In general I think this is a good race with some true standouts and only one really baffling nomination (Bree Williamson). This is about as good as it gets the way the Emmys a currently judged. I can’t wait to see the end result.

My Rankings:

1. Tricia Cast – Clear winner IMO. Tape was just the right length and it just flew by. I was glued to my tv screen during her entire tape. GREAT submission, great writing as well.
2. Heather Tom – Her tape was also a good length and she was able to show good range and a more complete arc with two episodes.
3. Nancy Lee Grahn – I could see her being a surprise winner, but since it took her tape longer to build I put her after Heather Tom. I thought her scene with Sonny was brilliant, but it may have come a little too late.
4. Julie Pinson – Good actress, but the tape felt a little long and didn’t really go anywhere. No “Wow” moment for me.
5. Mellissa Claire Egan – Promising actress, but this tape didn’t show enough range and seemed to go on forever. The material let her down and this wasn’t a good choice.
6. Bree Williamson – The material was terrible, it was poorly directed and staged and her performance was as generic and run-of-the-mill as it gets. I’ve seen her do better so I’m not sure what happened here. I don’t understand how she got nominated with this tape.

FULL ANALYSIS:

Heather Tom – The Bold and the Beautiful (Runtime: 7:39) #5,726 & 5,727

This tape made me long for the days when there were more half hour soaps. It reminds me of the old days when each actor got to submit two episodes for the Daytime Emmys. This worked in Heather’s favor, because each one would’ve felt too short or incomplete. The two episodes were well paced and flowed seamlessly.  

From what I gather, Katie and Bill were double crossed by Katie’s sisters which caused tension between everyone involved. He was upset that she could still defend her sisters and she was upset at her sisters betraying her. Having scenes with both Bill and the sisters made the tape well rounded.

Overall I thought Tom did a great job and felt like a true Supporting Actress. The tape was a good length as well.

Julie Pinson – As the World Turns (Runtime: 13:00) #13,719

Looks like Janet and Jack are having a lovers quarrel over their respective infidelities. Jack is having an emotional affair with his ex-wife and Janet slept with Dusty. I do like that neither character is portrayed as the villain, I think that would’ve hurt Pinson’s performance. This allows her to come off more sympathetic and real to the audience. Pinson’s performance is very natural, but not very nuanced. The pacing is off and after a while I found myself bored. There wasn’t a big moment that pulled me in.

Overall, I thought it started off well and the material showed potential, it just never quite lived up to it.  

Bree Williamson – One Life To Live (Runtime: 7:05) #10,764

Jessica is telling Brody that she cheated on him and the baby might not be his. Eh, this tape is kinda frightening. While some may not be the perfect tape, you can see why that actor might be nominated. In this tape neither actor seems worthy of an Emmy nomination. Williamson comes off very clichéd and like many would expect from a soap opera Emmy reel. She’s able to squeeze those tears out but I don’t feel anything. This is the second shortest tape and it honestly felt like the longest. Compared to how strong the other actresses are, this is baffling to me.

Overall I was disappointed with everything in this tape. The acting from both scene partners, the scenes are poorly written and poorly staged too. Stilted, unnatural and cliché would sum it up.

Nancy Lee Grahn – General Hospital (Runtime: 8:33) #12,017

Alexis has just found out that Luke’s son Ethan beat up her daughter Kristina. This is a nice tape that builds and builds and builds. You can see Grahn playing all the beats and trying to keep her emotions in check. It mostly works until she goes off on her deadbeat baby daddy. That was a great scene for Grahn and I love that she was able to calm it down and show a softer side with Kristina in the next scene. These scenes could’ve been very typical and over the top, but Grahn played it strong and made her moments count.

Overall, a very good tape from a true Supporting Actress.

