The landscape of daytime television has changed faster than the plots on The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, Days of our Lives, and General Hospital in the past couple of years, leaving the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) scrambling to keep up when it comes to producing an all-encompassing Daytime Emmy presentation. And this year the organization has decided to make a couple of changes to more fairly reflect the changing genre.

According to a Variety feature interview with NATAS Senior VP Daytime Emmy Awards David Michaels, the following changes are afoot:

First, the ceremony will feature a new category for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Talk Show/Morning Program, which Michaels is thrilled about. "If you think about the kinds of guests that are on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and all of the talk shows, the entries in that category are like a who's who of the recording industry, so no matter who gets nominated, that category's going to be on fire," he shares.

Second, the acting category for performers in online web series will now be split into Actor and Actress, rather than the category comprising both males and females like it has in the past. "Last year we noticed the talent category was completely out of control," Michaels states. "It was just performer in a digital drama, so we split it into actor in a digital drama and actress in a digital drama so it would be a little more manageable for the judges. And it's still huge."

And third, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to two recipients instead of just one as it has been done for the past 40-plus years, with the additional award going to someone in the creative arts field. "It's to honor a behind-the-scenes person who's had a lifetime of contributing to a show or several shows, not just a front-of-the-camera person," Michaels says.

All in all, this year's Daytime Emmy Awards will have 87 categories in which creative entities, performers, and series will compete. And Michaels says decisions to add, delete, or even slightly tweak categories are not taken lightly. "Two years ago we split [talk show] host into two categories [entertainment and informative]," he says. "It used to be all the hosts were lumped together, but we decided that wasn't fair."

Suggestions are accepted from people throughout the daytime community, and the best ideas are presented to the national awards committee for consideration and possible approval. "I think when there is resistance from the awards committee, it's because everyone is aware that we don't want a proliferation of Emmys; you don't want to dissipate the importance of them," Michaels says. "So if we're adding something new, we need everyone to agree that it's an absolute necessity."

The 43rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be held on Sunday, May 1, with the Creative Arts Awards taking place before on Friday, April 29. Fans can look forward to the official nominees being announced on Thursday, March 24 on CBS' The Talk.

What do you think about this year's Daytime Emmy Awards changes? Is there anything else you think the award ceremony should change? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below, on our message boards, or by submitting Feedback.