The Young and the Restless spoilers: Nikki goes to rehab, leaving this person in charge of Newman Media?

After months of rejecting the notion that she needed to take the big step, The Young and the Restless’ Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) finally agrees to go to rehab in the episode airing on May 3. As it turns out, Jack’s (Peter Bergman) foolish, although well-intentioned, plan of falling in his own sobriety with pills helped sway Nikki into believing that she needs to check herself in a facility to get round-the-clock care so she can again get sober.

By the end of the May 3 episode, she packs her bags and says her goodbyes to Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nick (Joshua Morrow), who were both sad to learn that their mom’s drinking had gotten so bad thanks to Jordan (Colleen Zenk).

With Nikki off to rehab, she leaves behind a vacant CEO position at Newman Media. Plus, Lauren (Tracey E. Bregman) was only brought on board as a temporary COO, so Victor (Eric Braeden) is seemingly going to need to bring in some leadership to help steady the ship.

Now, Victor hasn’t yet said anything about making new hires at his company, but that’s understandable. Nikki leaving is very new and he’s still seeing red having caught Nikki and Jack at the Athletic Club together at the tail end of a life-altering bender. Victor is so angry that by the end of the already-mentioned episode, he issues a very stern threat that Jack is to never come around Nikki again.

But back to Newman Media, who could replace Nikki and likely Lauren? Well, if we had to guess, we think now is the time for Victoria to get back to work.

Although she took time off to help Claire (Hayley Erin) adjust to life in Genoa City, at the end of the day, Victoria likes the hustle and bustle of the corporate world. And with Victor only trusting family members in top executive roles, he could want Victoria as the new Newman Media CEO, even if it’s just an interim position.

Additionally, is it time for Claire to start finding her footing in Genoa City in terms of employment? While we initially thought she was going to be working with kids, specifically as Harrison’s (Redding Munsell) new nanny, after Jordan kidnapped him and with Summer (Allison Lanier) despising her cousin, we no longer see that as a possibility. With all that being said, could Victor and Victoria ask Claire to come on board at Newman Media as Victoria’s COO?

We have to admit, we kind of like the idea of Victoria and Claire working side by side together. Although Claire doesn’t necessarily have top-executive-level experience, she’s previously worked at Newman Media under Nikki and has proven herself as intelligent and more than capable of learning what she doesn’t know.

For those wondering why Victoria would go to Newman Media rather than resuming her co-CEO role at Newman Enterprises, we’ll note that The Mustache seems pretty content with how Nick and Adam (Mark Grossman) are finally working together at the corporation. He may not want to insert Victoria back into the fold over there as she and Adam still can’t stand each other and Victor doesn’t want any more infighting.

Should our suspicions prove correct, we offer a small caveat. While Victoria may enjoy running Newman Media with her daughter temporarily, we don’t think the working dynamic will last long. Nikki will return from rehab and Victoria has always had a desire to replace Victor one day in the top spot at Newman Enterprises. So Newman Media may just be a pit stop in her quest.

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.