take a back seat

From take a seat and back seat.

• "The new chairman is happy to take a back seat when it comes to day-to-day operations."
• "2004, My Life by Bill Clinton But as with most kids, politics took a backseat to daily life."
• "The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life."
• "Mr. August, a screenwriter for movies like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” said that while artificial intelligence had taken a back seat to compensation in the Writers Guild negotiation, the union was making two key demands on the subject of automation."

• take the front seat

• in the driver's seat
• on the back burner
• second fiddle
• take a number