furthermore, Jack may go so far as to kick Kyle out of the Abbott mansion.
If Jack finds out what Kyle has been up to but remains committed to retiring, we can imagine he’d be willing to promote Billy into his role and make his wife Billy’s co-CEO. Now although we listed some reasons such a pairing couldn’t work, allow us to raise some points that hint that this duo may soon become a realization.
Jack trusts very few people these days, and with good reason. It wasn’t that long ago that Ashley threatened to take Jabot from Jack. Additionally, although Jack and Billy’s relationship at the moment seems good, they too have had some contentious moments that called their loyalty to each other into question. However, since falling back in love with Diane, there is arguably no one he trusts more. He’d likely have confidence in her to help run his family business.
Then in the episode airing on November 1, Billy himself actually paid Diane a compliment, stating between her and Jack, she’s "been the levelheaded one." We think that despite Billy’s interesting dynamic with Diane, he tends to appreciate that she’s willing to take smart risks. Case in point, she backs Ashley’s plan to manipulate Tucker.
Should our prediction ring true, we can’t wait to see the ramifications in the Abbott family. Ashley would lose it, Kyle would probably stew in jealousy and Billy would be wise to watch his back. Kyle may target him down the road.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
