Jess Walton’s Jill Abbott will be played by Lauren Koslow on Monday, June 29, after Walton could not travel from Oregon to Los Angeles. For a soap built on continuity, the switch is narrow but meaningful: one longtime Jill is out, and another familiar face is stepping in on short notice.
Lauren Koslow said she heard about the opportunity on a Friday and was working toward the role the next week. “It was crazy because I heard on a Friday and it was for the next week, but I was thrilled.”
Josh Griffith’s last-minute call
Josh Griffith called Koslow about stepping in. “They were asking if I could step in and help out,” she said, a reminder that this kind of substitution is usually a logistics decision first and a casting note second. Koslow has played Kate Roberts on Days of Our Lives for the past 30 years, so the return asked her to balance two shows in the same week.
She said she worked Tuesday and Wednesday on Days of Our Lives and Thursday and Friday on The Young and the Restless. That schedule explains why the swap landed with so little lead time: the role had to be filled by someone who could move fast and already understood daytime production rhythms.
From Lindsey Wells to Jill
Koslow had not appeared on the soap for 40 years before this return, and her earlier run as Lindsey Wells lasted from 1984 to 1986. “It’s so funny because I do know Jill because I blackmailed Jill as Lindsey, but that was Brenda Dickson’s Jill,” she said. That history gives the recast a built-in continuity angle, even though the character now belongs to Walton’s long-running version.
She also said she wanted to get current on Jill’s recent history because “there’s a lot of history.” In a series where character memory is part of the product, that kind of prep is the difference between a simple fill-in and a believable substitution.
Back in the 1980s studio
Koslow said the return felt immediate once she walked back in. “It was like a trip back in time,” she said, adding that the makeup room was exactly the same as it was in the 1980s. The dressing room placard even read “Welcome back, Lindsay Wells,” a small production choice that underlined how much the show was leaning on its own memory.
Her first scene partners on the return were Billy Flynn and Jason Thompson, who play Cane Ashby and Billy Abbott. Koslow said, “The entire cast and crew are so gracious, and everyone’s so supportive.” For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple: Jill Abbott will be on screen June 29, but the face behind her is shifting for now, and the show is using a veteran with its own history to keep the character moving without breaking the frame.
