And Daytime Emmy Season Kicks Off!

It's here! The time of year we've all* been waiting for**: Daytime Emmy nomination day!

*By "we" I mean "soap bloggers"

*By "waiting for", I mean "thinking about warily, if we think about it at all, because it's hard to get genuinely excited about a show televised on the CW [Edit--actually on CBS! Thanks for the correction, Jennifer!] with a budget of $64 that rarely, if ever, awards the gold statuette to the most deserving nominee. And also, what is the deal with the musical numbers?"

I watched Bree Williamson and that doctor from The Doctors announce a few of the nominees on The Early Show this morning, because...well, because I was up and bored, and it's already rainy and dreary, so what could make the morning worse? The answer to that question is Bobby Flay, folks. Bobby Flay and his smug face make things worse. Luckily, I didn't have to see him speak, but he smiled obnoxiously about, like, goat milk, and now I am even crabbier than I was when I woke up! Um, back to the nominees, though:

Outstanding Daytime Drama

All My Children

The Bold & The Beautiful

General Hospital

The Young & The Restless

Outstanding Lead Actress

Sarah Brown, General Hospital

Crystal Chappell, Guiding Light

Bobbie Eakes, All My Children

Michelle Stafford, The Young and the Restless

Maura West, As The World Turns

Outstanding Lead Actor

Peter Bergman, The Young and the Restless

Doug Davidson, The Young and the Restless

Jon Lindstrom, As the World Turns

Michael Park, As The World Turns

James Scott, Days of Our Lives

Outstanding Supporting Actress

Beth Chamberlin, Guiding Light

Julie Pinson, As the World Turns

Carolyn Hennesy, General Hospital

Arianne Zucker, Days of Our Lives

Bree Williamson, One Life to Live

Outstanding Supporting Actor

Billy Miller, The Young and the Restless

Bradford Anderson, General Hospital

Jonathan Jackson, General Hospital

Ricky Paull Goldin, All My Children

Brian Kerwin, One Life to Live

Outstanding Younger Actress

Christel Khalil, The Young and the Restless

Marnie Schulenburg, As the World Turns

Molly Burnett, Days of Our Lives

Shelley Hennig, Days of Our Lives

Julie Berman, General Hospital

Outstanding Younger Actor

Drew Tyler Bell, The Bold and the Beautiful

Drew Garrett, General Hospital

Dylan Patton, Days of Our Lives

Scott Clifton, One Life to Live

Zack Conroy, Guiding Light

That's...a lot to take in.

For starters, let's look at the slow motion trainwreck that is the Outstanding Daytime Dramacategory: AMC, GH AND Y&R? I know that soaps as a whole are in a bad place right now, a bad place marked by awful writing, illogical plots and offensiveness, but way to pick what I have to assume are the three least deserving soaps, because 2009 on Y&R had such horrifying things as Victor continuing to do no wrong, and the death of Colleen Carlton and far too much Jana/Kevin/Daniel/Amber for anyone's liking, including those of the actors who play Jana, Kevin, Daniel and Amber.

Last year on AMC was the year of Bianca and Reese, and Erica and Ryan, and Stuart's murder by Adam, and trying to make Randi happen, and we're going to reward them with the chance to be called the best in daytime? And GH's 2009 brought us Rebecca, the world's worst PPD story, Sonny and Claudia and their unholy union of glurg, and the murder mystery of the Player Mayor's mistress that I literally forgot about until this very second, and Ethan, and Franco's story, which was awesome in all the wrong ways and, oh, right a teenager killing someone and the point that I'm trying to make is that there were, at most, five genuinely entertaining moments on GH this year amidst the metric ton of crap, and I can only hope that they are nominated just to cruelly make Jill Farren Phelps think that she won and, as she goes on-stage to accept her award, one of those musical numbers begins with a chorus line descending on stage, singing a song about something along the lines of "As if! Get your grubby, hack hands off of the award that we're going to give to The Bold and the Beautiful for the second year in a row, which is a scary sentence to sing, but it's slim pickings here".

There is a name conspicuously missing from the Outstanding Lead Actor nominees, isn't there? Where on earth is David Canary?!?! His work after Stuart's murder was legen--wait for it--dary. I kept thinking that the indignity of having one of his beloved characters killed off because Charles Pratt was bored and then having it turn out that his other beloved character did the killing would at least lead to another Emmy win, but NO! I think that this calls for a melodramatic clutching of peals and a slow-motion scream of "Whyyyyyyyyy?" For tips and tricks on how to play such an over-the-top expression of horror, we can all learn from nominee Doug Davidson! I hope against hope that he submitted his breakdown over the truth about Mary Jane/Patty, because it continues to make me happy, months later. If he wins, do you think his index finger will get a special mention in his speech?!  Peter Bergman being nominated always makes me happy, especially because it means we will see him looking dreamy in a tux this summer. James Scott was the biggest surprise for me, and his was one of the categories announced on The Early Show and when they said his name, I flailed a little bit, and could almost hear Becca's giddy shriek. Sooo not expecting that!

