Days of Our Lives Exclusive: Billy Flynn Says Conner Floyd Will ‘Do Really Great’ as Chad DiMera
Back in March 2025, news broke that Billy Flynn was leaving Days of Our Lives, where he’d played Chad DiMera since 2014, to join the cast of Young and Restless, where he plays Cane Ashby. At that same time, it was announced that Conner Floyd, who had been playing Chance Chancellor on Y&R since 2021, was exiting that soap to take over the role Flynn vacated on DAYS. Flynn weighed in to Soap Opera Digest about the big soap swap.
Crossing Paths
Because Flynn joined Y&R before Floyd left, the two actors actually shared some scenes together, with Chance ultimately dying in Cane’s arms, a moment that Flynn jokes to Digest was “very romantic.”
By the time that Flynn began taping at Y&R, he was already aware that Floyd was taking over his role of Chad on DAYS. “I knew before our first scene together,” Flynn shares. “The day that I met him was when we shot our first scenes together, and I was basically like, ‘I hear congratulations are in order!’ He’s such a wonderful person, but it was very meta. Like, I came to the show, and now this person just died in my arms, but he’s gonna be reborn as the old me. It was pretty interesting, but we got a kick out of it! He and I laughed about it”
Flynn enjoyed sharing the stage with Floyd so much that he says, “My only regret is that I didn’t get to work with him longer. He’s almost like a little brother. He sounds like me. He’s like a more handsome, taller version of me. I think he’s gonna do really great as Chad.”
Passing the Torch
Even before he knew who DAYS had picked to replace him, Flynn was confident that Chad would end up in good hands, thanks to his confidence in the soap’s longtime casting director, Marnie Saitta. “I remember having a conversation with Marnie when they were looking for the new Chad, because I was aware before I even left the show that they were going to recast me,” he recalls. “So she said, ‘I met this guy, but he almost reminds me too much of you.’ And I was like, ‘Well, it sounds pretty wonderful, if I may say so myself [laughs].'”
Saitta actually found the similarities between the two men to be poignant. “She was like, ‘He sounds like you. It’s really eerie. I was getting emotional.’ Marnie and I had a really good relationship, and me leaving the show, I think, hit her, because she gave me my first job, you know? But anyway, then he ends up with the job, and they picked the perfect choice, in my opinion.”
Floyd finally made his DAYS debut when Chad returned to Salem in the episode that began streaming on Peacock on April 21. What were your first impressions of the Salem newcomer? Sound off in the comments below!
Conversation
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