Best of the Best: Y&R

BEST REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: Victor Newman Then-Head Writer William J. Bell’s 1980 objective was simple: Bring in a mysterious tycoon for a maximum of 26 weeks to stir up trouble, then send him packing (courtesy of his tortured on-screen wife, who would shoot him dead). But when Eric Braeden was cast in the role of the ruthless rascal, Victor Newman, it quickly became clear to Bell that he’d accidentally struck gold. Plans for Victor’s fatal end were scrapped, Braeden was persuaded to ink a long-term deal, and a new Y&R era unfolded. Over the next 41 years (and counting!), Victor has evolved into one of the most impactful characters in the daytime universe, equally vital as a lover (see the long-running supercoupledom of his pairing with Nikki) and as a fighter (his rivalry with Jack is the stuff of legend). Indeed, it’s hard to imagine the Genoa City landscape without this towering and iconic figure.

BEST HERO: Paul Williams When Doug Davidson joined the cast in 1978, Paul was a promiscuous teen slacker who didn’t seem like a candidate for G.C.’s chief of police. His road to redemption kicked off in earnest in 1982, when Paul’s dad, Carl, was framed as a dirty cop by the mob and Paul went undercover to clear his name. In time, he became the show’s go-to hero, performing daring acts of rescue, investigating (and sometimes even solving!) crimes, and occasionally bending the rules to protect the innocent (as when he took Sheila hostage to thwart her latest reign of terror in 2006). Paul did his salt-of-the-earth parents proud by becoming one of the genre’s most enduring good guys.

BEST CAD: Jack Abbott Jack has matured into the role of Abbott family patriarch, but when Terry Lester was introduced in the role in 1980, Jack was a devil-may-care playboy who was way more interested in women than work. Even when his dad issued an ultimatum (settle down or no Jabot CEO throne), Jack found a way to satisfy his lust; his sister Ashley infamously had to drag him out of bed with sultry model Diane when he was late to his 1982 wedding to girl-next-door Patty. Another classic tale centered around Jack’s ladies’ man antics took place when he slept with Jill, his father’s wife, making him subject to blackmail, and got him kicked out of John’s good graces, the Abbott mansion and the family biz. Through it all, Lester, and later his successor, Peter Bergman, made Jack a deliciously watchable Casanova.

BEST RAGS TO RICHES: Jill Abbott In 1973, Jill was an 18-year-old manicurist with dreams of making it rich. Over the decades, Jill has by turns climbed, clawed, schemed and earned her way to the top of the corporate ladder, where she now resides as CEO of Chancellor Industries. Her journey has been marked by both tribulations (she was left a penniless single mom when Phillip Chancellor II died after a car wreck with a soused Katherine behind the wheel, but refused to sell her baby boy to Kay despite the $1 million check Kay dangled) and triumphs (she scored a 25 percent stake in Jabot and a seat on its board of directors as part of her first divorce settlement from John), but the best part is that she got the last laugh along with a fat bank account by proving to be a gifted and impressive executive.

BEST DEATHBED WEDDING: Devon And Hilary It was a bitter pill for fans to swallow when the very popular Mishael Morgan decided to leave the show in 2018 after a five-year run as Hilary, in no small part because it meant the end of “Hevon”, Hil’s super-successful pairing with Bryton James’s Devon. But the show brought their love story to a beautiful close when a dramatic car accident left Hilary critically injured with not much time to live and Devon insisted on making her his wife, again. In her hospital room, the bride and groom exchanged vows made even more moving by the urgency of the moment, and she soon passed away in her husband’s loving embrace.

BEST NEXT-GENERATION COUPLE: Kyle and Summer The Abbotts and Newmans brought romance between members of their warring clans to an art form with such successful pairings as Victor and Ashley, Jack and Nikki, and Billy and Victoria — and now the mantle has been passed to “Skyle”, as the coupling of Jack’s son, Kyle, and Nick’s daughter, Summer, is known. Over the past year in particular, the show has highlighted the effortless chemistry between Michael Mealor (Kyle) and Hunter King (Summer) as the characters’ relationship has matured and grown stronger as they’ve conquered their silly insecurities and emerged as a bona fide team — and their popularity with viewers has skyrocketed.