Tricia Cast – The Young and the Restless (Runtime: 6:24) #9,482

Talk about a whopper lol. Nina finds out that her son Chance has been killed...by his brother, her other son. Powerful material to work with and with the shortest reel Cast knocks it straight out of the park. It’s bad enough to lose a son, but in such a tragic way Nina unravels and Cast does a brilliant job of showing that. Her performance is very raw and not something you see every day. The short scenes allow her to pack a lot of range into such a short tape. Usually that ends up hurting an actor, but it worked in her favor. The writers made sure every moment counts. Even the short 30 second scene where Nina realizes Chance knew he might die and was saying goodbye to her. I felt like my attention was drawn to Cast the entire tape, unlike some of the others.

Melissa Claire Egan – All My Children (Runtime: 11:11) #10,475

Looks like JR set Annie up somehow and has ruined her life. This is a good tape and what I was hoping for with Bree Williamson. Egan is another young fresh face, but she still can hold her own with the other actresses in her category. Still, it’s not the greatest tape. It reminds me of Julie Pinson in that you have an interesting premise, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. There are no standout moments or much range. She doesn’t have that “Wow” moment and I found myself bored throughout.

Overall you have a good actress who could’ve picked a stronger tape. When I saw the name I expected some comedy mixed with a little crazy and some good drama as well. This wasn’t very representative of her work.

Also, if anybody would like to watch these DVDs, just shoot me a PM and I'll send them over. Would love to trade if somebody has another category.

I received the Supporting Actress dvds yesterday (thanks Chris Benjamin!) so I watched them and am posting my analysis.  I'll score them the same way I did Lead Actor & Actress- one rating for the reel, one for the performance, and an overall score.  Here they are, in the order that I watched them:

Melissa Claire Egan, All My Children

The reel gets off on a pretty good start, with Egan's Annie believably confronting Jacob Young's JR about his setting her up the night before.   She has a breakdown, saying she doesn't believe JR loves her and that Scott tells her he loves her every day.  Egan lets the mascara run down her face, making it all the more believable.  Susan Lucci's Erica then enters the scene and taunts Annie.  It was wise of Egan to submit scenes with Lucci and she plays her role beautifully against her.  Overall, a pretty good submission- not fantastic, but solid nonetheless.

Reel- 7/10    Performance- 7.5/10    Overall- 7.5/10

Julie Pinson, As The World Turns

Pinson's reel starts off with a bang, with her having a strong resolve when Jack shows up at her hotel in Chicago to confront her about her affair with Dusty.  She benefits from strong writing, much stronger than in Egan's reel.  Then about a third of the way through, Maura West's Carly enters, guns a blazing.  It's a risky move for Pinson to put West in her reel but it actually works in her favor.  It shows that Pinson is clearly the supporting role and West the lead.  Pinson wisely lets West strut her stuff and is restrained in scenes with her, but plays off her beautifully.   Her heartbreak after Carly leaves and she's alone with Jack is so real and it's a short but very effective scene as Janet realizes that Jack is still in love with Carly.  She has a natural, restrained ease in her scenes with Park.   The reel ends with a quiet scene with Janet alone, softly crying over her marriage being over.  This was an excellent submission and I could easily see her repeating with it.

Reel- 9/10    Performance- 9/10      Overall- 9/10

Heather Tom, The Bold and the Beautiful

Tom's reel starts off strong, with her angrily confronting husband Bill over his treatment of her sisters.   She plays a lot of different of emotions- anger, betrayal, sadness- and is effective at conveying all of them.  She ends up leaving to go driving in the middle of a storm and the reel picks up steam when she ends up at Brooke's.  Tom is quite brilliant as you can feel her sadness and how deeply her 2 sisters have hurt her.  Katie is in a lot of pain and you really believe that this is a real family.  KKL and Jenn Gareis let her have her moment and she nails it.  My only problem is her reel ends kind of abruptly and it didn't tell a complete story, but Tom gives a strong, multi-faceted performance.

