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The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has released the Call for Entries for the 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards for the calendar year 2022, outlining the submission guidelines and rules for each category. Many category submission rules remain the same as last year, with major points of interest summarized below. A few key dates for this year’s competition:
Submissions opened on February 1, with an early entry deadline of February 28 and a final entry deadline of March 7.
Judging will take place from March 20 through April 10.
Nominees will be announced mid-April. (Like last year, there will be no prenomination round for the drama series acting categories. Categories that are deemed to have too many entries for a single round of judging will be handled using the same preliminary judging procedure that has been employed in all other categories with a large number of entries.)
The Daytime Emmy Ceremony is scheduled for June 16, with the Daytime Emmys Lifestyle and Creative Arts Ceremony happening the following day on June 17.
Most of the “What’s New in Daytime” section stems from further effects of last year’s realignment of genres and categories with the Primetime Emmys and the decision that whether a program is daytime or primetime will now be defined exclusively by genre, and not by daypart (i.e., when it airs). The daytime genres include daytime drama, culinary, daytime talk series, lifestyle, arts and popular culture, travel/adventure/nature, legal/courtroom, entertainment news, educational/informational, daytime non-fiction special, daytime non-fiction short form, instructional/how-to, dog shows, and parades. Game shows are now the purview of the Primetime Emmys, so all game shows, including those that air during the day like The Price Is Right and Let’s Make a Deal, will now compete in the Primetime Emmy competition. Because none of these genre is defined by its timeslot, there are a few sections dedicated to distinguishing between things like a daytime talk series (Daytime Emmys) and a late-night talk show (Primetime Emmys) or an instructional/how-to show versus a non-competition reality series. It is also clearly statement that now series with a competition element will be considered under the Daytime Emmy umbrella, and the only fiction series that can compete under the Daytime Emmys are daytime dramas, with content either falling to the Primetime Emmys or the Children’s & Family Emmys, which they are abbreviating as CAFE.
Daytime dramas are defined as “multi-camera daily serialized dramatic programs or reboots or spin-offs thereof,” additionally required to have a minimum average content runtime of 18 minutes per episode, with no single episode shorter than 15 minutes. This next bit is the most interesting: The Outstanding Daytime Drama Series category is subdivided into Outstanding Daytime Drama Series and Outstanding Limited Daytime Drama Series, the distinction being whether a drama series has produced 52 or more episode (the former subcategory) or fewer than 52 episode (the latter subcategory). The two subcategories of daytime drama will both compete together in the Outstanding Drama Series Category, with the potential for awards within both subcategories. Any subcategory that is considered sufficiently competitive — having at least four submissions and at least one viable nominee — will result in an award being presented. Since only The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless quality under the Outstanding Daytime Drama Series subcategory, it is guaranteed that one of them will win an Emmy in the Outstanding Drama Series category (barring a tie, which would result in more than one winner, or a the extremely unlikely determination that none of the submissions were viable, resulting in none of them even being nominated and obviously a disaster for the Daytime Emmys). However, a subcategory that is insufficiently competitive could still produce a winner if the category has at least one viable nominee, in the event that it obtains a high enough objective score from the judges on the ratings scale. If I am understanding the rules correctly, a subcategory with fewer than four submissions could also produce a winner if one of those submissions scores higher than any of the entries from the other subcategory. To my knowledge, Beyond Salem is the only show that would qualify under the Outstanding Limited Daytime Drama Series subcategory. So practically, this means that Beyond Salem could or could not win an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, but even if it does, one of the four main soaps would essentially be guaranteed to win Outstanding Drama Series as well. The same subcategorization and potential for awards apply at the series level to the Outstanding Writing Team in a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing Team in a Drama Series categories.
As occurred last year to some degree, drama series will compete with non-drama series in all drama-eligible craft categories (excluding writing and directing categories) — casting, original song, makeup and hairstyling, etc. In those categories, drama series will receive a number of nominations that is proportional to the number of drama series entries submitted in the category, rounded up to the nearest 20%.
ReplyCategory-specific submission guidelines:
For the outstanding drama series, drama series writing and drama series directing categories, each series can submit up to two episodes.
For the categories Outstanding Lead Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actress, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actor, Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actress, Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actor, Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series, and Outstanding Guest Performance in a Drama Series, entrants submit a reel of up to 15 minutes containing scenes from any episodes that originally aired during the calendar year.
As was the case last year, if a performer plays the same character on multiple shows (say, Deidre Hall as Dr. Marlena Evans on both Days of our Lives and Beyond Salem, or Sean Kanan as Deacon Sharpe on both The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless), they may submit only once for that character, but the submission may contain material from any shows on which they appeared as that character. A performer playing different characters on different shows may still submit each of those performances individually.
As had been announced previously, performers competing in the younger performer category must have been 18 or younger during the eligibility period. This is in keeping with the eligibility rules for a younger performer across the various Emmy competitions. A performer who was 18 or under on January 1, 2022, is eligible for this category and may submit material from any point during the year, even after the performer has turned 19. Being eligible for the younger performer category does not mandate that a performer must compete there rather than in the lead or supporting categories.
A guest performance is defined as “a performance in a limited role with a definitive beginning and end to the story arc.” A guest performer can be playing a character they have played before or one for whom they have been newly cast. As with all performer categories, it is specified that the performer, the series and the awards administration should all agree on category placement.
ReplyCopy URLThanks for the information Michael! (:
Looks like Beyond Salem won’t be eligible for Best Drama Series? Am I understanding it correctly?
I do wish we could know who submits and in which category!
Do you think the Beyond Salem cast members who were only on that show are eligible for Guest Performer since there was a definite beginning and end to the story arc?
Glad the nominations will come out in April instead of May this year.
ReplyCopy URLYou’re welcome!
Beyond Salem is eligible for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series under the subcategory of Outstanding Limited Daytime Drama Series, meaning that it would still be a potential nominee in Drama Series along with the four traditional soaps, and would be judged alongside them, but also with the potential to win in that category based on its merit as a “limited” daytime drama series even if it does not outscore the other soaps. I’m not sure how this will be presented, but my guess is that we will see the category just as Outstanding Daytime Drama Series, and the subcategories won’t be specifically pointed out when nominees/winners are presented.
The Call for Entries at the link on the Daytime Emmys website has the full rulebook, apparently updated just a couple of days ago.
How the Beyond Salem cast members are categorized is probably going be a matter of some debate. It has been my inclination that the cast members would align as lead, supporting, younger or guest performers based on their relative contributions to the five episodes of Beyond Salem. So even though there are only five episodes of the show, which would definitely make a performer a guest on the four main soaps, appearing in all five episodes of Beyond Salem would make a person a lead in my opinion. With no performers nominated for Beyond Salem last year, it’s hard to know where people fell in terms of this thinking. But last year, most of the major players in Beyond Salem were also on the main show, and the first Beyond Salem was mostly a globe-trotting heist, so the material was largely comedic and/or light thriller. With Beyond Salem’s 2022 installment, the story was a little more linear and much more emotional, and the heavy lifting was done largely by actors who were not on the main show in 2022. I would think that Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell are factors in lead actress and actor at the very least. But that’s just my thinking.
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