The Young and the Restless viewers know that Audra Charles is ruthless and out for herself. It seems that recently, Victor Newman has seen a part of himself in her, and Audra wants to use that small opening to her advantage, so she went straight to the man himself to plead for her position at Newman Media after learning Victor intended to fold SNA Media into the company. For her performance, Soap Hub Performer of the Week honors for Y&R is presented to Audra’s portrayer, Zuleyka Silver.
Zuleyka Silver: Y&R Performer of the Week
This week, Audra felt she had the upper hand briefly after cutting Adam (Mark Grossman) off at the pass and revealing his blackmail to Victor (Eric Braeden). She and Kyle (Michael Mealor) felt pretty smug about the whole thing, and Silver played Audra’s smugness perfectly. Of course, Audra is savvy enough to realize that she can’t just rest on that success, so she doggedly pushed forward to continue proving she deserves her job as CEO of Newman Media.
In her interactions with Tucker, the actress made it clear that Audra is truly over Tucker. She waffles between being wary of the older man and treating him with disdain now that he’s out of the game so to speak. Silver hits a perfect note with him, showing she no longer needs to use him for her own purposes, but she still has a healthy fear of Tucker since he knows where at least some of her skeletons are buried.
Audra also got some bad news when Nate (Sean Dominic) let her know that he wouldn’t stick his neck out for her again, and Silver ensured that Audra’s worry showed through. Of course, by the end of the week, she was back to flirting with Nate as they shared some lighthearted moments over her fighting for her job.
However, Silver really shined in her scenes with Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott). Nikki made no bones about how much she distrusts Audra, but the younger woman didn’t let that intimidate her. She still spoke firmly and assuredly with no fear to Victor about why she deserved to stay CEO of Newman Media. While Audra didn’t secure a promise to keep the position, Victor did promise she’d have a spot at Newman no matter what happened. Now, if we only knew why Victor cared about Audra.
Bravo, Zuleyka Silver, on excellent performances this week. We can’t wait to see how this all plays out and the lengths Audra goes to in order to come out on top.