The 2016 Daytime Emmy nominees: Familiar faces in new places

staff@ew.com (Alina Adams)
Updated
The 2016 Daytime Emmy nominees: Familiar faces in new places

The 2016 Daytime Emmy nominations were announced last Thursday, and for the soaps, it was Old Home Week, as category after category was dominated by past winners and nominees—with only a smattering of first-time fresh faces, primarily in the Younger Actor and Actress division.

Even in the newbie categories of Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series, Outstanding Actress in a Digital Drama Series, and Outstanding Actor in a Digital Drama Series, beloved soap-opera vets rule. (Read more about the web-soap phenomenon here.)

For instance, the nominees in the Actress Category are:

  • Mary Beth Evans for The Bay: The Series. Evans is currently back on Days of Our Lives, where she has been portraying the heroic Kayla on and off for 30 years. In between, she and costar Stephen Nichols (Steve on DOOL) popped up on General Hospital as the scheming Katherine and Prince Stefan, where, like many hot couples who attempted to bring their smoldering chemistry to a different show and set of characters, the union didn’t quite catch fire. Interestingly enough, Evans is also nominated in 2016 for the first time as Lead Actress for her DOOL role, and she won in 2015 as one of The Bay‘s producers.

  • Kathleen Gati for Winterthorne. A first-time Emmy nominee, Gati has been playing the evil Dr. Obrecht (yes, she has a first name, but most people are too intimidated to use it) on General Hospital since 2012. She started as an evil henchwoman who kidnapped angelic heroines and innocent babies, but eventually turned into a campy, comic-relief sidekick with a soft spot for reformed serial killers.

  • Elizabeth Hubbard for Anacostia. The Emmys and Hubbard go way, way back. In 1974, she won the first Daytime Emmy ever given out for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama, for her portrayal of Althea on The Doctors on what was the Daytime Emmy’s first broadcast separate from the general Emmys. (The previous year, All My Children‘s Mary Fickett won for Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Drama, a category that included both men and women, which is why there is perennial confusion over who was truly the first Daytime Emmy–winning actress.) In 1976, she won the Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Special for First Ladies’ Diaries: Edith Wilson, followed by several more golden statuettes for playing Lucinda on As the World Turns. If she wins in this new category, it is quite likely that Hubbard will establish a record that no other actress will ever beat.

  • Lilly Melgar for The Bay: The Series. Have you heard of Click/Boom? That’s General Hospital‘s iconic sequence wherein Brenda and Jax toast their wedding (click) as Sonny (the other on-and-off love of Brenda’s life) watches his pregnant wife get killed with a car bomb. Lilly Melgar played Lily. Who went boom. Since then, she’s reappeared to Sonny in visions, often with both her unborn child and the child that Sonny lost with the other on-and-off love of his life, Carly. Because on soaps, people apparently continue to age in heave or in dreams.

  • Patsy Pease for The Bay: The Series. Though she made her daytime debut on Search for Tomorrow, Pease is best known for being half of the 1980s Days of Our Lives super-couple Kimberly and Shane (or “Shane dear” and “Kimberly darling,” as they seemed incapable of using the other’s name without the additional endearment). They’re the sometimes mentioned but rarely seen parents of current onscreen vixen Teresa. Pease was also nominated in the same category last year.

The nominees in the Actor category are:

  • Van Hansis for EastSiders. Hansis was previously nominated, but never won, for Outstanding Younger (twice) and (once he aged out) Outstanding Supporting Actor for playing Luke, one of daytime’s first gay teens, on As the World Turns.

  • Rick Hearst for Youthful Daze. Hearst won his first Daytime Emmy in 1991 for Outstanding Younger Actor for playing Alan-Michael on Guiding Light, whereupon he tearfully told the audience of his son’s birth the night before. He won the Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy in 2004 and 2007 for playing Ric on General Hospital (no more children were announced either time).

  • Kevin Spirtas for Winterthorne. This is Spirtas’ first Emmy nomination, though he is well known to fans of Days of Our Lives for playing the scheming Craig, and to viewers of One Life to Live for playing the scheming Jonas, as well as roles on Rituals and The Young and the Restless.

Two other nominated actors, Kristos Andrews for The Bay: The Series and JD Pardo for East Los High, have no prominent daytime credits.

So who will win the Emmy? Viewers may need to search for that answer online, because as of press time, the Daytime Emmys were not scheduled to be televised.