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Nominations for the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmys were announced live on Wednesday, February 8th from the set of the ABC daytime talk show, The View. If it seems like this year's nominations snuck up on you, fret not: the nominations were announced about a month earlier than usual. It's all part of a year of radical changes for the awards telecast.
This was a year in which the CBS soaps -- As the World Turns, The Bold and the Beautiful, Guiding Light and The Young and the Restless -- dominated the Daytime Emmy Awards nominations. In four of the six acting categories, CBS amassed four of the five total nominations in the category. In fact, the only category in which CBS did not lead the tally was the Outstanding Lead Actor field, where ABC earned three of the five nominations.
In the main categories, the CBS soaps grabbed 24 total nominations. ABC was second with 10 nominations. NBC did not receive any nominations. The Young and the Restless was the most-nominated program overall with 18 nominations, the show's highest nominations tally since 2000 when it received a whopping 28 nominations. Guiding Light was second with 14 nominations, nine of those nominations coming from acting categories making the CBS soap the most-nominated soap in the acting fields. As the World Turns and General Hospital placed third with 12 nominations.
First-time nominees were easy to find on this year's ballot. Four As the World Turns stars earned this very first nominations this year. Grayson McCouch (Dusty Donovan), a pre-nominee in each of the past three years, earned his first nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category. He is joined in the field by castmate Trent Dawson (Henry Coleman). Elsewhere on the ballot, Jennifer Landon (Gwen Norbeck), daughter of the late Michael Landon, earned an Outstanding Younger Actress nod and Jesse Soffer (Will Munson) earned a nomination in the Outstanding Younger Actor category. One Life to Live's Renee Elise Goldsberry (Evangeline Williamson) earned his first-ever nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress. Goldsberry was her show's sole acting nomination this year. Veteran soap opera actress Bobbie Eakes (Krystal Carey) earned her first nomination this year for her work on All My Children. Eakes received pre-nominations in 2003 and 2004 for her role as Macy Forrester on CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful, but never before made the final ballot. This year, her Outstanding Lead Actress nod, finally earns her a place on the ballot.
Other first-timers include All My Children's Leven Rambin (Lily Montgomery); General Hospital's Scott Clifton (Dillon Quartermaine); Guiding Light's Gina Tognoni (Dinah Marler), Mandy Bruno (Marina Cooper) and Jordan Clarke (Billy Lewis); and The Young and the Restless' Bryton McClure (Devon Hamilton)
Conversely, while just about half of this year's nominees are newcomers to the Emmy spotlight, only one of last year's winners -- Greg Rikaart (Kevin Fisher, Y&R) -- earned a return trip the Emmy ballot and, of the 17 remaining nominees, only seven have previously won Emmy statuettes.
There were some surprising oversights among the nominees. The Young and the Restless, considered by many to be a shoo-in for Outstanding Drama Series, was shut out of the Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress categories. It had widely been expected that Joshua Morrow (Nicholas Newman) and Sharon Case (Sharon Newman) would receive nominations for their work in a high-profile storyline involving the death of their on-screen daughter, played by Camryn Grimes (Cassie Newman). Grimes was, however, nominated for her work in the Outstanding Younger Actress category.
Another apparent oversight was One Life to Live actress Bree Williamson (Jessica Buchanan/Tess), who had appeared throughout most of 2005 in a "dual" role as a young woman battling an alternate personality. Typically, Emmy voters are big fans of actors playing more than one role. Elsewhere, newcomer Kelli Giddish (Di Kirby) somehow missed out on an Outstanding Younger Actress for her work on ABC's All My Children. The actress has received high praise from fans and from various media outlets for her work over the past year.
NBC was once again completely shut out of the so-called "major categories," as neither Days of our Lives nor Passions received any nominations in acting fields. Conventional wisdom has always stated that the two NBC soap's frequent excursions into fantasy-based storylines have hurt their Emmy chances. Last year, actress Juliet Mills (Tabitha Lenox, Passions) was the network's only acting nomination. Mills' nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress also marked the first time that a Passions performer had been nominated in one of the Lead categories. Passions did, however, pick up two technical nominations. DAYS fared much better, earning 5 technical nominations and a nod for Outstanding Directing Team.
In another surprise, Jordan Clarke (Billy Lewis) earned a nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category for his work on CBS's Guiding Light even though the actor does not have a contract with the show. Though Clarke has been with Guiding Light since 1983, he has been a recurring player since 1999. Guiding Light, meanwhile, was a no-show in the Directing and Writing categories, even though the show was the most-nominated in the acting categories and am Outstanding Drama Series contender.
As alluded to earlier in this article, 2006 marks a year of major changes for the 33-year-old awards ceremony. With each passing year, the ratings for the primetime awards telecast, much like those of the soaps themselves, have dropped. The broadcast rights for the Daytime Emmys rotate between the three major television networks each year. But according to industry sources, NBC, which has seen its two soaps mainly absent among the Emmy nominations in recent years, has decided that it will no longer be part of that rotation. That leaves the broadcast rights to alternate between CBS and ABC. For its turn as host of the Daytime Emmys, ABC has decided to shake things up.
ABC Daytime President Brian Frons made the decision to forgo the usual early-morning nominations and announce the nominations later in the day on the network's talk show, The View. The move should have given the talk show and the entire ABC lineup more facetime. However, with the CBS soaps earning the most nominations, Frons appeared less than enthusiastic as he sat in the audience.
As previously reported by Soap Central, this year's Daytime Emmys will take place at a new venue -- the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. This marks the first time that the Emmy telecast will take place at the venue, which is usually associated with the Academy Awards. It also marks the first time that the Daytime Emmys will be held outside of New York City. For the second time in four years, the telecast will span three hours instead of the usual two.
The Creative Craft Daytime Emmy Awards, primarily for the behind-the-scenes crew members, will be presented at two black tie ceremonies on Saturday, April 22, in New York at the Marriott Marquis Hotel and in Hollywood at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland .
The Daytime Emmys will be held Friday, April 28th and will air on ABC at 800pm.
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