To skip ahead to this year's list of nominees, click here
In a little over a month, the television community will gather to celebrate the best in daytime television. And while an argument could be made that it is nearly impossible to choose a single performer or program that is "the best," the Academy voters have whittled the field down to these very deserving nominees.
For the fourth year in a row, the official nominees were announced during a special live episode of CBS's soap-friendly The Talk.
"The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is excited to be presenting the 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, in the historic Pasadena Civic Auditorium," said Chuck Dages, Chairman, NATAS. "With an outstanding roster of nominees and two wonderful hosts in Mario Lopez and Sheryl Underwood, we are looking forward to a great event honoring the best that Daytime television delivers everyday to its devoted audience."
"The record-breaking number of entries and the incredible level of talent and craft reflected in this year's nominees gives us all ample reasons to celebrate," said David Michaels, SVP, and Executive Producer, Daytime Emmy Awards. "With David Parks joining us as an Executive Producer on the show, Gregg Gelfand directing, Bruce Ryan doing the set and Lighting Design by Tom Kenny along with a great production team, our 45th Anniversary show will be a spectacular gala which both looks ahead and looks back over 45 glorious years and will honor everything we've come to expect and love about Daytime television!"
In addition to a record number of entries, there were additional categories added this year to acknowledge the achievements of digital series. Digital series now receive nominations for writing and directing. Digital series also have their own supporting actor, supporting actress, and guest performer categories, all of which feature performers well-known to soap fans.
With just four soap operas left on broadcast television, all four soaps -- The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless -- once again received nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Writing Team, Outstanding Directing Team, and nearly all the Creative Arts categories.
In not-quite-soap-but-still-very-much-soap news, once again the Digital Series categories were dominated by daytime stars. The star-studded series The Bay will try defend its title as Outstanding Digital Series against Eastsiders, the DAYS-inspired Ladies of the Lake, the behind-the-scenes of a soap Tainted Dreams, Zac & Mia, and Venice The Series -- the only other digital soap to win in the category.
As previously reported, there were changes made to the submission process last year. Any actor or actress who submitted themselves for Emmy consideration this year could submit scenes from up to four episodes, but the total running time of all the submitted scenes could not exceed 20 minutes in length. Previously, performers could only include material from two episodes. The reason for the change was to allow performers to show a greater range of material and to not be confined to showing an entire episode in which they may have only had a significant presence in a single, memorable scene.
Out of all the performers who submitted themselves for Emmy consideration on The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless, a round of voting has narrowed down this year's list of contenders to the following performers:
Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott, The Young and the Restless)
Michael Easton (Hamilton Finn, General Hospital)
John McCook (Eric Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Billy Miller (Jason Morgan/Drew, General Hospital)
James Reynolds (Abe Carver, Days of our Lives)
Eileen Davidson (Ashley Abbott, The Young and the Restless)
Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis, General Hospital)
Marci Miller (Abigail Deveraux, Days of our Lives)
Maura West (Ava Jerome, General Hospital)
Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos, General Hospital)
Wally Kurth (Ned Quartermaine, General Hospital)
Chandler Massey (Will Horton, Days of our Lives)
Anthony Montgomery (Dr Andre Maddox, General Hospital)
Greg Rikaart (Kevin Fisher, The Young and the Restless)
Greg Vaughan (Eric Brady, Days of our Lives)
Marla Adams (Dina Mergeron, The Young and the Restless)
Camryn Grimes (Mariah Copeland, The Young and the Restless)
Susan Hayes (Julie Williams, Days of our Lives)
Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Mitchell, The Young and the Restless)
Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy Forrester Spencer, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Mishael Morgan (Hilary Curtis, The Young and the Restless)
Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy Forrester Spencer, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Lucas Adams (Tripp Dalton, Days of Our Lives)
Rome Flynn (Zende Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Tristan Lake Leabu (Reed Hellstrom, The Young and the Restless)
Casey Moss (JJ Deveraux, Days of Our Lives)
Hudson West (Jake Webber, General Hospital)
Reign Edwards (Nicole Avant Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Hayley Erin (Kiki Jerome, General Hospital)
Cait Fairbanks (Tessa Porter, The Young and the Restless)
Olivia Rose Keegan (Claire Brady, Days of our Lives)
Chloe Lanier (Nelle Benson, General Hospital)
Soap Central will have reactions from the nominees throughout the day. Be sure to check back here at soapcentral.com, on our Facebook page, and on Twitter.
The Daytime Emmys event will be held Sunday, April 29, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Southern California. This will mark the second straight year that the ceremony will be held in Pasadena. The ceremony will not be broadcast on television, but it will be streamed on various platforms.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW A COMPLETE LIST OF THIS YEAR'S NOMINEES
FIND OUT WHICH STARS WERE PRE-NOMINATED FOR AN EMMY
What do you think about the official nominees for this year's Daytime Emmy race? Who are you especially excited to see make the list? Is there anyone you hoped would make the final list but unfortunately did not? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
