The Young and the Restless gives fans a double-take this week when legendary character Jill Foster Abbott Atkinson gets a brand-new face, albeit temporarily. Days of our Lives veteran Lauren Koslow stepped into the role played by Jess Walton since 1987, but the show hopes to bring Walton back as soon as it can.
The Show Must Go On
This soap opera swap was necessitated by Walton’s schedule not meshing with Y&R’s. Walton currently lives in Oregon, while the show is taped in Los Angeles. When Jill was needed for the story, Y&R head writer Josh Griffith realized they were going to have to temporarily recast and decided on Koslow, who had previously played Lindsey Wells on the CBS soap from 1984 to 1986, per IMDb.
“When we got the sad news that Jess wouldn’t be able to make it down here for this, we were just so close to when we needed to do it,” Griffith said in an interview with Soap Opera Digest. The show quickly settled on Koslow because of the “similarities” between Salem’s Kate and Genoa City’s Jill.
While Koslow is on contract at DAYS and still featured as Kate Roberts Brady each week, both soaps are produced by Sony Pictures Television, so everyone was able to work out the logistics.
In the story, Jill is on a mission to bring her son, Billy (Jason Thompson), and her pseudo-son Cane (Billy Flynn) together. Jill is tired of them being at war and wants them to hash things out and come together. Over on DAYS, Koslow’s Kate is trying to save her late ex-husband’s company, which is the same thing Jill is forever trying to do, as well.
What does this mean for Walton, whom fans see as the quintessential Jill? Griffith admitted that he hopes that when Jill is needed for a story again, Walton will be available. “We love her,” he said. “She is Jill to the masses.”
