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Nominations for the 34th Annual Daytime Emmys were announced live on Wednesday, March 14th from the set of CBS's Guiding Light. If it seems like this year's nominations are a little later than usual, don't worry: it had nothing to do with the early return to Daylight Savings Time. This year's nominations were announced a full month later than previous years -- and this year's Emmy ceremony will not be held until June.
For a second year in a row, CBS dominated the nominations. In the early nominations alone (Lead Actor, Actress and Drama Series), the Tiffany Network nabbed an amazing 12 of the 14 nominations: five for The Young and the Restless, four for Guiding Light, two for As the World Turns and one for The Bold and the Beautiful. ABC's General Hospital and One Life to Live banned the remaining two nominations. By the time all of the nominations had been announced, CBS tallied 52 nominations - more than double second place ABC's 25 nominations. NBC finished third in the nominations tally with 10 nominations.
All of the performers in this year's Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress categories are previously nominees and more than half of the ten nominees are previous winners. Leading the pack are four-time winners Kim Zimmer (Reva Shayne, Guiding Light) and Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer, General Hospital).
Zimmer's nomination comes one year after the actress hinted that she might remove herself from future Emmy consideration.
"The only reason I wouldn't withdraw my name is if I thought there weren't other actresses on my show who could step up and take a nomination in [the Outstanding Lead Actress] category," Zimmer told Soap Central after accepting her fourth Emmy trophy last year.
At least one of Zimmer's co-stars "stepped up" this year: Zimmer is joined by her Guiding Light co-star Crystal Chappell (Olivia Spencer) on this year's ballot. Chappell took home an Outstanding Supporting Actress statue in 2002.
In 2003 the Daytime Emmys changed the nominating process in an attempt to prevent soaps with large casts from dominating the nominations tally. Still, this year several soaps were fortunate enough to have both of their pre-nominees in certain categories end up on the final ballot.
All of The Young and the Restless' pre-nominees in the Lead Actor, Lead Actress and Supporting Actor categories found their way to the final ballot. These three categories accounted for six of the show's seven acting nominations. One Life to Live, meanwhile, earned two of its three total acting nominations by placing both of its Supporting Actress pre-nominees. General Hospital's Genie Francis (Laura Spencer) earned a Supporting Actress nomination for her short-term return to the show to help celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of super-couple Luke and Laura. She will be joined in the category by castmate Rebecca Herbst (Liz Webber). Francis, who surprisingly has received just one previous Daytime Emmy nomination, and Herbst both will be vying for their first Emmy.
NBC continued to lag behind in total nominations, but the network did manage to make some waves. Passions earned its third-ever acting nomination. James Stevenson (Jared Casey) earned a nomination for Outstanding Younger Actor. He joins Juliet Mills (Tabitha Lenox) and the late Josh Ryan Evans (Timmy) as the show's only other Emmy-nominated actors.
Days of our Lives again came up empty-handed in the acting categories, continuing a streak that dates back to 2004 when James Reynolds (Abe Carver) was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor. DAYS did pick up five nominations in technical categories, including nods for camera editing, hairstyling, lighting, music direction and sound mixing.
Like the drama series they honor, the Daytime Emmys nominations are often filled with intrigue and surprises.
General Hospital did not receive a nomination for Outstanding Drama series for the first time since 2003. The show holds the most Outstanding Drama Series wins with 8.
The Young and the Restless did not receive a nomination for Directing Team for the first time in several years. You'd have to go back to 1999 to find the last time that the show did not earn a nod in this category. Y&R has earned an whopping ten wins for its Directing Teams over the years.
Also on the subject of shut outs, All My Children was not invited to the Outstanding Drama Series party for only the fourth time since 1975.
Two of One Life to Live's acting nominees are no longer with the show. Multiple Emmy winner Heather Tom (Kelly Cramer) and Dan Gauthier (Kevin Buchanan) exited the show last fall. In years past, soaps often did not submit the names of performers who exited the show, instead opting to focus attention on the actors and actresses that were still a part of the soap.
And while The View is not a daytime drama series, it certain has been its own soap opera over the past year. The show earned ten nominations this year, including Outstanding Talk Show and Outstanding Talk Show Host. The stage was set for current co-host Rosie O'Donnell to share the stage with former co-host Star Jones, with whom Rosie has publicly feuded with in the past. But the showdown will not happen. Jones name was not submitted by ABC for consideration -- even though she was eligible for a nomination. Jones shook up The View last year when she announced on-air that she had been fired. She was promptly booted from the show earlier than anticipated and all traces of Jones were removed. O'Donnell has taken Jones to task for her rapid weight loss and denial that she had undergone any surgery to faciliate that weight loss. Merdeith Viera, who also exited the show last year to move to NBC's Today Show, was also not submitted for consideration.
The Daytime Emmys will be held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood on Friday, June 15th and will air live on CBS at 900pm.
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