Even after decades on The Young and the Restless, Victor (Eric Braeden) doesn’t cease to amaze us. While we knew of his big plans to take down Jabot as revenge for Jack’s (Peter Bergman) reckless behavior as Nikki’s (Melody Thomas Scott) sponsor, we couldn’t have predicted, until the last few days anyway, that he had another ace up his sleeve to play in the Genoa City corporate world.
In The Young and the Restless episode airing on July 23, Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nikki tag team Victor in his office at Newman Enterprises. The two women want to know what Victor is up to. More importantly, they want reassurance that when it’s time for Nikki to return back to work, she won’t have any problems resuming her role as sole CEO of Newman Media. Both of the ladies are fearful that Adam (Mark Grossman) poses a threat to a smooth transition in the future.
For a while, Victor plays coy. He doesn’t shed light on his plans and avoids giving a straight answer. He then notes that he’ll reveal his plans to his wife and daughter, but wants Adam and Nick (Joshua Morrow) to join them first. The suspense seems only to annoy Nikki as she grows impatient.
Once Adam arrives, Victor wastes no time in announcing that Adam will be the permanent CEO of Newman Media. The Newman patriarch has no intention of removing his youngest son from the role, even when Nikki has fully recuperated. Hearing the news, Nikki and Victoria become furious while Adam is left stunned.
As Nick walks into the room and takes in the scene, he’s quickly filled in on the news. Nikki, Victoria and Nick want to know how Victor could take Newman Media away from Nikki permanently, and that’s when Victor counters that he wants his wife fully healed and in the right frame of mind as he has a bigger job for her to tackle.
Victor elaborates and says he’s in the process of acquiring a company that is almost the size of Newman Enterprises, and he wants Nikki to run it. She doesn’t welcome the news and accuses her husband of giving her a company she is unfamiliar with. He replies that she knows the company well and states, "And your friend Katherine Chancellor, right now, is looking down from Heaven, and she approves of my decision."
Then Victor drops the bombshell news that Nikki is about to take over Chancellor Industries. When the episode ends, Nikki, Nick, Victoria and Adam are all baffled by what they just heard, and for good reason.
As it stands now, Chancellor just split from Chancellor-Winters, and Jill (Jess Walton) technically owns the company. Plus, Billy (Jason Thompson) is acting as Jill’s proxy while Lily (Christel Khalil) is the CEO (Billy and Lily are really co-CEOs of sorts). The three of them will likely have an issue with Victor trying to swoop in and take the company over.
We can also imagine Victoria and Billy’s delicate friendship and co-parenting relationship is about to take a hit. Billy won’t be happy with Victor and may question what Victoria knew about her father’s latest actions. Her loyalty to Victor has always presented a problem in the dynamic between Victoria and Billy, and Victor’s latest big swing will probably bring those feelings back to the surface.
Should Victor continue to go down this Chancellor road, we have to question how he’ll be successful. Chancellor is a massive company and it’s owned by his friend Jill, so would he really undercut her to acquire it?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