Reel- 8/10    Performance- 9/10    Overall-8.5/10

Nancy Lee Grahn, General Hospital

Grahn's reel starts off quietly, as Alexis learns that Ethan (Luke's son) is the one who beat up Kristina.  It's a nice opening, as Alexis ponders how anyone could beat up her sweet 17 year old daughter.   She shows some maternal strength when Kristina falls apart at the thought of Sonny killing Ethan for what he did.  She vows to her daughter that the law will handle Ethan, not Sonny.   Then comes the fire as she confronts Sonny, telling him that killing Ethan only adds more violence, which isn't what Kristina wants.  Those are some powerful scenes and Grahn is excellent in them.   The quiet scenes with Kristina at the end are very good and contrast the confrontation with Sonny.  Overall, Grahn has some strong moments in a so-so reel.  The acting is excellent as expected, but it doesn't feel like a winning tape, especially when stacked against Tom's and Pinson's reels.

Reel- 6.5/10    Performance- 8.5/10     Overall- 7.5/10

Bree Williamson, One Life To Live

The first scene is so trite I can barely stand it, with Jessica telling Brody that her baby may not be his.  It's exactly the kind of scene and performance soaps are ridiculed for.  Her heartbreak and tears are at least real though.  But that's all this reel is- her weeping, crying, sobbing, on and on and on.  I get that's what she's supposed to be doing in the moment but it makes for a very boring reel.  There is no depth, nuance, subtext, or quiet moments in the entire reel- it's just her crying to Brody and feeling sorry for herself.  I was completely bored throughout and hated the stupid, pointless ending.

Reel- 4.5/10     Performance- 5.5/10     Overall-  5/10

Tricia Cast, The Young and the Restless

This is the first reel that totally grabbed me from the beginning with her pain and anguish as she's just witnessed her son Ronan kill her other son Chance.  She then has a really sad moment when she realizes that Chance was saying good bye earlier that day, as he knew there was a chance he could die.  She explodes and goes at Ronan for what he's done, hitting him and her sadness and anger are so believable.  When Christine shows up, her anger at the realization that Christine knew Ronan was her son was palpable  The scene with Philip is kind of a momentum changer, as she's acting her butt off and he just kind of sits there.   The whole thing is so tragic- the idea of one son killing the other and she having to witness it is terribly sad and Cast portrays the whole thing beautifully from start to finish.  Overall, this is a powerful submission that shows lots of range and has a huge impact, probably more than anyone else's reel.

Reel- 8.5/10    Performance- 9.5/10     Overall- 9/10

Final Analysis

This race is almost too close to call, as all the ladies, save Williamson, submitted strong tapes that show off their acting skills nicely.   While many are calling Tricia Cast and Heather Tom the front runners, I'm not sure I see it that way.  Julie Pinson's submission was EXCELLENT and the longest out of the 6, though it didn't feel long at all.  She shows a variety of emotions and plays off all of the other 4 actors in her reel beautifully.  Cast is AWESOME in her reel also and she probably has the meatiest material of the bunch.  Heather Tom's performance was strong, but the abrupt ending coupled with the fact that you're never quite sure what exactly her sisters have done to her lessen the impact.  All we know is that she was humiliated and it was about business, so it doesn't seem quite as serious as the episodes let you think.  Grahn is very good in her submission, but frankly, the other ladies have stronger material to work with.  She has some great moments, especially in the scenes with Benard, but like I said, the tape didn't feel like a winner.  And Egan is very good in her reel as well, but there's pretty much no impact.  Again, like Tom, it's hard to take her material so seriously, as you're never quite sure exactly what's gone on with this stolen art, etc...   But she has excellent chemistry with Jacob Young and with Susan Lucci and it was smart for her to submit an episode with them.

Rankings by Preference

1. Pinson

2. Cast

3. Tom

4. Grahn

5. Egan

6. Williams

Ranking by Likelihood of Winning

1. Cast

2. Pinson

3. Tom

4. Grahn

5. Egan

6. Williamson