Breaking News
NATAS’ Independent Investigative Report Into Daytime Emmys Concluded To Address Daytime Dramas Concerns
NATAS (The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) released today its independent review of the 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, which came on the heels of a potential threatened boycott by executives and notables from the four daytime drama series, if certain procedures were not addressed and their concerns not heard for continuing to participate in the annual event scheduled next year in May.
Michael Fairman TV spoke with NATAS president, Adam Sharp, to ask pointed questions based on the findings of the independent investigation reports findings. That interview will be posted later today.
For now, here are the official report findings released to members of the press this morning ad how the Daytime Emmys and NATAS will address the concerns at-hand.
“From NATAS: On July 30, The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) commissioned an independent review of the 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, and in particular, concerns raised by members of the Daytime television community regarding its policies and procedures. The law firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth of Washington, DC, was engaged to conduct this investigation and report their findings and recommendations to the NATAS Board of Trustees. The nature of their engagement was as neutral finders of facts and not as advocates for or representatives of NATAS. Their work is now complete, having included a review of thousands of pages of documents and emails along with several days of interviews with NATAS staff and competition participants.
The resulting report was presented to the NATAS Board of Trustees on Friday, November 2. It is thorough and fair. It levies criticism where criticism is due. And it rightly identifies many ways in which we must do better. To that end, NATAS strongly supports and intends to substantially adopt the Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth recommendations:
We will update and clarify our rulebooks. When we release the 2019 Daytime Emmys “Call for Entries” on November 12, we will update several category criteria to eliminate opportunities for confusion. We will in particular update the requirements in the performer categories (which are at the heart of much of the concern we heard), and we will more specifically define terms such as “episode” where relevant. Additionally, we will audit the guidelines for our other Emmy® competitions to similarly reduce confusion and differences across competitions
We will provide additional resources to the Daytime Emmys:. The 2018 Daytime Emmys generated a record number of entries and tremendous growth in both in-hall and at-home audience, but we did not scale our operations commensurately.
We will add at least one full-time and several part-time positions to our Daytime Emmy® Awards team. While all our staff contribute in meaningful ways to every part of the process, we will divide the leadership of this growing team such that — consistent with the report’s recommendations — the competition and show production will be led by different members of our senior executive team.
Senior Vice President David Michaels will again serve as Executive Producer of the May ceremonies, focusing his energies to build on the success of the 2018 shows, but Executive Director Brent Stanton will take independent and separate responsibility for overseeing the competition.
For processes with potentially adverse results, such as entry disqualification, there will be new and additional review steps — a “second pair of eyes” — and there will be new requirements for documentation. This will help ensure that decisions and guidance are consistent and metered out fairly, and that the handling of such events is appropriately documented.
We will better articulate and make public our core policies and procedures. We will be tasking the Awards team with more specifically documenting and publishing:
- the procedures for reporting and investigating concerns about the awards competition, entries, nominees and winners;
- the guidelines and “checklist” for vetting and potentially disqualifying entries;
- the process and criteria by which we or our accountants select judges, break ties, and/or nullify judges’ ballots;
- internal rules and safeguards that ensure consistent application of our policies; and other matters as we identify.
We will distribute these improved resources as they are completed in the coming months, and will provide coaching around and strict enforcement of these policies and procedures.
We will apply our rules consistently and transparently. We will no longer readily grant deadline extensions or other extraordinary exceptions to our rules. Any technical assistance or waiver we grant must be provided equally to all entrants in an affected category, if not the competition as a whole. And any such assistance or waiver will be documented.
Finally, at the end of the competition we will prepare a Transparency Report, providing a high-level summary of how our rules were employed and enforced over the course of the competition.
We will seek to work more closely with the Television Academy. Recognizing that participants in the Daytime Emmy® competition may be more likely to be members of the Television Academy than of NATAS, we hope to better engage our sister Academy in our processes (as representatives of their members). These efforts could include:
- More consciously prioritizing Television Academy membership as a criterion for judging participation;
- Requesting that the Television Academy reinstate sending emails to their membership encouraging participation as Daytime Emmy® judges;
- Inviting a representative of the Television Academy and its members to begin participating again in our Daytime Emmy® nomination cut-off calls; and
- Inviting a representative of the Television Academy to review questioned submissions, observe backstage operations, and/or be present for the application of statue bands at the Daytime Emmy® ceremony.
We appreciate that the missteps of this and of past years may have impacted some entrants’ confidence in the Daytime Emmy Awards, and we are absolutely committed to earning back their trust. We believe that through these and other improvements, we will once again meet the expectations all participants rightfully have of us.”
So, what do you think of the independent report findings? Do you hope the four network soaps will now participate in the upcoming competition? Share your thoughts below.
Daytime Emmys have long outlived its time.
It’s boring and stupid, actually..
Nobody really gives a hoot about anything daytime to cause it to have ’emmy’s’ LOL
Also– whenever there is a competition to be judged the names of the judges are known/given.
I have never heard the names of the judges; who in the heck is judging the soap awards, why so secret.
The judges should be publicly named.
I rarely agree on the picked winners, many that do not submit their entries had much better performances than the winners.
Daytime Emmys come down to buying a new expensive dress to show off and be seen, ehhh
Daytime Emmys <– bwahaa yah whoopee! 🙂
Breaking News
Robert Kelker-Kelly, ‘General Hospital,’ ‘Days of our Lives’ and ‘Another World’ Star Dies at 62

