What happened to Paul on The Young and the Restless?

What happened to Paul on The Young and the Restless? That’s the question on fans’ minds as the character remains off-screen despite storylines that could use his Paul Williams (Doug Davidson) detective touch.

Today’s episode of Y&R brought even more curiosity about Paul as his wife, Christine (Lauralee Bell), had a reunion with her ex-husband Danny (Michael Damian).

While Christine mentioned Paul, he was nowhere to be found as she simply spoke of their trip and the couple seeing Danny in concert.

That’s been par for the course for the veteran character, which debuted on the hit CBS soap opera back in 1978.

So why has Paul remained off the canvas for so long, and will he ever return?

Let’s take a look.

What happened to Paul on The Young and the Restless?

In 2018 Doug revealed that The Young and the Restless had opted not to renew his contract and instead put him on recurring status, which means he would be used sporadically.

After Doug’s initial run ended, Paul was occasionally seen in 2019 but was used as a secondary character appearing in less than 30 episodes that year.

The character was used briefly in 2020 as he was part of Eric Braeden’s (Victor) 40th-anniversary special. Paul was also featured in a storyline where Billy (Jason Thompson) was a suspect in the accidental shooting of Chance (then Donny Boaz).

In fact, the last time Paul was on-screen was in Lily’s office in 2020 to question him about the case.

Since then, Paul has been mentioned, but as other vets like Christine, Lauren (Tracey E. Bregman), and Michael (Christian LeBlanc) pop up from time to time, Paul only gets an honorable mention.

Will Paul return to Y&R?

Sadly, the odds of Paul and the talented Doug Davidson returning to the hit daytime drama are slim to none. Doug took to social media in the spring of 2021 to thank fans for all their support and to share he was done with the CBS show.

Doug doubled down on his desire not to reprise the role of Paul this past summer after a fan took to Twitter to praise the actor and character while also hoping they would both return to Genoa City.

“You are so incredibly kind writing such a sweet tweet. I truly appreciate it, but I can’t see things changing,” the actor tweeted.

Paul Williams and Doug Davidson will forever be cemented in The Young and the Restless history. It’s too bad that behind-the-scenes drama impacted this legacy, especially since Paul’s cop skills could definitely be used these days.

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS.

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