On Friday, June 26th, CBS will broadcast the 47th annual Daytime Emmy Awards, hosted by the gregarious fivesome from The Talk. Over the years, humbling talent has been awarded on the Emmy stage. Unfortunately, when it comes to Emmy nods, you can't win them all. You can't submit them all, either. The competition is stiff. Soaps must make tough decisions about which reels to submit, and with only two nominations allowed per category, it's no wonder that many lightning-rod scenes get left on the cutting room floor.
Are the soaps putting their best scenes forward? Simply put, riveting content is in the eye of the beholder. That's why we have a few ideas about which scenes from 2019 were truly outstanding in their own right, Emmy-nominated or not. Let's get two scoops deep into the scenes under Emmy consideration and the scenes we think could also have earned our beloved cast and crew coveted awards. As a bonus, we'll analyze the first half of 2020 for scenes B&B might want to consider submitting for the 2021 awards show.
Outstanding Lead Actress Award
Some might find it hard to believe; some might not find it surprising at all, but this year marks only the third time Katherine Kelly Lang has been up for an Emmy since the inception of The Bold and the Beautiful. KKL possesses an exceptional but overlooked talent. She probably should have won awards for gripping scenes during plots featuring the Andy rape, Stephanie's death, and Brooke as the husband-hopping-and-husband-stealing sister -- just to name a few.
This year, KKL is up for an Emmy for lead actress. Posited for consideration is the March 2019 reel of Brooke dressing down Taylor. I love a good Brooke and Taylor row, but with this scene, I felt left hanging because Taylor departed town and has yet to return. Should Brooke's old feud with Taylor have taken center stage for KKL's Emmy submission, or would Brooke's new bitch brawls with Shauna and Thomas have been more suitable?
As Brooke, KKL has a treasure-trove of gripping scenes from 2019 to choose from that actually build upon Brooke's character and desperation to protect her daughter Hope, even if it meant sacrificing her marriage to Ridge. From the reckless way Brooke protected her daughter by shoving Thomas off a cliff to the emotional fallout between Brooke and Ridge over their children, KKL could have shown her range with any number of scenes that ran the emotional gamut from anger to fear to despair.
In competition with KKL is Heather Tom, up for her third Lead Actress trophy. One of the scenes featured for her nomination is that of Katie blasting Flo for her baby-napping crimes. Not the most enthralling selection, in my opinion, but maybe Flo's presence killed the scene for me. If I could have picked a scene for Tom, I would have chosen a scene from Katie's kidney transplant storyline. In particular, I'm thinking of the scene in which Katie sobbed and called herself Frankenstein because of her transplanted body parts.
As much as I admire the talents of KKL and Tom, I feel that Jacqueline MacInnes Wood should have been nominated for her role in the baby-napping storyline. Specifically, I suggest the reel that contained Steffy's meltdown upon learning that Phoebe, her adopted daughter, was really Beth, Hope's "stillborn" daughter. Rarely do I cry for Steffy, but while viewing this scene, my heart contracted, and fat tears fell from my eyes as I watched her lose her baby. The conflict was deep because, at the same time I cried for Steffy, I wanted Hope to have her baby back.
What do you think? Did B&B pick the best scenes and actresses for the Outstanding Lead Actress category? What would you have done differently if you'd had your pick of actresses and scenes to nominate for 2019?
Outstanding Lead Actor
Ridge Forrester has been the center of endless love triangles, fashion showdowns, and murder and death plots, but his actor has never been nominated for an Emmy until now. 2019 marks the first year that an actor could possibly take home an award for playing our leading man and playboy, Ridge Forrester. With several nominations under his belt for characters like Zach Slater (All My Children) and Ian Thornheart (Port Charles), Thorsten Kaye is an acting force to be reckoned with and should be primed for a win.
Attached to Kaye's nomination is the scene in which Ridge implored Brooke to be by his side as he tried to save his son Thomas. Ridge and Brooke's troubled marriage plot was one of the few highlights of 2019 for me. The veterans had a well-deserved front-burner storyline, and Kaye and KKL brought a maelstrom of emotions to the forefront as they warred with each other in a desperate bid to save their marriage. The two definitely deserve to win -- but I cannot ignore another actor whose work should have at least won a nomination: Scott Clifton.
Every scene Scott Clifton touches turns to gold, and while he was at the forefront of the baby-napping storyline, he was swimming in more gold than Scrooge McDuck. Whether Liam was in an "I'm gonna get you, sucka" scene with Thomas (Matthew Atkinson), an "I didn't mean to turn you on" scene with Steffy, or a "baby, come back! You can blame it all on me" scene with Hope, Clifton consistently delivered, providing winning scene after winning scene.
Clifton's best work in 2019 was probably with the child actors. We could feel Liam's paternal instincts when Clifton held "PhoeBeth," and we could sense how torn Liam was about Douglas, his second cousin and a major stumbling block to the Lope reunion. Clifton's most outstanding scenes of the year had to be the climactic scenes with Henry Joseph Samiri (Douglas) in which Douglas insisted that "Baby Beth is alive," and Liam picked PhoeBeth up from her crib, knowing that the impossible was true. Douglas was right, and Beth was alive.
