2026 Daytime Emmy Awards Reactions

On episode 1219 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels are counting down the Top 5 Things to Fix at The Young and the Restless. From specific characters and storylines to the Chancelor mansion they trio dive into what they'd like to see fixed under the new writing era of Jamey Giddens and Dan O'Connor.  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 1218 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels react to the 53rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. From red carpet interviews to the show's production values and the night's biggest winners, they dive into it all.  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 Daytime Confidential episode 1217, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels reveal their 2026 Daytime Emmy Award Predictions for soap opera's biggest categories. Share your predictions in the comments on Daytime Confidential! 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. Outstanding Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series Braedyn Bruner as Emma Scorpio-Drake – General Hospital Al Calderon as Javier Hernandez – Days of our Lives Alice Halsey as Rachel Black – Days of our Lives Giovanni Mazza as Gio Palmieri – General Hospital Ambyr Michelle as Eva Thomas – Beyond the Gates Arielle Prepetit as Naomi Hamilton Hawthorne – Beyond the Gates Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Drama Series: Actress Linsey Godfrey as Sarah Horton – Days of our Lives Camryn Grimes as Mariah Copeland – The Young and the Restless Beth Maitland as Traci Abbott – The Young and the Restless Trisha Mann-Grant as Leslie Thomas – Beyond the Gates Amanda Setton as Brook Lynn Quartermaine – General Hospital Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Drama Series: Actor Sean Dominic as Nate Hastings – The Young and the Restless Timon Kyle Durrett as Bill Hamilton – Beyond the Gates Michael Graziadei as Daniel Romalotti – The Young and the Restless Roger Howarth as Matt Clark – The Young and the Restless Mike Manning as Bradley "Smitty" Smith – Beyond the Gates Lawrence Saint-Victor as Carter Walton – The Bold and the Beautiful Outstanding Lead Performer in a Drama Series: Actress Stacy Haiduk as Kristen DiMera – Days of our Lives Karla Mosley as Dani Dupree – Beyond the Gates Michelle Stafford as Phyllis Summers – The Young and the Restless Heather Tom as Katie Logan – The Bold and the Beautiful Tamara Tunie as Anita Williams Dupree – Beyond the Gates Outstanding Lead Performer in a Drama Series: Actor Eric Braeden as Victor Newman – The Young and the Restless Steve Burton as Jason Morgan – General Hospital Scott Clifton as Liam Spencer – The Bold and the Beautiful Thorsten Kaye as Ridge Forrester – The Bold and the Beautiful Christian Jules Le Blanc as Michael Baldwin – The Young and the Restless Outstanding Daytime Drama Series Beyond the Gates; CBS Days of our Lives; Peacock General Hospital; ABC The Young and the Restless; CBS Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series Jasmine Burke as June Hughes – Beyond the Gates Jeff Kober as Cyrus Renault – General Hospital Eva LaRue as Natalia Rogers-Ramirez – General Hospital Christopher Sean as Paul Narita – Days of our Lives Ray Wise as Ian Ward – The Young and the Restless  

On episode 1216 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, The Young and the Restless and Daytime Emmy storylines and headlines.  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 1215 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.  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 1214 of Daytime Confidential, 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.    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 1213 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr and Joshua Baldwin 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.  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 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.