Over in Outstanding Lead Actress, you have the women who are guaranteed a nomination every year (Michelle Stafford and Maura West), an actress who is reliably awesome on any soap (Crystal Chappell), an actress who got saddled with a poorly written mess of a character that I can only describe as WTFWTFWTFFFFFF(Sarah Brown) and an actress who plays a character that manages to be both useless and offensive on every level (Bobbie Eakes). Interesting.

Since I don't watch most of the soaps the Outstanding Supporting Actress nominees come from, I can only say that I am...surprised by Carolyn Hennesy's nomination. It's not that I don't enjoy Diane. I do, in small doses! And luckily, that's all we get of her, because she is a very, very supporting character. I wish that Rebecca Herbst had gotten the nod. I am happy about Arianne Zucker, though--she's more than a little awesome.

My fourteen-year-old self is squealing over Outstanding Supporting Actor and Jonathan Jackson's nomination in particular. I have been completely upfront about finding him to be the bee's knees, so this nomination would have delighted me even if he didn't give a series of amazing performances following his return to the show. Luckily, he did, though, so the nomination is both awesome AND deserved. Bradford Anderson is a good actor under the layers of annoyingness and Spinelli speak, so I am not going to quibble with his nomination (unless he wins, and then we should all be prepared for an anti-Spinelli rant) and I adore Billy Miller. And then there is Ricky Paull Goldin, and I can only say...buh? Buh and can you believe he and Bobbie Eakes are nominated from AMC and David Canary is NOT? What is HAPPENING to the world?

Outstanding Younger Actress is almost nearly perfect: I'm not at all surprised that Lily's cancer storyline garnered Christel Khalil a nod, and I love Julie Berman and Shelley Hennig. Molly Burnett, though, is...um...well, in the interest of full disclosure, I fast-forward and/or mute all of the scenes in which she appears, so maybe I missed her award-worthy acting.

Does anyone else really want Drew Garrett to win Outstanding Younger Actor, not just because he is hugely deserving of it (seriously, he made me like Michael Corinthos, who is horrible on every level. He's that talented!) but also because it would be interesting to see how GH and ABC Daytime deal with that awkward situation. I mean, I already know that they would deal with it poorly and obnoxiously, because that's what they do, but I'd like to see just how bad they'd be.

What say you, Serial Drama readers?

Comments

[Beth R.]

Hey Dee...I'm glad you love Jonathan Jackson...but the week before the smackdown was STILL January of 2010. As the smackdown was the lead into February sweeps.

[Kat]

I'm glad that Drew got nominated. He's talented. Still don't understand why he was fired. I'm glad about Crystal Chappell's nomination too. She managed to do very good acting under a format that probably made good acting difficult to do.

[Judy]

AMC and GH get best drama noms but OLTL is nowhere? After the historic gay lovemaking scene? And everything else they did right before firing every good actor on the show and turning it into High School Musical? What the WHAT?

And Izzy, I believe 2009 is the year Jessica realized her baby died, which would account for Bree Williamson's nom - she and Erika Slezak had me crying my eyes out with that scene. It was amazing.

Either Drew Garrett or Scott Clifton could win and put the people who fired them to shame, I don't much care which. SC did his best work in 2010 when Schuyler came unglued, so I'm leaning toward him cuz OLTL is my show and they fired him for no good reason and he probably won't get a nom for that.

[Judy]

Oh, yeah, and major diss that Brett Claywell didn't get nominated. He is a terrific actor, definitely the better half of Kish, though both the guys did a great job with the storyline.

I don't know, whoever does these nominations must be on something good. CarnEvil? Really?

[amiejayne]

realbrenda4evr, I agree 100% about Terri Colombino. And for that matter, I only saw bits and pieces of ATWT in 2009, but any one of those episodes was better than the best GH had to offer, so HOW THE HELL do all the shitty ABC soaps get nominated for best show while ATWT gets passed over? This is so completely effed up.

[ana]

I'm glad Carolyn Hennesy got the nom and not RH, I don't see why she would've, her storylines have been bland.
GH with 18 nominations, I love it!!
Drew Garrett deserves to win, that guy was stellar as Michael. Am happy for Sarah Brown, but I would've just loved to see LW get a nom. love her or hate her, she plays Carly very well.

[Dee]

Beth R...I know that those scenes were in 2010 and, therefore, ineligible. I was making the point that the Niz smackdown wasn't the only Emmy winning performance Jonathan delivered in January.

AND, just in case anyone's interested, JJ submitted the Christmas episode with TG, the one where Lucky talks about "little miracles," the one that pretty much moves me to tears every time I see it. So much for non-Emmy.

[Reva]

I think I've finally quit smiling at Tony Geary's lack of nomination. Finally, he isn't nominated simply because he's Tony Geary.

Good to see the other GH noms. BTW...I loved the scene JJ submitted.