All Four Soaps Threaten Daytime Emmy Boycott

After rule technicalities forced soap veteran Patrika Darbo to give up her Daytime Emmy this year for Outstanding Guest Performer In A Digital Series (The Bay), the four remaining network soaps are fighting back.

In a letter sent to NATAS, the television academy that runs the awards, Days of Our Lives (a big winner at this spring’s ceremony), General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and the Beautiful, sent NATAS a letter with a list of demands.

The soaps threaten if their demands are not met, there’s a good chance the soaps will refuse to be a part of The Daytime Emmys in 2019. Considering, soaps and its stars are the main draw for this awards show, this wouldn’t bode well for NATAS at all.

The letter, which was obtained by Deadline, states the following:

“We are disheartened by the recent events involving NATAS and the 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards competition and the decisions made by NATAS regarding the Digital categories of Supporting Actor and Guest Star.

“We feel the time is appropriate to bring to your attention our serious concerns about the Daytime Emmy Awards competition.”

The spokespeople who wrote the letter said the soaps “are united in their decision not to participate in the Daytime Emmy Awards moving forward …continue reading on the next page —>

Continue reading on the next page…

The spokespeople who wrote the letter said the soaps “are united in their decision not to participate in the Daytime Emmy Awards moving forward until these important issues are resolved.”

The soaps’ list of demands is extensive and cover many of the complaints on how Daytime Emmy winners have been chosen through the decades. They are broken down into the following categories.

Voting

-Only members of NATAS or the Academy are eligible.
-All Academy members should have the right to vote for Outstanding Show. Currently, NATAS selects who can vote in that category.
-All members who qualify for a category need to be able to vote in that category.
-Transparency throughout the entire voting process, due to suspected conflicts of interest in the voting pools

Accounting Firm

-NATAS needs to tell its accountants to stop rejecting votes due to suspected block voting that has never been proven.
-To disqualify or reject a ballot, there must be a written procedure for this process.
-An independent body outside NATAS and the accounting firm must oversee any discrepancy issues
-NATAS needs to limit communication with the accounting firm, with the soaps describing what they want as an “arms-length relationship.”
-A third party needs to audit the votes from this past year’s awards and make the results public

Winners Knowing In Advance

-The soaps were told that no winners would no the results before the ceremony.
-The shows feel that did not happen this year and many winners knew what to expect.

Competition And Awards Show Production

The shows specifically asked for this in their letter:

-“We feel that it is a conflict of interest for the executive(s) administering the competition in any way, shape or form to also produce the awards show. The executive in charge of the competition is responsible for the integrity of the competition and the awards. We feel that this conflict contributed to recent transgressions regarding the Digital Guest and Supporting performer categories.”
-“NATAS must hire a team, separate from the competition executive(s), to produce and executive produce the actual awards show.”
-“The rules need to be more detailed and include the procedure and process for all aspects of the competition. The concerns listed above are very serious to us. Our goal is to bring integrity back to the Daytime Emmy competition and awards show. We have no confidence in the ability of the persons currently running the competition to accomplish this goal.”

According to Deadline, NATAS has not responded to this letter since it was sent on Monday. When NATAS has a response, Soap Hub will keep you informed.