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Daytime Emmy Nominations Coming Soon — With Some Important Changes!

It is almost time for daytime’s biggest night of the year: the 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards! The ceremony, which is slated to take place on Friday, June 25, celebrates the achievements of the on-screen performers and behind-the-scenes crew of soap operas, news programs, entertainment and talk shows, and children’s programs. The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the organization that runs the Daytime Emmy Awards, is due to announce the nominations on Tuesday, May 25 — so it will be just a few more days before we know who will be vying for the coveted gold trophy!

But believe it or not, it was just three short years ago that all four daytime dramas — GENERAL HOSPITAL, THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS — threatened to boycott the annual competition altogether after a scandal broke out over the way that winners were selected during the 2018 season. In case you’ve forgotten, it came out that numerous submission errors in several categories were overlooked, eventually leading to NATAS rescinding Patrika Darbo’s award for her guest-starring role on The Bay. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, NATAS president and CEO Adam Sharp discussed how he’s been working hard to restore the integrity of the Television Academy and what the Daytime Emmy Awards mean following that scandal that rocked the daytime community.

“There was a great deal of concern and suspicion, so that’s why we commissioned an outside law firm to conduct an investigation,” shared Sharp. “They were supposed to look at our competition as a whole and really just get to the big, broader question of whether we are living up to our broadest ideals of running a fair, incredible competition.”

Adam Sharp Emmy
Adam Sharp is the president and CEO of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which oversees the Daytime Emmy Awards.Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

In addition to the internal audit of the judging process, NATAS appointed new leaders to oversee the competition and added members from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS’ West Coast counterpart that runs the Primetime Emmys) to the awards committee. There has also been a change to the set of standards used for scoring nominees, and any potential irregularity in judging is brought directly to the committee. “Under our old system, if you were one of the top five scorers, you were nominated even if you had a really low score,” Sharp explained. “Under the new model, you won’t be nominated if you have a low score. So, you will see that some of the categories will have fewer nominees than before.”

The winners of each category are the ones who earn the highest score by the panelists voting in the preliminary and Blue Ribbon rounds of judging. By the time the nominations are announced next week, the accountants who tally up the nominations will already know who the winners are. “[Panelists] score each entry on its individual merit,” said Sharp. “We think a jury of peers delivers a result that really helps elevate those voices.”

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Daytime Emmy Awards will be held virtually for the second year in a row, which means that the winners will be accepting their trophies at their homes, and there will be no traditional in-person show or red-carpet arrivals. Like last year, the 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will air June 25 on CBS and will also be available for streaming via Paramount+. Keep checking back at SoapsInDepth.com because we’ll post the nominees as soon as they are announced!

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