Like Thorsten Kaye, Scott Clifton delivers on his scenes every single time, turning emotions up several notches to meet the gravity of the moment. Unfortunately, Clifton did not submit himself for Emmy consideration, so we'll never know if a blue-ribbon panel would have thought his performance was Emmy worthy, but as fans, we know his work was golden.
Outstanding Supporting Actress
They say the work of a supporting actress is rigorous, and our own Annika Noelle (Hope) lived up to the challenge handed to her with the emotion-sapping baby-napping storyline of 2019. Attached to Annika Noelle's nomination is the scene in which Hope Logan Spencer learned that Beth was supposedly stillborn. It was the right pick for an Emmy nod, but through her portrayal of a broken Hope Logan, Noelle had only just begun to show us how deep the grieving rabbit hole would go. Day after day, she delivered on the anguish that only a mother could feel at the loss of her baby.
While I agree with B&B's scene choice for AN's submission, I would be remiss for not citing another noteworthy scene she delivered in 2019, and that scene was the one in which Hope learned from Liam that Baby Beth was really alive. Maybe Annika was born with it, or maybe it's my runny Maybelline. I don't know, but AN's superpower is somehow making a broken character seem stubbornly strong, even in the character's most morose moments.
Outstanding Supporting Actor
B&B doesn't have a contender in the Supporting Actor category for 2019, and that's a disappointment. With the likes of Matthew Atkinson joining the cast, one would think B&B would have a shoe-in for the nomination. Atkinson joined the cast and immediately honed in on Thomas Forrester's dark, psychotic side. Atkinson's work is flawless from start to finish, and he escalates any scene he's in, taking the stakes higher and higher for his colleagues. I haven't loved an actor and hated a character with such equal passion since Susan Flannery played Stephanie Forrester, and I look forward to seeing what happens next for Thomas.
If I had to pick scenes to use to nominate Atkinson in this category, I can think of one that really encapsulates who and what Thomas has become. I would choose the scene in which he confessed to Ridge that he had done nothing after Emma had driven into the ravine. In fact, now that I think of it, I'd submit this scene for Thorsten Kaye in his contest, too.
In the scene, viewers learned the depths of Thomas' depravity, if not the lengths of it, and we watched Ridge make nearly the impossible choice between turning his son in or covering for him. Truly his mother's son, Ridge covered for his child, the very same child who'd learned nothing and would continue to sabotage his life and Ridge's over an obsession with Hope.
If you could award a cast member in the Supporting Actor category, who would you choose and why?
Outstanding Younger Performer award
The younger actor award category is another area where B&B appears to lack a nominee, but it isn't for lack of talent. The soap's youth cast is noteworthy in spite of its lack of Emmy nominees. Henry Joseph Samiri (Douglas) and Nia Sioux (Emma) deserve honorary nods for their performances in 2019.
Samiri won my heart for his portrayal of the emotionally used and abused Douglas Forrester. Samiri acted above his maturity level with a levity that punctuated the moral seriousness of his storylines. Most impressive about Samiri is his ability to stand his ground and even steal scenes when working with powerhouse actors and actresses. He fits with Atkinson like a real-life, dysfunctional father-son team. For me, Samiri's most unforgettable scene was the one in which he stands up to his father by phone and then tells Liam the truth about Beth.
We didn't see much of Emma Barber during the year, but her death after a vehicular swan dive over a cliff had to be some of Nia Sioux's best work on the show. As Emma died, Sioux showed us the life seeping from Emma's body. It was a horrific moment frozen in time as Thomas peered down the ravine at the car that became her coffin.
Potential Emmy-winning scenes for 2020
2020 has been a difficult year for soaps in light of their unexpectedly long hiatus. B&B was the first show to return to production on June 15th, but filming has been halted again to review safety measures. Hopefully, the show will get back on track for episodes to air by August, giving them four more months to crank out Emmy-qualified material. Looking back at the year we've had so far, I found a couple of scenes that might spin Emmy gold next year:
Sally Spectra learns about her terminal illness. I know; I know! It's fake! It's fake! But -- Heather Tom and Courtney Hope still acted their asses off, didn't they? The mystery surrounding Sally's illness heightened the intensity of the scene and was punctuated by the director's decision to film the revelation through the windows of the doctor's office, creating the feeling that we were interloping on an important and private moment for Sally. Could this scene be Hope's Supporting Actress reel?
Thomas' game of wedding chicken. Matthew Atkinson delivered yet another powerful performance when Hope turned the tables on Thomas and exposed his plan to get her to marry him by scaring Douglas into thinking another woman would be his new mommy. I don't think I'll ever forget the way every wedding guest looked upon Thomas with disdain, and he tearfully walked out of his wedding after Ridge denounced him and Douglas said he wanted to be with Hope and Liam.
Can you think of any scenes so far this year that might earn an actor or actress an Emmy next year? Let us know in the comments below.
In a look ahead
In honor of the Emmys show on Friday, The Bold and the Beautiful will broadcast repeat episodes containing Emmy-winning performances by B&B cast members. Click here to discover what scenes CBS will broadcast. Use this linkto check out Soap Central's Emmy news and nominations, and until we scoop again, stay bold and beautiful, baby!
Chanel
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