Just like that, The Young and the Restless’ Audra (Zuleyka Silver) is proven right and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) lashes out at the COO for knowing about her struggles with sobriety.
It wasn’t that long ago when Audra came to realize that Nikki had fallen off the wagon. Audra even stumbled upon a troubling conversation between Nikki and her former sponsor Seth (Brian Gaskill).
While Audra has been surprisingly nothing but sympathetic toward her boss, even sharing her own experiences with her father’s struggles with sobriety, Audra expressed concerns to Nate (Sean Dominic) during the week of January 22, that Nikki would come to take Audra’s personal history with alcoholism and weaponize it against her. From Audra’s perspective, she felt Nikki would be uncomfortable working together as Audra’s experience with her father makes her the perfect person to recognize when Nikki’s not being truthful about her efforts to stop drinking.
Then in The Young and the Restless episode airing on January 29, Nikki calls Audra to her office and wastes no time saying it was a mistake for them to share personal things with one another. Nikki then discusses how her need to feel comfortable as CEO of Newman Media trumps all, and that now the working dynamic with Audra is tainted. Trying to find a solution moving forward, Nikki offers Audra the chance to run the London branch of Newman Media. The Newman matriarch sees this as a good opportunity for her COO, but not Audra.
Audra takes the job offer for what it is, a slap in the face and a way to ship her out of Genoa City. She says that she doesn’t want to leave town, and this prompts Nicki to fire her altogether. A move Nikki may come to regret in the very near future.
Hearing Audra’s words of warning about how big a mistake it is to attempt to run Newman Media alone without her and Claire (Hayley Erin) ringing in her ear, Nikki reaches for a flask. But instead of taking a drink, she calls Jack to come to her office and talk about what’s happened.
Not surprisingly, Jack expresses similar concerns about Nikki running the company alone when she is in such a fragile place. As the exes-turned-besties try to come up with a solution to her staffing problem, Jack claims to have the perfect replacement option but offers no further details before the episode in question concludes.
Given Nikki more than ever wants a righthand at the company she can trust, we suspect a relative may soon replace Audra, and we think Jack could reach out to Noah (Rory Gibson) to make that happen. It’s been a while since Nick’s (Joshua Morrow) eldest son was spotted in Genoa City, so perhaps now is the time for him to resurface. There have been rumblings for a few months now that Noah was set to return, so perhaps Newman Media’s job opening presents the perfect opportunity.
Noah left town with Jack’s granddaughter Allie (Kelsey Wang) when last viewers heard, so now is also a good time to bring her back onto the soap’s canvas as well. Not for nothing, Nikki could use all the help she can get these days, so perhaps Nikki will find Allie a top job working at Newman Media too.
Should our theory about Noah and Allie prove correct, we can’t help but feel a little bad for Audra. Not only would her ex be getting her old job, but he’d be working alongside his current girlfriend. (Yes, we are aware that Audra took a job working at Noah’s family company, but still, her being replaced in this way is likely to sting a bit.).
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
