Stunning new The Young and the Restless casting news has revealed that Don Diamont will soon return to Genoa City . Soap Opera Digest reported the exciting details about the former Y&R star’s upcoming dramatic appearance.
From 1985 to 2009, the actor portrayed Brad Carlton on the CBS daytime drama. After leaving, he went to the show’s sister soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, where he began his stint as Dollar Bill Spencer. Unfortunately for viewers who hoped to see him reprise the role of Brad, Diamont will hit Genoa City as his B&B character Bill, as part of the soaps’ crossover.
Recently, Summer (Hunter King) and Kyle (Michael Mealor) went to Los Angeles to find out what made Sally (Courtney Hope) leave and try to start over with a clean slate in Genoa City. As part of their trip, they also did business with the Jabot Collective and Spencer Publications, which may be a bit of the reason Bill shows up in town.
The actor expressed his surprise at being part of the continued crossover storyline.
“I had not ever considered that I would be part of a crossover, just because my character was so well-defined at Y&R . It wasn’t like I was on for three months. I had never even considered that possibility, so it just kind of took me by surprise when they asked,” said Diamont.
There is certainly an opportunity for some allusions about how much Bill reminds them of Brad, but it remains to be seen if any Y&R characters bring up the similarities between the two men.
Brad had a long history on the sudser fathering two children — Colleen and Robert. He showed up as the Abbotts’ groundskeeper and eventually caught Traci Abbott’s (Beth Maitland) eye. Eventually, he made his way up to working at Jabot, and the day he and Traci married, he became the head of sales, setting up an intense rivalry with Traci’s brother, Jack (Peter Bergman).
For a while, Brad also acted as a father to Ashley’s (Eileen Davidson) daughter Abby (Melissa Ordway), but eventually, the details came out that she was Victor’s (Eric Braeden) daughter. Abby recently recalled Brad and having him as a father growing up, which is an interesting mention, considering Bill will soon show up in the storyline.
Ultimately, Brad died in January 2009 after falling into an icy lake while rescuing Noah Newman. It remains to be seen what connection — if any — Bill might have to Brad.