Optimal detector randomization is studied for the downlink of a multiuser communications system, in which users can perform time-sharing among multiple detectors. A formulation is provided to obtain optimal signal amplitudes, detectors, and detector randomization factors. It is shown that the solution of this joint optimization problem can be calculated in two steps, resulting in significant reduction in computational complexity. It is proved that the optimal solution is achieved via randomization among at most min{K, Nd} detector sets, where K is the number of users and Nd is the number of detectors at each receiver. Lower and upper bounds are derived on the performance of optimal detector randomization, and it is proved that the optimal detector randomization approach can reduce the worst-case average probability of error of the optimal approach that employs a single detector for each user by up to K times. Various sufficient conditions are obtained for the improvability and nonimprovability via detector randomization. In the special case of equal crosscorrelations and noise powers, a simple solution is developed for the optimal detector randomization problem, and necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the uniqueness of that solution. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the improvements achieved via detector randomization.