Robert Kelker-Kelly, who became prominent as a one of the leading men in soap operas back in the late 80s and 90s has died at the age of 62. TMZ first reported the news of Robert’s passing on Saturday, October 3 at his home in St. Peters, Missouri.
According to the St. Peters police report, officers responded to call at around 8:16 pm about an unconscious man who was not breathing, as paramedics and other EMS were en route. Kelker-Kelly had reportedly complained of chest pain shortly before becoming unresponsive and the circumstances appeared consistent with a medical event.
Officers and paramedics administered life-saving measures, but were unsuccessful in reviving Kelker-Kelly. The cause of his death is still unknown and under investigation.

Photo: NBC
Daytime fans first saw Robert back in 1987 when he was cast as Sam Fowler on Another World. He played the role for three year suntil 1990. Two years later, he took over the role of Bo Brady on Days of our Lives replacing Peter Reckell, who at that time decided to leave the show.
As Bo, Kelker-Kelly was major in story playing opposite the likes of: Crystal Chappell as Dr. Carly Manning, Kristian Alfonso as Hope Williams and Lisa Rinna as Billie Reed. When Peter Reckell returned to his signature role in 1995, Kelker-Kelly left the show.
Next, Robert returned to his original stomping grounds at Another World but this time as race car driver, Bobby Reno who was actually Dr. Shane Roberts. His second AW stint lasted from 1996-1998.

Photo: ABC
Eventually, the actor would begin his run as the evil Stavros Cassadine on General Hospital in 2001, then make returns in 2002 and 2003. In 2013, he briefly returned as Stavros as part of the show’s 50th anniversary celebration, and made one last appearance in 2014.
Robert has also became a professional pilot full from 2003 to 2015 and had been married to former Days of our Lives star, Miriam Parrish (ex-Jamie Caldwell) from 1997-2011, but the couple divorced in 2011. Since that time, he has not remarried.

Recently, Robert was back in the news when Lisa Rinna talked about her time working with her former Days of our Lives co-star in her recently released memoir, You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It.
Rinna shared on her then on-screen love interest, “Behind the scenes, we hated each other. Remember when Kathy Hilton said I was the biggest bully in Hollywood? Not true. Not even close! I have legit stories about the real bullies in this town. Robert Kelker-Kelly is one of those bullies.”
The former Billie Reed and reality star even punctuated that with, “He made my life a living hell on the set of DAYS, He was horrible to me, I’d go so far as to say verbally abusive. He was passive-aggressive, manipulative and played weird mind games.”
Besides his role in the soaps, Kelker-Kelly appeared on primetime on Touched by an Angel and Rescue 77 , and played Bo in the Days of our Lives specials Night Sins and Winter Heat in the early 90s.
Michael Fairman TV will provide further updates as they become available on the death of Robert Kelker-Kelly.
Now, share your remembrances and condolences on the loss of Robert Kelker-Kelly via the comment section below and let us know of all his daytime roles, which was your favorite.
Breaking News
Hayden Panettiere’s Cause of Death Revealed

On Tuesday, September 22, the Greenville, South Carolina Coroner’s office ruled that actress Hayden Panettiere’s death was an accident, attributing the 36-year-old’s passing to be a combination of toxic effects from fentanyl and other drugs that were in her system.
Panettiere was found unresponsive on Sunday, August 16. There have been numerous reports and sources speaking to various outlets about the manner in which the Nashville and Guiding Light alum died, but nothing was certain until now.
The Greenville County Coroner’s office shared that fentanyl, combined with 4-ANPP, Alprazolam (also known as Xanax), Methocarbamol (a muscle relaxant) and Quetiapine (used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia but is sometimes prescribed to treat depression), were all found in Hayden’s system.

