Already have an account?
Get back to the
Daytime Emmys

NATAS Explains Why Daytime Emmy Nominee Reels Weren’t Made Public

Tags:

For the 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has made some changes, which NATAS president Adam Sharp told Soaps In Depth all about back in November before nominees were announced for this year’s ceremony. But now another new rule has come to light, which is that they will no longer be posting the acting reel submissions online. While they originally began sharing the clips five years ago in the hopes of sparking interest and engagement among fans, it ended up having some unforeseen consequences as the reels that were made public underwent scrutiny by competitors. This is what caused the revocation of Patrika Darbo’s Emmy for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Daytime Drama Series last year after it was found that rules had been broken.

“Looking at the original issue that brought up these protests and this investigation last year, where one entrant in the competition had gone on YouTube and pulled the reels of his competitors and, awards manual in hand, scrutinized every second of those reels and found potential violations that our staff in the vetting process and our judges in the judging process had missed; well, he only screened the categories that his show was competing in,” Sharp explained to Variety. “So the same way as you wouldn’t want a scenario where, in the middle of a trial all the evidence is put on the courthouse steps and the public can just come up and challenge whatever pieces they want and overrule the jury in the process, we determined that essentially handing these on-air raw submission materials over to competitors in a category would create the potential for abuse and the potential for an unfair imbalance.”

Michelle Stafford Finola Hughes Daytime Emmys 2018

(Photo Credit: JC Olivera/WireImage)

So the only options were to upload clip reels for every category or none of the categories, and because they simply didn’t have the resources or the rights to every clip, NATAS unfortunately had to choose the latter. All four daytime dramas threatened a boycott of the Daytime Emmys following the scandal last year, but as NATAS announced the changes they were making to the various processes, including nominating and voting, everything got back on track. 

Although fans will not be able to see the reels for themselves this year to make predictions as to who will take home the Emmy, they can all tune in on Sunday, May 5, to watch and see who wins! For more Daytime Emmy news, keep reading Soaps In Depth magazine.

More from ABC Soaps In Depth

Chloe Lanier Reveals What She Submitted for the Daytime Emmys and Her Plans for the Big Night (EXCLUSIVE)

Y&R Nominees Reveal What’s on Their Emmy Reels (EXCLUSIVE)

Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items. Use right arrow key to move into submenus. Use escape to exit the menu. Use up and down arrow keys to explore. Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.