With all the infighting that’s been going on at The Young and the Restless’ Chancellor-Winters for the last few months, some show fans may have found themselves relieved when the board officially voted to split the companies in the episode on July 1. Although the reasons for separating the companies may be sound, we’re not sold that it will actually happen.
While Billy (Jason Thompson) and Devon (Bryton James) may be confident that the proposed demerger will be a piece of cake, we aren’t so sure. It’s not hard to imagine that things get tricky when it comes to separating company divisions and assets, because divorce is often complicated, and that’s essentially what’s going on here.
Then there’s Jill (Jess Walton), the lone vote against the demerger. Her warning that going forward with a demerger is a mistake is ringing in our ears. She noted that the Chancellor and Winters are profitable together, and their splitting could spell trouble. Are her concerns the classic example of "mother knows best"?
Not to mention, in The Young and the Restless episode airing on July 3, Lily (Christel Khalil) talks to Billy about the board vote and how she feels as if she’s disappointed Jill. She also hints to the points Jill raised about the businesses combined being very profitable. Billy tries to reassure her that they’re doing the right thing, but Lily is reluctant to agree. She then starts saying that Billy would be fine at Chancellor without her if the demerger goes through.
That conversation eventually leads Billy to accuse Lily of setting him up. He accuses her of going along with the demerger just long enough to convince the board that it’s a good idea and now wants to bail on him to go with Devon to the Winters business. Of course, viewers know that’s exactly what she planned to do, but she denies the accusations to Billy’s face.
We should also take the time to highlight that leading up to the board vote, Devon and Lily weren’t exactly seeing eye to eye. He questioned her loyalty to the Winters family, and she questioned if he really wanted to lead the Winters company as equals. Additionally, she's remained grateful to Jill for her vote of confidence in her leadership abilities.
Elsewhere in the same episode, Chance (Conner Floyd) talks with Summer (Allison Lanier) about how uneasy he feels with the demerger. He doesn’t like that it’s happening without Jill’s stamp of approval, and he questions Billy’s intentions. Summer tries to reassure Chance that everything will be fine, especially with Lily on board at Chancellor, but he’s confident about that.
With all that being said, there are a lot of factors working against this demerger, and we can picture Chance and Lily joining Jill to stop it. Chance and Lily have a great deal of respect for Jill, and will probably continue to feel guilt for her disappointment if they don’t try to see that her wishes are met.
So Lily may soon have the tall task of trying to get Devon to see that splitting the companies isn’t what’s best for the bottom line. She may argue that by him walking away, he could be walking away on his grandmother's legacy.
Then there’s Chance. He may try to get Billy to realize that he’s putting his own ambition in front of what’s best for the company and Jill’s wishes, but we don’t think Billy will listen to reason.
If that proves to be the case, Chance could go to Nate (Sean Hastings). Chance has mentioned a few times that he gets along with Nate and trusts Nate’s ability to be fair and see beyond all the arguing. Chance may hope he can convince Nate that from a business point of view, Chancellor-Winters should remain Chancellor-Winters, and press Nate to talk to Devon. These days, Nate is Devon’s right-hand man, so there’s a possibility Nate can get through to him if Lily fails.
Now Jill could also help undo the merger if she decides to issue some kind of apology to Devon for making such drastic changes in leadership without talking to him first. In many ways, Jill shoved Billy down Devon and Lily’s throats and she failed to check him when he stepped on toes.
Perhaps Jill can assure Devon that if they keep the company together, she’ll take back her voting power and do better to set limitations on Billy to diffuse some of the tension. Could she even go as far as offering to demote Billy and promote Chance? Maybe not, as that would set off an entirely new set of problems for Jill and Billy.
We aren’t exactly sure how Chancellor-Winters stays together, but we sense that it will.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
