The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), the organization behind the Daytime Emmy Awards, has announced some key changes that will impact “The 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards” and ceremonies thereafter, including the addition of the previously announced Emerging Talent category, elimination of the Original Song category, and when to expect an an announcement on nominations for this year’s awards ceremony.

First things first: Nominations for the “The 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards” are set to be announced in late June/early July, with an official date yet to be determined. 

The timeline makes sense, considering the ceremony was moved to October after previously taking place in June. The News & Doc Emmy Awards replaces the Daytime Emmy Awards on the June date, starting with the “The 46th Annual News & Doc Emmy Awards.”

Despite the move, the eligibility window for contention remains January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024, with the judging period to start Thursday, May 22-Monday, June 9, 2025. This means “Beyond the Gates,” CBS’ newest daytime soap opera, is not eligible for contention. However, the show will be eligible for next year’s awards.

As for the ceremony itself, from 2020-2024, CBS had broadcast the awards show each of year, with its most recent broadcast marking a record 18th time for the network, the most of any television network in history. However, at press time, no network had signed to broadcast this year’s awards show.

“The 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards” and the Daytime Emmys Lifestyle & Creative Arts ceremonies will take place in Los Angeles, CA.

Eliminated Daytime Emmy Awards Categories

After announcing the elimination of the Outstanding Younger Performer in a Daytime Drama Series category last year, this year, the organization is announcing the elimination of the Outstanding Original Song category.

No reason was cited for the elimination, but considering the dwindling number of nominees in the category, it makes sense for the organization to eliminate it. 

Last year’s winner was the song “We’re Home” by composer and lyricists Heidi Feek, Dillon Hodges, and Mandy McCauley from the PBS series “Reconnecting Roots.” Other nominees included “General Hospital” for the song “Shine,” and the Hulu series “Unexpected” for the song “Unexpected Truth.”

Other categories eliminated from the Daytime umbrella include Educational Program and Informational Program, albeit eligible programs can still submit within the E/I category at the Children’s & Family Emmys, or the News & Documentary Emmys, the organization said.

New Daytime Emmy Awards Categories

As for new categories, they include Outstanding Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series, and the splitting of the Culinary Series category into two separate categories, as well as splitting the Travel, Nature and Adventure category into different lines, plus the debut of the Outstanding Regional Content in a Daytime Genre category, albeit the latter is “NOT an Emmy eligible category but is instead national recognition for outstanding regional work that will be awarded with a crystal pillar.”

The new Culinary Series categories are as follows:

• Culinary Instructional Series – at least 51% focus on the “how-to” of cooking, e.g., recipes, equipment, techniques, etc.
• Culinary Cultural Series – at least 51% on the culture of food, e.g,. food/beverage tours, restaurants, cultural and ethnic dining, etc.

The new Travel, Nature and Adventure categories are as follows:

• Travel and Adventure Program – at least 51% focus on travel, e.g., destinations, forms of travel, exploration, thrill-seeking, etc.
• Nature and Science Program – at least 51% focus on interaction with and research on the natural world, including weather, animals, natural disasters, and climate.

Eden McCoy, Nicholas Alexander Chavez
Courtesy of NATAS; Eric Lopez/Netflix

Eligibility Requirements for the Outstanding Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series is as follows:

•  There is NO age restriction for this category;
• Performer has been on the Daytime Drama Program for two years or less, thereby limiting category eligibility for two years total per performer;
• Performer is on their first Daytime contract;
• Performer has no previous Daytime Emmy acting nominations; and
• Performer has never won this category – previous winners will be allowed to henceforth enter Guest, Supporting, or Lead as applicable;
• Performer must be onscreen in a speaking role with at least one multi-episode story arc.

As for judging, new parameters for voting are being introduced as the Daytime Emmys move toward a stated goal of members-only judging for 2026.

This includes NATAS no longer utilizing a system of “parity” within the Drama acting categories, e.g., programs are no longer guaranteed equal representation on the acting panels. Instead, “performers registering to judge will be assigned to three categories each within the following parameters:

• Actors are still NOT permitted to judge the category they are entered into;
• All actors will be assigned to two Drama acting categories and one Hosting category; and
• Administration strongly encourages actors to participate in the Host category as these categories require on-screen talent as judges.

Daytime Drama Eligibility Clarifications

To streamline the acting categories for instance, NATAS has issued a clarification to the rule prohibiting actors from entering twice for the same show, as “the spirit of this rule is to make sure that actors playing multiple roles on a single program simultaneously can only enter once, with all of their characters on the same reel.”

Jon Lindstrom, for instance, was cited as an example as he previously portrayed both Ryan Chamberlin and Kevin Collins simultaneously on “General Hospital.”

Jon Lindstrom, Emily O’Brien
Sonja Flemming/CBS

“This rule has been tweaked to allow for actors to enter multiple times for the same program if they exit as one character and return as a different character, and they are not playing both of those characters simultaneously,” the organization noted, highlighting Emily O’Brien for her dual roles on “Days of Our Lives,” where she portrays Theresa Donovan and Gwen Rizczech, respectively, but does not appear simultaneously.

“In these cases, actors are permitted to enter twice and even if they don’t, they can only enter for the character(s) being played simultaneously on a singular reel.”

Speaking of reels, all categories requiring clip reels instead of full episodes are not to exceed 15 minutes in length. Meanwhile, the Single Camera Directing and Multiple Camera Directing have been changed from reels to full episodes, keeping in line with the Outstanding Directing for a Daytime Drama Series category.

Elsewhere, Outstanding Casting reels have been shortened from 30 minutes to 15 minutes and “should focus on only a selection of newly-cast individuals.”

Further clarifications provided by NATAS include what being “on contract” means.

