Brace Yourself Days of Our Lives’ Fans, Because Arianne Zucker Just Revealed Her Final Air Date As Nicole

Days of Our Lives fans were utterly shocked back in February when Arianne Zucker announced that she was no longer with the show and had, effectively been fired after playing Nicole for over 25 years. Due to the show’s extensive lead time in filming (they’re currently working on episodes that won’t air until the holidays), though, it’s been unclear when Zucker’s final scenes would be. Now, though, we’ve got some good news and bad news.

The good news is, we still have a few months of Nicole left. The bad news is she’ll be gone before the summer ends. Zucker shared the details on her podcast, Ready to Stop Complaining? Try This!, which you can check out below. In it, she thanks fans extensively after a Days of Our Lives fan event in New Jersey with Starstruck Fan Events, saying that she, “got to see incredible fans, that some I knew, some I just met. I was really appreciative of the amount of support that I have had since me leaving Days of Our Lives. I’ll just be kind about it right now.”

Zucker then went on to add, “just so y’all know my last air date is July. I think it’s July 29th and we’ll see how things go after that. But I had a tremendous amount of support. I don’t think I’ve seen or read anything bad about anybody not supporting me through this whole thing. So, thank you to everybody that was at the events. We’ll have more events. I will be at more events.”

For those who don’t know the story, Zucker’s exit appears to be the result of aftershocks from the behind-the-scenes fracas involved in ousting longtime executive producer Alber Alarr.

The EP was fired last summer after allegations of sexual misconduct arose from his years heading the show. After a more-than-two-month investigation and petitions from both the cast and the fans, he was let go and, in his place, Janet Drucker was elevated to co-executive producer alongside Ken Corday in order to provide a “a safe and inclusive workplace environment.”

Fans and cast cheered the change at Days of Our Lives, though due to the show’s six-month lead time in taping, we’ve only recently begun to see episodes of the soap with Drucker as co-EP. One of the most vocal voices speaking out against Alarr at the time was Arianne Zucker, who’s played Nicole since 1998 — years before Alarr signed on in 2005.

Former Days of Our Lives executive producer Albert Alarr

Credit: Vivien Killilea/via Getty Images

And now, according to TMZ, Zucker is suing Corday Productions Inc., which runs Days of Our Lives, Corday and Alarr for harassment, discrimination, negligent hiring, negligent supervision, retaliation and wrongful termination. As the website reports, Zucker alleges that Alarr forced non consensual sexual touching and sexually harassing comments upon her and other women on the show and that repeated complaints to Corday Productions Inc. were ignored.

That was, apparently, when she contacted Sony, which co-produces the show, and spoke with HR. During that entire time, though, Alarr was allowed to remain working as they spoke with her and investigated, something that, she tells TMZ, made her feel “violated and intimidated.”

On top of that, when Zucker’s contract with Days of Our Lives was almost up back in the fall, she claims the production company refused to negotiate “in good faith.” Her contract expired in July, which means that for all intents and purposes, Zucker has been fired.

What this means for Nicole’s or Zucker’s future with the show isn’t entirely clear. The actress has, so far, been the only person to play Nicole since her debut. And right now, Nicole is in the middle of two huge storylines that Zucker has been knocking out of the park as her character has dealt with the supposed death of her baby (and Sloan’s kidnapping of little Jude) and teenage daughter Holly’s drug-induced coma and its aftermath.

At the very least, though, we now know that Zucker will only be around for about three more months. As always, we’ll be sure to update you with anything else we may hear.