2026 Daytime Emmy Award Nominations

On Daytime Confidential episode 1212 Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines, including:  Is Beyond the Gates dumbing down Dani Dupree? How is it that no red lights are going off for Dani, Nicole or Vanessa about Heather? Especially when Joey is warning everyone how dangerous his sister is? Did the flashback episode give fans the backstroy they needed about Leslie and Ted?  Should Steffy get pregnant with Carter's baby on The Bold and the Beautiful? If she does get pregnant should she pass it off as a surrogacy or keep the baby? Is B&B brave enough to have Steffy get an abortion? Should B&B kill off Finn? Is Steffy better than Brooke? Electra and Dylan face off.  Lexi dies for the second time on Days of Our Lives. In 2027 soap operas need to avoid bringing characters back from the dead to kill them off in less than a year.  Does Anna need therapy on General Hospital? Is karma coming back to haunt Britt? Drew is back on two feet without a cane and already stirring up trouble in Port Charles. Could GH be setting up an Ava, Drew and Jordan triangle? For the first time in Daytime Confidential history, Luke is on Devon's side on The Young and the Restless. Billy's quest to "reclaim" Chancellor for the Abbotts has the DC hosts rolling their eyes. Luke wonders if Lily could become this era's version of Jill Abott, but Jillian and Melodie aren't having it? Why did we have to sit there and watch Sharon sit in the coffee shop listen to Matt spew his drivel?  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.    

On episode 1211 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dive into the latest All My Children, Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines, including: Kelly Rip and Mark Consuelos are developing two All My Children movies for Lifetime and one of the movies is being written by Jamey Giddens and Ron Carlivati.  Sheila follow Steffy to Italy on The Bold and the Beautiful.  Why is Finn such a bad husband? Should Steffy end up pregnant with Carter's baby? Dani's feelings for Bill are manifesting in dangerous ways on Beyond the Gates. The Dupree's heads spun when she called Bill her husband at the hospital. Andre's past is coming back to haunt him.  Theo and Abe learn Lexi is dying on Days of Our Lives. Why is Dimitri become "icky" in terms of how he engages with Leo? John Oliver's cameo has social media buzzing.  Curtis if found guilty on General Hospital. Jacinda skips down after drugging Willow. Who would believe that Jason is out of the mob? Joshua Morrow is spinning shit into sugar with Nick's storyline on The Young and the Restless. Y&R is very hard to watch while we wait for the new writing team's scripts to debut.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1210 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr and Melodie Aikels celebrate the announcement that Jamey Giddens and Dan O'Connor have been named the co-head writers of The Young and the Restless, replacing Josh Griffith.  In this supersized episode Luke and Melodie reflect on Jamey's 20 year arc, first appearing on the podcast as the "soap historian" and how his Wishful Castings on the podcast and blog were inspired by his creativity, knowledge and love for the genre. The two talk about how his pursuing his writing career with creating Ambitions, being apart of the writing teams at Days of Our Lives and Beyond the Gates has culminated in Giddens becoming the first black male-co headwriter in soap opera history.  The two delve into the many things that need to be fixed in Genoa City from the the core families (Abbotts, Newmans, Chancelor/Winters) to undoing Griffith's legacy of destruction. The two share what they are looking forward to most about Jamey and Dan taking over, while at the same time discussing the reality of what co-head writers can actually control on a soap opera.  After the hour long Y&R discussion, the duo delve into The Bold and the Beautiful. Melodie is loving the drama unfolding on B&B. Luke and Melodie degate whether Brad Bell should bring Amber Moore back and how she could be reintroduced since she has connections to so many characters.  Luke is estatic over Alison Sweeney and Christie Clark returning to Days of Our Lives. But these two TV sisters aren't the only ones returning, so are Chandler Massey and Bryan Dattilo. Melodie grudgingly admits Luke was right about Lexie's return from the very beginning.  General Hospital recast the character of Ethan only to immediately ship the character out of Port Charles.  Hayley is being written into a corner on Beyond the Gates and there aren't many ways for the writers to get her out of the aspiring black widow character. Could Hayley end up working for Vanessa once her dastardly deeds are discovered?  All this and more on this nearly two-hour episode of Daytime Confidential! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.  

On episode 1209 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dish Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines, including:  Joey's sister returns on Beyond the Gates. Bill collapses. Kial's son Noah debuts.  Eric gets KAPOWED on The Bold and the Beautiful. Brooke and Katie throw down! Gwen diseappears on Days of Our Lives, but who snatched her up? Gabi thinks Xander and Philip are responsible for the knock-off handbags, but are they?  Nina pushes Drew into the lake on General Hospital. Liz and Stella decide Stella's fate. Portia gives birth to a baby boy. GH doesn't know what to do with Trina.  Adam buys back Newman Media on The Young and the Restless. Y&R is a true struggle bus right now.    All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1208 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels react to the 53rd Annual Daytime Emmy Award Nominations.  The DC trio dive into all the biggest soap opera categories. They applaud some nominees, scratch their heads at others and identify which actors they think are nomination oversights.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.  

On episode 1207 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr and Joshua Baldwin are joined by Regan Cellura to dive into General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful. The trio dive into the two shows before Luke and Joshua tackle Beyond the Gates, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1206 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.  The DC crew remember J Bernard Jones, who passed away this past week. A Daytime Confidential writer and podcast regular during the early years, J Bernard left an unforgettable mark in the world of soap opera commentary. In late 2025, Jones returned to the podcast for a special Daytime Confidential Reflections episode and shared his thoughts on the current state of soups and the health challenges he'd faced down. It was a wonderful episode and anyone who misses his prescence in the soap opera community should listen to it.  Kat donates her organ to save Eva on Beyond the Gates and while still "under" she experiences a "What if" nightmare where she finds herself in Eva's shoes. Many soap fans, including Luke, felt the show was making Kat more evil than she really is, but Melodie has a very different take on went down. Last week, the DC co-hosts noted that Juneteenth wasn't mentioned during the big disaster event and wondered whether we'd see it this week. There wasn't a peep. Is it odd that BTG didn't mention Juneteenth when Days of Our Lives has integrated it into its storylines so well?  Logan vs. Forrester is delivering juicy drama and the feud between Katie and Brooke has Donna caught in the middle. Is The Bold and the Beautiful the most improved soap opera of 2026?  Is Days of Our Lives getting lost in the weeds with the Liam Selejko storyline and how it connects to Holly's overdose and viewers finding out that everything bad is connected to EJ and a batch of bad pills that were buried on Horton island. DAYS delivers all the great flashbacks for Deidre Hall's anniversary with the show.  Anna DeVane is back on General Hospital. From Drew to BLQ, at least four different Quartermaines are gunning for Willow. Will she go down because of one of the Q's? Luke really enjoyed the Carly and Lucas scenes this week.  Josh Griffith is OUT at The Young and the Restless and no tears are being shed on the podcast. After gutting the writing team and making the No. 1 soap opera nearly unrecognizable, we are ready for a new era at Y&R. Should CBS consider an interim head writer while an exhastive search is made to find Griffith's replacement? Someone to wrap up Josh's storylines and set the table for a new head writer.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1205 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Joshua Baldwin dive into the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1204 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels take a deep dive into the Beyond the Gates' disaster spectacular that brought The Young and the Restless' Newmans, Abbotts and Winters to Fairmont Crest.  The DC trio shares what stood out to them, before digging into the meaty drama of the past week.  From Victor Newman's (Eric Braeden) arrival by helicopter to Jack (Peter Bergman) and Diane (Susan Walters) dodging Tomas (Alex Alegria) and Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Hayley's (Marquita Goings) chemistry, they delve into the Genoa City guests at Martin's (Brandon Claybon) fundraiser. Should Kyle visit Fairmont Crest again in the future or Hayley set her sights on Kyle after scoring a fortune from Bill?  The Young and the Restless dropped the ball on aligning its storylines with the crossover's continuity.  Before the fundraiser kicked off viewers finally learned the idenitity of The Impaler. Super Joey Armstrong (Jon Lindstrom) saved Abby (Melissa Ordway) from a chandelier cake topper, but why was he so front and center in the disaster? Why wasn't he kicked out instead of being allowed to hang around. Why is Vanessa (Lauren Buglioli) so stupid?  Kat (Colby Nixon) and Eva (Ambyr Michelle) trapped together provided great drama, but will anyone be on Kat's side when she doesn't want to donate a kidney to save her half-sister's life?  Leslie (Trisha Mann-Grant) had some of the best singers of the event, but BTG still gave her moments of humanity as she searched for her missing daughter.  Bill (Timon Kyle Durrett) and Dani (Karla Mosley) had sex in the elevator, but what does this mean for Dani and Andre (Sean Freeman)? Should BTG tell a who's the daddy storyline or should they leave a baby out of the picture? Andre professing his fear of losing Dani tore the DC hosts apart. Does Bill want back in the Dupree family?  Martin went from being trapped under a tree to an asshole in the blink of an eye.  A couple characters' wigs and eyebrows distracted the hosts from the drama.  The tornado event definitely provided an opportunity for some actors to step up, while other actors stumbled under the weight of the special episodes.  The hosts reveal their final thoughts on the Beyond the Gates / The Young and the Restless disaster crossover before rating the event.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1203 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dive into the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.  All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast! Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels. Facebook: Daytime Confidential Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.