Per the organization, it refers to someone on a regular contract, not temporary or spec. “For craft categories with a 40% rule for eligibility, entrants MUST have 40% except in the Hairstyling and Makeup and Costumes categories, where there is an override option ONLY if they do specialty looks and the looks are included within the reel.” Further, “In all other categories with 40%, it is no longer the case that teams can enter a category if nobody reaches the threshold. If you don’t have anyone who reaches 40%, then, unfortunately, you are simply ineligible to enter the category.”

As for all other categories that previously had an “or 26 episode minimum” clause, that clause has been removed as it was added to account for reduced episode counts during the height of the Covid pandemic.

Other non-English languages besides Spanish are now permitted to submit, “provided they adhere to eligibility requirements regarding at least one US-based co-producer and the submission video being subtitled in English.”

Definition of Fictional Programming

If you’ve ever wondered how the broadcast daytime dramas and shows like “The Bay” are eligible for a Daytime Emmy Award, including the Writing and Directing categories, NATAS defines Daytime fictional programming as follows:

• Serialized, airing/streaming daily at least 4 consecutive days a week for at least two consecutive weeks;
• majority multi-camera filming style; and 
• majority use of studio sets.

Spinoffs or reboots of previous Daytime Drama nominees are automatically eligible, the organization pointed out.

Dangling Episodes

To submit in the Drama Series categories, program requirements include a minimum of three (3) episodes. For programs with fewer than three episodes that have aired during the eligibility period, a single episode can be entered within a category that accepts Specials, if applicable, and all applicable crafts. 

“Producers should choose a single episode to be representative in as many categories as they wish to enter. ‘Dangling episodes’ will not be eligible for the following year’s competition whether they are entered this year or not,” NATAS noted in its release.

Short Form Programming

Outside of the Daytime Drama categories, the Daytime Emmy Awards also has a Short Form category, with eligible programming quantified as 15 minutes or less in any Daytime genre, of which programs were previously given the choice of submitting in the long form categories. 

Short Form programming must now enter into the Short Form Program category. Writers and directors for Short Form are only eligible within the Short Form Program entry, while the directing and writing categories are only open to long form content.

Additional Daytime Emmy Award Clarifications

Other changes impacting the Daytime Emmy Awards include clarification that True Crime Programming that is anthology in style or studies one single case falls in the purview of the Primetime Emmy Awards, overseen by the Television Academy. The same goes for Dating/Relationship programming and Paranormal programming.

That said, True Crime programming that is magazine style (e.g., multiple cases per episode, often with a focus on cases that are of interest in popular culture) fall into the purview of Daytime within the Entertainment News category.

Lastly, a Host(s) for Daytime Programming (Talk Series, Culinary, and sometimes Lifestyle, How-To/Instructional, Arts & Popular Culture, Entertainment News, Travel/Adventure, Science/ Nature, and Short Form) is defined follows:

• Individual or individuals who appear(s) on screen (instead of just in voiceover);
• Welcome and say goodbye to the studio and/or at-home audience; 
•  Lead or moderate conversations/interviews/Q&As; and/or
• Provide context for the tasks being performed.

Hosts for Short Form must now enter the Host category affiliated with their genre.

Daytime Emmy Awards – Eligible Genres

Categories falling under the purview of the Daytime Emmy Awards include the following genres:

• Daytime Dramas; 
• Culinary Instructional; 
• Culinary Cultural; 
• Daytime Talk Series, 
• Lifestyle;
• Arts and Popular Culture; 
• Travel/Adventure; 
• Nature/Science;
• Legal/Courtroom;
• Entertainment News;
• Daytime Non-Fiction Special;
• Daytime Non-Fiction Short Form;
• Instructional/How-To; 
• Animal Shows; and
• Parades

Programming with a rating of TV-MA, or content that would be rated TV-MA if on a traditional linear network, is not eligible for contention under the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Note: The post ‘The 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards’ Nominations Timeline, Plus Find Out Which Categories Were Eliminated appeared first on the Soap Opera Network website.

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That was an extremely helpful article. I have never seen such detailed breakdowns of eligibility. I'm trying to understand the impact of ending the "parity" system will be... other than to give the hourlong soaps a better chance because they have bigger casts?

 

Very interesting. I didn't know lots of things. Thank you.

51 minutes ago, Errol said:

Daytime Emmy Awards – Eligible Genres

Categories falling under the purview of the Daytime Emmy Awards include the following genres:

• Daytime Dramas; 
• Culinary Instructional; 
• Culinary Cultural; 
• Daytime Talk Series, 
• Lifestyle;
• Arts and Popular Culture; 
• Travel/Adventure; 
• Nature/Science;
• Legal/Courtroom;
• Entertainment News;
• Daytime Non-Fiction Special;
• Daytime Non-Fiction Short Form;
• Instructional/How-To; 
• Animal Shows; and
• Parades

Programming with a rating of TV-MA, or content that would be rated TV-MA if on a traditional linear network, is not eligible for contention under the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Are there ever any episodes of soaps where this applies? TV-MA

I don't think there are. Just clarifying?

Soaps are always TV-14 and then added letters, right?

 

Edited April 9, 20251 yr by Contessa Donatella

BTG better be nominated in 2026....

18 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Are there ever any episodes of soaps where this applies? TV-MA

I don't think there are. Just clarifying?

Soaps are always TV-14 and then added letters, right?

 

At most, soap operas get a TV-14 rating for select episodes (sex, violence).

TV-MA is generally HBO or FX shows and R-rated movies airing on cable.

7 minutes ago, Errol said:

At most, soap operas get a TV-14 rating for select episodes (sex, violence).

TV-MA is generally HBO or FX shows and R-rated movies airing on cable.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking.