Daytime Emmys uproar! DVDs overwhelm some voters
"Some actors who have received the 24 DVDs for the category they were assigned to judge for this year's Daytime Emmys are saying privately that it's not possible to watch it all," reports Soap Opera Weekly.
"With three actors per show in each category, there aren't enough hours in a weekend," one judge told the mag. Another whined: "We are voting on 24 20-minute tapes in every category," says another actor. "That's eight hours minimum, never mind taking notes."
An actor confessed: "Someone already told me they don't have time to watch all the tapes. They are just going to vote for their friends. So I did all this work and it could wind up being a popularity contest anyway."
Today I got a phone message from our pal Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada, who fumed over the lazy academy members: "They shouldn't accept the job if they won't devote the necessary time. I think the TV academy should test the voters to make sure they really watched everything!"
At the Primetime Emmys, voters can participate in a maximum of four categories. That means, with five nominees per race, those judges see 20 DVDs. All judges of a single acting race at the Daytime Emmys, by comparison, see 24 DVDs because of differences in the voting systems.
A new system is being tried at the Daytimes this year that requires a judge to view two episodes of all candidates submitted by the nine soap operas, which can enter as many as three actors per category. Lucky for the Daytime Emmy judges, extraneous footage is edited out of the videos submitted. They view only the scenes featuring the acting contender. Thus, each DVD usually runs a wide span between 10 to 70 minutes.
There's only one voting round this year. The five contenders with the highest scores will be the nominees announced on April 30. The rival with the highest score determined even before nominees are unveiled will be proclaimed winner on June 20.
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This news comes as shock to anyone? After General Hospital was completely shut out and received no recognition for their Metro Court Hostage Crisis or any of their amazing stars from Steve Burton to Rebecca Herbst to Bradford Anderson, Carolyn Hennesy or Sebastian Roche, even I knew somethign wasn't right. It looks like a total overhaul of the system is in order.
Posted by: Julie H | May 02, 2008 at 11:23 AM