Matlock Just Hinted At Billy's Exit From The Firm After David Del Rio Was Fired

Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of Matlock Season 2, called "Collateral" and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.

Matlock finally returned in the 2026 TV schedule to pay off on a big cliffhanger with regard to Julian finding out about all of Matty and Olympia's scheming together, with Jason Ritter sharing how there's no going back. But the episode also included more hints about how the drama will be explaining Billy's permanent exit, after the fall finale dropped a tragic detail about his personal life. Fans have known for months that David Del Rio was fired from Matlock; now, we might know how Matlock is going to explain it.

Del Rio was fired from Matlock ahead of the Season 2 premiere due to a sexual assault investigation involving co-star Leah Lewis, but had already filmed far enough into the season to appear in the first seven episodes. His absence in the fall finale was explained via phone call scene with Sarah (Lewis) talking to an off-screen Billy and learning that Claudia had suffered a miscarriage. That was the personal reason for Billy to be missing from that episode; what about why he'll be absent from Jacobson Moore for good? "Collateral" may have the answer.

And once again, the answer may have come from Sarah's storyline. She was in crisis mode for a fair amount of the winter premiere, having been booted from Olympia's team just in time for efficiency expert Gwen Easton to arrive and start her analysis of Jacobson Moore. It was pretty terrible timing for Sarah and her guilty conscience, especially once Gwen started indicating that maybe Jacobson Moore could afford to cut an associate from Olympia's team.

After Sarah covered for Billy by saying that he was out sick, the efficiency expert joked that there would be "no need" for him to return and his job was "eliminated." Olympia's team could just consist of Sarah and Matty in that scenario.

As you can imagine, Sarah didn't exactly burst out in laughter at Gwen's joke, but she doubled down on proving to Olympia that she deserved to be forgiven and brought back onto the team. Sarah defended Billy to Gwen and argued that all three of Olympia's assistants were needed, which would have seemed futile in light of David Del Rio being cut from the cast... until it was Julian rather than Olympia who stepped in to give Sarah a second chance. If Sarah moves over to work with Julian, would Billy's job on Olympia's team theoretically be safe if not for the actor being fired?

A lot about the aftermath likely depends on whether Julian stepping up for Sarah means that he intends to keep her working for him rather than send her back to Olympia, but it's a safe bet that there's no need to wonder about Billy coming back to his old team. David Del Rio is out, and the winter premiere strongly hinted that the explanation will be that Billy's job will be eliminated to save money. If Sarah moves over to Julian, however, Olympia may need to get herself a second associate to work with Matty.

Find out with new episodes of Matlock on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. For her part, Leah Lewis seems to be happy working on the hit drama, sharing that she was "in good hands" after David Del Rio was fired, and more recently sharing a heartfelt message about Matlock's Season 3 renewal.