The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be held on Friday, Dec. 15, with the ceremony airing live on CBS starting at 9 p.m. ET. Soap Opera Digest chatted with the nominees to get the scoop on how they found out, what episodes they submitted, and more as we count down to daytime’s biggest night!
Outstanding Lead Actress
Michelle Stafford (Phyllis, THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS)
Sonja Flemming/CBS
How did you find out about your nomination? “I was on the phone doing some Skin Nation [her skin care line] business, when my friend texted me, ‘Congratulations.’ When I got off of the phone, I looked at the text, which was an image that looked like a wish list for something, so I didn’t really take it seriously. I put down the phone and was doing a couple of other things, and then she texted again, ‘It’s so well-deserved.’ She’s not in the soap opera business and I’m like, ‘Oh, I gotta tell her that she’s seen somebody else’s wish list or something.’ I started the conversation off with, ‘What is this?’ and she replied, ‘The Emmy nominations came out.’ Then I took it a little more seriously. She goes, ‘Apparently they’re announcing some of the nominations today and your category was announced.’ And then I took it seriously [chuckles]. It was completely unexpected and I love it.”
What does this nomination mean to you? “Listen, it’s always been such an honor. It really, really is such an honor. There are so many good actors out there that don’t get recognized every year, who I’ve worked with, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, they’re so good,’ and they don’t get nominations for whatever reason. It’s really a luck of a draw and it’s very much an honor.”
What scenes did you submit?“It’s funny because I didn’t really have, like, a complete show, right? I didn’t have an apex of a storyline and that was actually one of the reasons I thought, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t submit, because I didn’t have that.’ But I really drove that story [of Diane’s return from the dead], along with Susan [Walters, Diane]. So, I thought, ‘What do I have that shows what kind of journey this chick went on?’ And, because there was a lot of [Phyllis] trying to screw up Diane and yelling about Diane, I just thought, ‘Is there anything in there about how it’s affecting Phyllis and how she’s imploding?’ There wasn’t a lot but there was some, so I just put something together, I think from three different shows. But that’s what people are doing now [as a result of changes to the rules governing what material is eligible for inclusion on the reels]. For the last couple of years, I didn’t have an [entire] show but then I judged some reels and I’m like, ‘Oh, people are just putting together a kind of compilation,’ and then I thought, ‘Okay, I guess that’s how people are doing it now.’ I’m sure there are some old-school folks going, ‘That’s not right. You should have a complete show!’ [But] we all must change with the times! [In the reel] I had a scene with Josh [Morrow, Nick], where she’s talking to him about how she’s gonna lose her mind. And then also with Mel [Thomas Scott, Nikki] and Eileen [Davidson, Ashley], where [their characters are] kind of giving up [on driving Diane out of town] and Phyllis kind of loses it. And then I had something with Peter [Bergman, Jack] where I lose it equally. And then I had this show, it was literally shown on December 28th of 2022 [which was the end of the eligibility period], with Allison [Lanier, Summer] where Phyllis was freaking out, realizing that she lost her daughter to Diane.”
What do you think about your other nominees? “Oh, well, come on, they’re the greatest. I’m so excited, I love our group. I’m so excited for Missy [Claire Egan, Chelsea]. My God, she was so incredible with her story this year. I mean, she is a shoo-in for me. And Sharon [Case, Sharon], I’ve known her for so long, and she was very organic. Her performance was just so beautiful. I asked Finola [Hughes, Anna, GH] if she submitted and she goes, ‘Yeah, I submitted myself in Supporting.’ I said, ‘Why?!’ She said, ‘Well, because I wasn’t really a Lead,’ and I’m like, ‘You’re always a lead.’ She had a show that she told me about right before she shot it. She said it was a really good show where [her character] let her ‘son’ die. And I’m like, ‘That’s an awesome show.’ And then when I saw her in Lead [Actress], I was like, ‘Wow, that’s so awesome!’ She and I haven’t been nominated in the same year, not to mention in the same category, so I’m really excited. And Jacqueline [MacInnes Wood, Steffy, B&B is always great and she’s always a good time. And there are people who submitted, who were phenomenal as well, but didn’t get nominated. I’ve submitted [before] where I thought, ‘Oh, this is a really great tape’ and I didn’t get nominated. That’s why it’s a lot of luck. I used to not think that, but I know that to be true. It’s a lot of luck and I’ve been on both ends.”
