Did it ever annoy you that actors who were leads would put themselves in supporting

[SamandWillowFan]

Like Alicia Minshew and Rebecca Budig putting themselves in supporting despite being leads the last 5-6 years of All My Children.

[Faulkner]

Yeah, category fraud. I’m sure it was in deference to (or to avoid competition with) the more tenured marquee stars. Not sure if SL was still submitting throughout the 2000s. AM did get a Lead nod for Kendall in 2011 (alongside Debbi Morgan) but lost to Laura Wright.

Back in the day, it often felt like Lead vs. Supporting was more about the performer’s public/industry profile vs. how much his/her character drove that year’s story. 

[Contessa Donatella]

To this day I do not understand how Irene Dailey (Aunt Liz, AW) won Best Actress as a Lead. She was always a Supporting Character! I completely understand how Beverlee McKinsey & Victoria Wyndham canceled each other out & Irene just waltzed right through & I get it that Bev & VW went to the first place that served liquor, called for a table & to be left alone, just bring liquor & they got drunk together & shared their mutual disgust. 

[kalbir]

Susan Lucci last nomination was 2002 but not sure if she submitted 2003-2012.

Lead was for superstars and long-tenured veterans. Supporting was the holding tank for those who aged out of the younger category but were not quite at superstar level or had enough years to be considered long-tenured veterans.

[Faulkner]

Yeah, that’s definitely shifted in the past decade as the soaps have dwindled and the perennials like Slezak, Zimmer, Flannery, Lucci, and Jeanne Cooper either have been largely sidelined or had their shows cancelled, retired, or died. We still have vet/star nominees like Bergman, Stafford, Maura West, and Finola Hughes, but folks like Mishael Morgan, MCE, et al. would have submitted in the Supporting categories back in the day.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Faulkner

[Contessa Donatella]

When MCE played AMC's Crazy Annie was she in Support then? (How weird is it we have 2 Crazy Annies?) 

[Khan]

I wonder how much of a fuss there was when Dorothy Lyman, who had won one year as Supporting for AMC, submitted herself as Lead the next year and won that trophy as well.

[SamandWillowFan]

Yes, she always submitted in supporting. BW also submitted in supporting on OLTL even though Jessica was a lead because that was ES’ category.

[kalbir]

A year earlier both Beverlee McKinsey and Victoria Wyndham lost Lead Actress to their co-star Laurie Heineman. I think there was some controversy over that win too and I wonder if that was the reason the supporting categories were introduced the following year.

IMO the younger categories were introduced in 1985 in response to the controversy over Judi Evans supporting win in 1984 (she wasn't even 20 years old and had been on GL for only one year at the time).

[Contessa Donatella]

Was that just one year apart?! I don't think I realized that. If I recall correctly people were bothered because the actress had only been in the role a very short period of time. If I'm right, that doesn't seem like a very significant issue to me. She was the first Sharlene. Later, Anna Kathryn Holbrook won an Emmy for Sharlene, too. (She was the #2.)

I have always wished I knew what scenes were on her winning reel. Of course, her story was incredible & she was so good. 

Very early on there was a move to boycott P&G & for one year they received no Emmys, presumably because the boycott was successful. It seems very strange now, the things in the distant past that really got Emmy voters riled up. 

[dragonflies]

No cause it's been told to us ad nauseam that it's easier to win in supporting than it is in lead that's why those people did that 

[Faulkner]

Same as the Oscars. In what world was Tatum O’Neal “supporting” in Paper Moon? Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People? Viola Davis winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the same role she won a Best Lead Actress Tony for? Or even the reverse with Olivia Colman winning Best Actress in a movie where Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone were co-leads (and competing against each other in Supporting Actress). It’s all strategy to have the best chances to win. I wish there was a more objective way for placement but politics and powerful $$$$$ voices always get in the way.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Faulkner

[JellicleCat]

Sometimes it goes the other way. For instance, Peggy McCay was nominated in the Lead Actress category at the Daytime Emmys in 2015 for performances in 2014, when she had only appeared in 26 (!) episodes that year. Why she was put up in that category is anybody's guess....