On Friday night, nominees for the 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards will find out whether they’re going home with a golden statuette. How do contenders in acting and other daytime categories become nominees — and then winners?
“Judging is my favorite thing to talk about with regards to our Emmy process,” Rachel Schwartz, head of Daytime and Children’s & Family at NATAS [verify official title and division styling], tells Gold Derby. “Because I’m really proud of our process. It puts integrity above all else.”
The awards honor all types of daytime programming, including talk shows and culinary programs, but many viewers tune in to see whether their favorite soap opera stars take home a statuette.
This year, performers from ABC’s General Hospital, Peacock’s Days of Our Lives and CBS’ Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless submitted acting reels of up to 15 minutes for consideration. The reels could include material from the previous calendar year, 2025.
“An acting reel can contain material from any episode within that time window,” Schwartz explains.
Schwartz prefers the term “judging” process rather than “voting” process when describing how winners are determined.
“We refer to it specifically as ‘judging’ because it’s a unique process in the awards ecosystem,” Schwartz says. “Our judges are predominantly members of either Television Academy” [verify wording against recording; the sentence appears to be missing a word or phrase].
Acting nominees used to be selected from a “players directory,” which contained headshots, actor and character names, and the titles of the shows on which they appeared. Voters could choose up to five performers in each category, but no more than two from one show.
Then, the top nominees — usually five in each category — submitted two complete episodes for a Blue-Ribbon panel to judge. Now, “the nominees and winners are determined in the same round of judging,” Schwartz says.
THE HUMAN LEAGUE
People apply to judge the Daytime Emmys by entering peer groups. “When they apply, I need to know their peer group and areas of expertise, and they will be placed on either one, two, or three categories, which usually is dependent on their peer group and area of expertise,” Schwartz says.
In other words, performers judge acting categories, writers judge writing categories, and so on. “They have about three weeks [to complete judging], and they actually have to view all of the content that is submitted within their category or categories,” Schwartz explains. “They don’t necessarily have to watch 100% in the full episode categories, but the standard is now [to watch] 100% in a category that is a ‘clip reel’ category. In the acting categories, they have to watch 100% of every reel that is submitted within that category.”
Might actors who judge reels be influenced by a standout scene they saw during the year that isn’t on a nominee’s reel?
“Ideally, the reel is what they are basing [their decision] off of,” Schwartz says.
“But I do know that there is always a human component to judging,” she adds. “I try to do my best as the head of this contest to administer it with integrity and to make sure that all of the judges who are participating are exercising integrity, but I do know that we are only human. It is only natural that there may be people you watch throughout the year [that you know are excellent].
“You may be [judging] in a category where your co-stars are nominated, or people that you’ve acted opposite [on other shows] are nominated, so I do understand there is a human element,” Schwartz adds. “We can’t completely remove human bias from a process.”
LESS CAN BE MORE
Schwartz says that even though reels can be 15 minutes long, performers aren’t required to use the full time. While it’s important for actors to showcase range in their reels, they should also be mindful of the time limit.
“If [performers] come to me for advice on how to put together a successful reel, I tell them I won’t accept anything beyond 15 minutes, but it does not mean that you are required to use 14 minutes and 59 seconds,” Schwartz says.
Schwartz doesn’t envy actors who have to sift through numerous episodes to assemble a reel. “It’s almost an impossible task,” she muses. “There are so many storylines, but you want to grab [judges] to get their attention right away. I think that could be a good way [to go]. This is my personal opinion. As long as they follow the rules, the reels will be accepted.”
SAFEGUARDS
The daytime TV community is small in many ways, but Schwartz says safeguards are in place to prevent conflicts of interest when judges review entries.
“Acting is the only category in which you cannot review your own category if you’re submitted there,” she points out.
However, performers can judge other acting categories. “You can review the work of other people [even] on your own show,” she says.
ROOM FOR CHANGE
Each year, NATAS reviews its categories and policies to see what could be added, revamped or changed. Schwartz jokes that inspiration doesn’t always strike when she’s at her desk.
“I call it my ‘shower thoughts,’” she says. “I feel like the shower is where my best thoughts hit me. But I don’t exist in a vacuum. I have a manager who’s the head of all our awards here at NATAS, and we have a daytime subcommittee, which acts as sort of an advisory council. There is also a formal committee process to finalize changes from year to year.”
“MAY THE SCHWARTZ BE WITH YOU”
Few people get to have their dream job, but Schwartz appears to have found hers at NATAS. She graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in theater and once handed out Academy Awards ballots to her fellow sixth-grade classmates.
There’s not much she doesn’t know about the Daytime Emmys — except, of course, who the winners are.
“The winners have already been determined,” Schwartz reveals. “We here at NATAS do not know the winners. Only our accountants do. We will find out when you guys find out on stage [on Friday] at the Hollywood Palladium.”
