My picks for the top 5 performances from The Young and the Restless in 2024

It was another eventful year on The Young and the Restless that featured plenty of feuds, lots of drama and a good amount of surprises.

How can anyone forget Connor’s (Judah Mackey) heartwrenching OCD journey, as he desperately tried to get his life back on the rails, while Adam (Mark Grossman) and Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) did their best to support their child? And what about Victor (Eric Braeden) and Jack (Peter Bergman) again heating up their life-long rivalry? When those two go at it, they provide lots of fireworks, and Victor certainly held up his end of the bargain with every jab he took at the Jabot CEO. Oh and speaking of Victor, his takeover of Chancellor and his restoration of the original Newman ranch were definitely highlights of the year as well.

With all that being said, as a fan of the soap, I sat down to think about all of my favorite performances in 2024, and managed to narrow things down to my top five. So did your faves make the cut? Here are the top 5 performances from The Young and the Restless in 2024 that left me speechless and applauding.

5. Sharon becoming a "killer"

I was a bit surprised to see Sharon (Sharon Case) spiral over the last few months. Yes, she’s had issues in the past managing her bipolar medication (on one occasion, her mismanaged bipolar disorder led to her burning down the original Newman Ranch).

However, she’s done a phenomenal job staying on top of her mental health in recent years, so it was a bit of a shock to see things go so left for her in 2024. Although, if you had a hunch her medication was tampered with when her meds were randomly brought up in the summer, you probably suspected something serious would happen.

But we couldn’t have predicted that Ian (Ray Wise) and Jordan (Colleen Zenk) would lace her medicine with PCP, and Sharon would become this villainous woman hungry for revenge. Her scenes lashing out at Daniel (Michael Graziadei), Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) and Lucy (Lily Brooks O'Briant) were captivating to watch, as you never knew how far Sharon would take things. Then to see her going back and forth with Cameron Kirsten’s (Linden Ashby) ghost and appearing disheveled in front of her family, while trying to convince people she was okay, I have to give kudos to the range shown by Case.

4. Billy confronting Adam

Billy (Jason Thompson) hasn’t had the smoothest year. Although things were looking great for him in business and love initially, things fell apart in the final months of 2024. Not only did he lose Chancellor to Victor, but Chelsea confessed to sleeping with Adam in Baltimore during a visit to Connor’s school. The latter news crushed Billy and left him furious, as Chelsea cheating on him was bad enough, but she did it with his archnemesis.

What was devastating for Billy though, proved to be must-watch TV for me. When Billy confronted Adam at his apartment in front of Sally (Courtney Hope), I couldn’t turn away. Billy’s verbal takedown of Adam was masterful and I even tipped my hat off to the Abbott.

I again tipped my hat off to Billy when he got up in Adam’s face at Society to confront Adam for making Chelsea upset. This time Billy’s verbal lashing was met with a ferocious punch that sent Billy crashing into tables. While the punch and the aftermath were a bit comical, the overall reaction of Billy to being cheated on made for some great scenes. I’d say even Daytime Emmy worthy.

3. Sally confronting Adam

The only reaction that was better than Billy’s to Chelsa and Adam cheating was Sally’s. Despite the warnings from Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Chloe (Elizabeth Hendrickson), Sally allowed herself to fall for Adam again, believing he was a changed man and not unapologetically selfish. Even when Sally suspected that Adam and Chelsea had something going on between them, she ignored her intuition and opted to trust her boyfriend.

So when Billy confronted Adam in front of her and she eventually learned the truth, she went scorched-earth on Adam. She blasted him for essentially being a narcissist, incapable of being completely honest and only caring about himself. Every time he tried to interject and refute her claims, she dug in even harder to shut him down. There was one moment in particular where Hope’s delivery of Sally’s pain left me in awe as tears rolled down her face. She earned an Emmy last year, and there’s no reason to think Hope won’t be in contention again.

2. Nikki spiraling out of control

The creation of the character Jordan has done two great things for The Young and the Restless in my opinion. It gave us Claire (Hayley Erin), although Claire technically premiered in Genoa City first, and Jordan pushed Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) to her limits.

The latter made for riveting scenes as Nikki spiraled out of control because of her alcoholism. Scott has astutely portrayed alcoholism before, but this time seemed different as she took Nikki in a unique direction because Nikki didn’t initially falter in her sobriety by choice but was force-fed alcohol. I remember watching Nikki’s new battle thinking this was some of the best work we’ve seen from Scott in a while.

Then came the pivotal moment with Nikki and Jack in the Athletic Club suite. To see her reach her breaking point with her best friend by her side was great TV. I was glued to the screen wondering how far Jack was willing to go to help his friend, and how far Nikki was willing to let him go as she continued drinking. Nikki and Victor may be my favorite couple of all time when it comes to soaps, but that Jack and Nikki moment in the suite was a scene-stealer.

1. Ashley’s dissociative identity disorder

Eileen Davidson by far delivered my favorite Young and the Restless moments this year as Ashley struggling with dissociative identity disorder. She gave a master class in daytime soaps, portraying a distraught Ashley, a fiery Ms. Abbott, a juvenile Ash and she even transformed into this Southern flirt named Belle. With any given episode I never knew which Ashley would emerge and what actions she may take. That made watching The Young and the Restless even more intriguing.

Now I’ll admit, I understand why some fans wanted the DID storyline to wrap, as they wanted the answers around why she was suffering. But since she got help in Paris and those answers have yet to come, I’m actually hoping Davidson gets to flex her acting range again. To add, I hope that this time one of her personalities takes things so far that it ushers Ashley’s true love back to the show to help her. And yes, I mean Tucker (Trevor St. John’s version of the character preferably).

So what do you think? Were these your favorite performances this year?

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Paramount Plus.