My favorite character on The Young and the Restless is without question The Great Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). I understand he is a shrewd businessman, who resorts to the dirtiest of tactics to get what he wants, and I know he at times goes out of his way to make an enemy of someone, but I just find the guy downright entertaining. From the way he throws jabs at Jack (Peter Bergman) and Billy (Jason Thompson) to how he puts his children in check when their entitlement starts to rage, Victor steals the show in my eyes.
However, while I’m a fan of the Newman patriarch, I’m not oblivious to the fact that over the last several months he has been a bit of a terror in Genoa City. He has relentlessly gone after Jack, he stripped Chancellor from Billy just to gift it to Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), he deceived Lily (Christel Khalil) and he fired both Audra (Zuleyka Silver) and Kyle (Michael Mealor).
Even I have to admit Victor seems like he’s due a humbling experience, and soon. Although many of the enemies he’s recently made have promised to get some type of revenge, I just don’t see any of them capable of doing that successfully, as they all want to beat him in business. (Now with Jordan [Colleen Zenk] again out of prison, she may try to kill Victor in her own revenge scheme, but that’s a story for another day.)
Victor is just too brilliant when it comes to his business savoy to be screwed over. With that being said, he’s not invulnerable to other forms of attack. In fact, the one area Victor can be hit hard in is with his family.
He claims to be a big family man and to do everything out of love and protection of all Newmans. Since his family members aren’t replicas of him and are a bit more vulnerable to manipulative tactics, if someone like Billy or Jack were to go after them as a way to get to Victor, that could actually work. But even with such a personal attack, an enemy of Victor would have to go after the key to the Newman family to be truly effective. Nikki.
If someone were to cause such a rift between Victor and Nikki that saw the couple once again headed toward divorce, then Victor’s world may begin to unravel. For starters, a divorce would likely mean Victor and Nikki would divide assets, so it’s possible Nikki would walk away with Chancellor, separating it from Newman Enterprises. Billy could actually have a shot at getting Chancellor back if it’s no longer under Victor’s umbrella.
A Victor/Nikki divorce also means that their children and grandchildren may feel compelled to pick sides. Considering how much Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nick (Joshua Morrow) adore their mother and are rarely at odds with her, it’s easy to picture them favoring Nikki, which would probably greatly annoy Victor. Adam would be on his dad’s side, but that wouldn’t be enough for him.
All in all, attacking Victor’s marriage, and therefore his family, is the thing that may actually hurt him. Not for nothing, it’s not hard to imagine Victor being distracted enough trying to save his Newman clan from self-destructing that he doesn’t place the usual attention on Newman Enterprises. Could someone like Jack or Billy make a play to go after Victor’s legacy? In such a scenario, I think the crown jewel Newman Enterprises may still be off the table, but something like Newman Media may become a little more attainable.
It’s worth noting this is all speculative, and there have been no official hints that Victor and Nikki’s marriage is in trouble. Plus, I doubt Billy or Jack would sink so low, even if Victor would and has. However, who’s to say that the new year won’t bring new strife to Genoa City?
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.
