Following
Welcome to Soap Central's Daytime Emmy® Awards Archive. Within this section, you can review
every Emmy winner in every major category since 1973, the year of the first Daytime Emmys
celebration.
On each page, you'll be given a listing of the categories, the winner or winners within that category, as well as a Final Tally, a listing of how many Emmys were won by each soap.
Here are some interesting Emmy facts and explanations to help guide you through this section.
Before 1973, there was not a separate Emmy ceremony for daytime television. In fact, in 1971 only one award was handed out---the award for top daytime drama series. In 1972, the committee added another award that would honor Outstanding Achievement By and Individual in a Daytime Drama. The award went to All My Children's Mary Fickett (Ruth Brent).
In 1973, daytime television was given its own Emmy ceremony. At the time there were three categories---one for the top show, the top actor, and the top actress. As time progressed more categories were added.
The Emmy was named after an "Immy," an affectionate term used to refer to the image orthicon camera tube. The statuette was designed by Louis McManus, who modeled the award after his wife, Dorothy.
The Emmy statuette is fifteen inches tall from base to tip. The statuette weighs 5 pounds and is composed of iron, pewter, zinc and gold.
From 1973 to 2003, the performers themselves decided if they felt their work was worthy of Emmy consideration. Material filmed within the given calendar year could be used for consideration of Emmy nominations. The performer submitted videotape of their work from two episodes, not necessarily consecutive days. Scenes in which the performer was not in were edited out of the video. He or she then decided which category best suited their work for that year (Leading or Supporting role). That performer's name was placed on a nomination ballot. All persons involved in daytime television were allow to submit one nomination in each category. The top five vote getters in each category were placed on the final ballot. This ballot was then sent to Emmy board for final votes. This final voting process determines who walks home with the Emmy award.
In 2003, the first major changes to the Emmy process in many years were instituted. Prior to 2003, nominees were determined by overall vote totals from each of the soaps. Programs with larger casts had more performers to vote... and therefore had a greater chance of having their performers land nominations. In 2003, the rules were changed to allow each program to submit two pre-nominees per category. So, for example, each show submitted two candidates for an Outstanding Lead Actress nomination. A panel of screeners equally representing each of the soaps then screened tapes of those pre-nominees. Each member of the panel could then cast a vote for the performer in each category that they felt was the best. Panelists, however, were not permitted to vote for their own show. The top vote getters in each category from the voting of the screening panel were then determined to be the "final" nominees in each category.
In 2008, shows was permitted to submit three pre-nominees in each of the acting categories. The experiment lasted just a single year, and in 2009 the number was rolled back to two per category.
Nominees in the Younger Actor and Actress awards category are performers who have not yet reached their 25th birthday. Should a performer reach his or her 25th birthday in the middle of a term being used for Emmy consideration, there are two possible options.The first option allows the performer to use work up to the time that he or she turned 25. This allows the performer to be eligible in the "younger" categories. Or, he or she can use work after his or her 25th birthday and be considered for the "adult" categories.
Select the year you'd like to review from the following list.