Photo: CBS
GUIDING LIGHT ALUM’S DEATH IS STILL UNDER AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION
Meanwhile, the Greenville Police Department shared there is still an ongoing investigation into this case. “Our detectives will continue to follow leads and gather information as we work toward resolving this case,” the department shared.
That is, because despite Panettiere’s death being ruled accidental, authorities continue investigating whether anyone might be criminally responsible for providing the star with a lethal substance. It is being shared that this is “cross-country investigation” stretching from as far as South Carolina to California.
As we previously reported, TMZ shared on September 14 that law enforcement officials believe Hayden’s “long time drug dealer” may have been the person responsible for supplying her with an oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl which she took the morning of her death.
Panettiere “had been temporarily staying” at the apartment in Greenville, the coroner’s office said in August. Authorities did not say whose apartment it was but it was said to later be an Airbnb. It was Hayden’s on-again off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother Zach who called 911 the afternoon of August 16 to say Panettiere was unresponsive, according to police reports.

Photo: ABC
HAYDEN PANETTIERE IMPRESSED IN EVERY ROLE SHE PLAYED
Soap opera fans still remember Hayden’s as a very young Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live from 1994 until 1997, and then her signature daytime role as Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light from 1996-2000.
She later went on to star on the Music City primetime soap opera, Nashville from 2012-2018 on ABC and CMT where she played country and western singer, Juliette Barnes opposite General Hospital alum, Jonathan Jackson (ex-Lucky Spencer), who played her love interest, Avery Barclay.
Over this past weekend, Jackson, Charles Esten (pictured above), Connie Britton, and others from the cast of Nashville gathered for a memorial service in Hayden’s honor to pay their respects for their beloved co-star.
So, what do you think about the ruling in the death of actress Hayden Panettiere that it was an accident involving toxic effects of fentanyl combined with other drugs and medications she was taking at the time? Share your reactions via the comment section below.
Breaking News
Soap Alums Remembered During In Memoriam Segment at 78th Emmy Awards; Patrick Muldoon Omitted

During last night’s 78th annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, as it does every year, the television academy paid tribute to those in the industry that they’ve lost over the last year; since the previous Emmys held each year in September.
Starting with an emotional tribute to the late Catherine O’Hara by three of her co-stars, Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy and Dan Levy and Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin, the segment then dovetailed into Noah Kahan performing “Bridge over Troubled Water” as the faces and the names of those being remembered were shown on the screen.
Daytime soap alums, who either stayed in the genre for the majority of their career, or went on to primetime success as well, were honored including: Anthony Geary (Luke, GH), Hayden Panettiere (Sarah, OLTL, Lizzie, GL, Juliette, Nashville), James Van Der Beek, (Dawson, Dawson’s Creek, and Stephen, ATWT), Gil Gerard (Alan, The Doctors), June Lockhart (Mariah, GH), Patricia Crowley (Mary, Port Charles and GH), Randolph Mantooth (Clay/Alex, Loving and The City, and Richard, GH) and Jon Cypher (Alex, ATWT and Arthur, Santa Barbara).

Photo: TVAcademy
THOSE HONORED AND THOSE WHO WERE NOT
However, in a glaring omission, the producers of the In Memoriam failed to include Days of our Lives beloved star, Patrick Muldoon who played the OG Austin Reed and also Richard Hart on Melrose Place. Muldoon passed away in April of this year at 57.
After Kahan concluded his performance, a special tribute to Rob Reiner began with Jamie Lee Curtis taking to the stage to share some warm words about her late friend.
In a ironic and sad twist, Curtis shared ,“Last week, Robbie won an Emmy for guest actor in a comedy series for his beautiful work on The Bear, and he now holds the record of 48 years for the longest gap between acting Emmys, which was previously held by his father Carl Reiner, at 37 years.”
Reiner, who along with his wife, Michele Reiner were killed by their son, Nick Reiner, is currently awaiting a decision if he will stand trial. Prosecutors on Tuesday, shared they will not seek the death penalty if he is convicted at trial, but instead life in prison. Curtis said of Rob, “He was generous and kind and funny as hell, and a friend to all. We all miss Rob and Michele and all those we lost this year.” The Emmys then faded to black and went to commercial break.
So, were you happy to see those who you know from their work in soap operas included in the 2026 In Memoriam tribute at the Primetime Emmys? Share your thoughts in the comment section. But first, in case you missed it, you can watch it below.
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