Vivica A. Fox has wrapped her most recent run as Dr. Stephanie Simmons on CBS daytime’s The Young and the Restless with news directly from the actress herself.

Fox, who initially returned after more than 30 years away along with Shemar Moore (Malcolm Winters) in April of 2026, but stayed on longer than had been anticipated, is now off on another project.

In a new video clip posted to her Instagram Story (which has since expired), the actress received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her Y&R glam squad as she said her “goodbyes” for now to the cast and the hair and make-up departments.

Photo: JPI

Turns out, Vivica is headed to Shelter Island near the Hamptons in New York for her role in the Netflix film Women Like Us, which is executive produced by the former White House First Lady, Michelle Obama. The Netflix project is said to be filming in that location from September 1 through October 1.

‘WOMEN LIKE US’ CAST

In story, Women Like Us is about a recently widowed woman whose sister and lifelong friends bring her to the Hamptons on her 30th wedding anniversary. According to the production team the film is, “an emotional journey of healing and sisterhood.”  The View’s Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Williams and Jenifer Lewis round out the main cast.

UNTIL NEXT TIME Y&R FAMILY

In her IG story, Fox shared about her departure from Genoa City, “Hey there, darlings. It’s your girl, Vivica.  I’m going to be be going away for a couple of months to do my new film, Women Like Us. But today, when I came to work… my beautiful glam squad with their fabulous self—Jerry, Orlando, Justin—got me these beautiful flowers to send me off from Young and the Restless. This was supposed to be just eight shows and it turned into six months.”

Next, Fox turned to her glam squad and expressed, “I love you guys. I’m going to miss you.” She then shared a message to the Y&R fans, “And all I can say to you Y&R family out there, I’ll see you soon.”

Photos: VFoxIGstory

WHAT ABOUT NATE AND STEPHANIE’S ROMANCE?

The timing is interesting for Fox’s exit, given the soap opera recently paired Dr. Nate Hastings (Daytime Emmy nominee Sean Dominic) with Dr. Stephanie Simmons in a burgeoning romance. In addition, Stephanie is currently is the Chief of Staff at Genoa City Memorial Hospital.

So, someone will need to take over the Chief of Staff position in an interim manner, wouldn’t you say? Will Nate and Stephanie call it quits before things really took off? Stay tuned! Given Y&R tapes usually about six weeks ahead of air, viewers will have to tune-in to see how Fox wraps her current run.

So, what have you thought of the pairing of Nate and Stephanie on The Young and the Restless? Do you hope Vivica comes back to Y&R sooner than later? Excited to see the film she will be featured in ‘Women Like Us’ when it comes out hopefully in 2027? Let us know via the comment section below.

The latest ratings are out for the week of August 17- 21, 2026. Two daytime dramas showed an uptick in total viewers week-over-week, while two did not, and General Hospital moved back into 3rd place over Beyond the Gates in the key women’s 18-49 ratings share, and tied with the CBS soap for 3rd place for the key women’s 25-54 ratings share.

According to Soap Opera Network via data supplied via Nielsen’s Live+Same Day, Big Date +Panel model, CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful showed the most gains in total viewers adding +12,000 and bringing its year-over-year tally to +262,000. For the week of August 17, B&B had an average audience of 2,688,000 tuning-in.

The central story focused on Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) bonding over their crumbling marriages while eachwas on drunken bender, they slept together. Meanwhile, Finn (Tanner Novlan) rushed back to Los Angeles from Monaco to salvage his relationship with his wife, and Daphne (Murielle Hilaire) turned around and headed back from the airport to reconcile with Carter after walking out on their marriage.

GENERAL HOSPITAL

Over at General Hospital, the ABC soap opera added +8,000 total viewers for the week with an average of 1,856,000 tuning-in from August 17 to 21. The series is still under the 2 million mark for the last few consecutive weeks. Year-over-year at this time, GH is -35,000 off the pace from 2025.

In story, there was drama across Port Charles with shifting alliances, explosive confrontations, and shocking revelations including: Jason (Steve Burton) quitting the mob and informing Britt (Kelly Thiebaud), Ric (Rick Hearst) getting jealous of Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) and Elizabeth’s (Rebecca Herbst) closeness, and Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) and Tracy (Jane Elliot) finding out Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) moved back into the Quartermaine gatehouse.

Photo: JPI

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

As for the top-rated The Young and the Restless, they remained the most-watched soap opera of all losing -14,000 for the week, but still up +90,000 year-over-year and averaging 3,027,000 viewers for the ratings week.

The Y&R drama centered around stories including; Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson) causing chaos by declaring that Chancellor Industries belongs to the Abbotts, while the aftermath of Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Marie (Jade Harlow) night together in a seedy hotel which landed them both in rehab continues to haunt Nick.

Photo: CBS

BEYOND THE GATES

Finally at Beyond the Gates, the newest soap in the line-up lost only -1,000 in total audience for the week, with 1,647,000 tuning in and the series is considerably up year-over-year with +132,000.

Beyond the Gates featured a series of showdowns and explosive secrets coming to light including: Vernon Dupree (Clifton Davis) confronting a hospitalized Bill Hamilton (Timon Kyle Durrett) about his intentions toward Dani (Karla Mosley), while Andre’s (Sean Freeman) dark past with Heather Armstrong (Ashley Jones) came to light.

So, what do you think of the latest ratings picture and performance of your favorite soap? Which daytime drama from broadcast television is piquing your interest the most? Which is not? Let us know via the comment section.

Shanice Johnson’s (Ernestine Morrison) brothers are coming to Fairmont Crest next week on all-new episodes of Beyond the Gates. Be on the lookout for Denzell Dandridge to make his debut as Lamont Johnson and Khiry Walker to debut n the role of Cedric Johnson on the Tuesday, September 8 episode.

In a video preview, Lamont and Cedric make quite a first impression on Dr. Ted Richardson (Keith D. Robinson), who are not so keen on the guy, who is dating their sister. Can Ted get Shanice’s siblings to have a change of heart about him? Stay tuned.

If Khiry Walker looks familiar, he has appeared in numerous television series, films and stage plays including Law & Order: Organized Crime and The Chair Company.  Denzell Dandridge has also appeared across film and television projects including: Street Code Broken, Coming of Age, itfactor and The Dirty D. Dandridge. In a fun fact, Denzell is actually the great-nephew of acclaimed and groundbreaking actress, Dorothy Dandridge.

In addition, Denzell Dandridge shared on his Instagram about his casting on the CBS soap opera, “All the long nights on set. Countless auditions. Thousands of No’s. But here it is… we finally got our YES.”

Since its inception, Beyond the Gates has focused on the stories of the Dupree and Richardson families, and now with the Johnson family coming into the picture, the series has a chance to expand more characters familial background and back-story to propel future storylines.

Beyond the Gates received 15 Daytime Emmy nominations at the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday night, October 30. The soap opera made Daytime Emmy history by racking up the highest nomination tally for its first time in the competition.

Now below, check out a preview for next week on Beyond the Gates which gives you a first look at Denzell Dandridge and Khiry Walker as Shanice’s brother. Do you hope the writers delve into the siblings story, or do you think they will just be in town to support their sister? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.