Nikki could've stolen Eric Forrester. 😉
She was in-talks to join As the World Turns after leaving General Hospital in 1993 but, following Douglas Marland's death, those talks ended.
❝ After Days you went back to GH, right?
I was very happy at Days—I loved working with the executive producer, Al Rabin—but GH made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. More money. Days couldn’t match it, and I had taken a huge pay cut to go there, so I went back to GH. But then I left again because I was in talks with Doug Marland to go to As the World Turns. And then he died. I couldn’t get back on GH so Rabin hired me on his [syndicated] soap Valley of the Dolls to work with the actors as a dialogue coach. I observed Al as a producer and that was the precursor to my going back to New York to produce Loving for a year. I was fully prepared not to return to acting. ❞
⏤ Michael Logan, TV Insider
I don't think it was meant to be a full-time thing; if I recall, Jeanne Cooper was meant to brought into the storyline with Terry Lester. It was going to be a limited-run casting, and then she'd return to The Young and the Restless. But, when Marland passed, the storyline changed entirely.