The 53rd Annual Daytime Emmys are just a day away, and one of the more hotly-contested contests is which of your favorite leading men will walk away with the gold statuette for Outstanding Lead Actor?

The 5 actors who are going for gold each have had quite the history with the Daytime Emmys with several already having racked up several wins. Let’s take a look and the take our Michael Fairman TV poll at the bottom of the post and vote for who you think most deserves this year’s Lead Actor Emmy.

The nominees are: Eric Braeden (Victor Newman, The Young and the Restless), Steve Burton (Jason Morgan, General Hospital), Scott Clifton (Liam Spencer, The Bold and the Beautiful), Thorsten Kaye (Ridge Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful) and Christian Jules Le Blanc (Michael Baldwin, The Young and the Restless).

Photo: JPI

FIVE ACTORS HAVE ALL PREVIOUSLY WON GOLD

As far as the actors Emmy resumes: Eric Braeden has been nominated nine times for Lead Actor and won once in 1998. Steve Burton is a two-time Daytime Emmy winner, both in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category for GH as Jason Morgan and Y&R as Dylan McAvoy. This nomination makes it Steve’s 10th overall, and his third time in the the Lead Actor category.

Scott Clifton has won three times previously in 2011, 2013 and 2017 and has the distinction of being the only actor to win in Younger Actor, Supporting and Lead. This is his 8th nomination Thorsten Kaye is a two-time Lead Actor winner in 2023 and 2024, while Christian LeBlanc has also won three times as Lead Actor in 2005, 2007 and 2009 and this is his first nod in over a decade.

The 53rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards are set to be handed out in a ceremony on Friday night, October 30 beginning at 8pm ET/5pm PT at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California. And while there is no network television broadcast partner this year, fans can watch the ceremonies livestreamed on the NATAS/Daytime Emmys You Tube Channel.

Now below, cast your vote for who you think should win Outstanding Lead Actor tomorrow night, and then in the comment section let us know who you are rooting for on Emmy night.

Leave it to General Hospital’s Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis) to throw an intimate get together in her own style! That’s exactly what the two-time Daytime Emmy winner did to keep the tradition of last year’s Lead Actress winner throwing a party for this year’s nominees.

But as has been tradition, where the ladies gathered for their annual nominee lunch, this year on October 28, Grahn decided to make it a dinner party and she cooked all the food instead of venturing to a Los Angeles hotspot.

The Lead Actress lunch has been a tradition started by four-time Daytime Emmy winner, Susan Flannery (ex-Stephanie Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful and ex-Laura Horton, Days of our Lives) back in 2005. Now, here we are 21 years later and its still going strong.

GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER?

Joining Grahn for for the Lead Actress dinner were 2026 nominees: Heather Tom (Katie Logan Spencer, The Bold and the Beautiful) and Michelle Stafford (Phyllis Summers, The Young and the Restless), Karla Mosley (Dani Dupree, Beyond the Gates), Tamara Tunie (Anita Dupree, Beyond the Gates), and Stacy Haiduk (Kristen DiMera, Days of our Lives).

This year, Karla Mosley and Tamara Tunie became first-time Lead Actress nominees, while Stacy Haiduk, also earned her first Lead Actress nomination, although she had been previously nominated in the Supporting Actress category.  Currently, going in to Emmy night, Heather Tom is tied with Erika Slezak (ex-Viki, One Life to Live) for the most Daytime Emmys won by an actress with 6, while Michelle Stafford had racked up three, two for Lead and 1 for Supporting.

HEARTFELT THANK YOU’S FROM LEAD ACTRESS NOMINEES

Taking to her Instagram, Michelle Stafford posted some snaps and shared, “This is SO special. A beautiful night with truly beautiful, extraordinary women. What an incredible tradition that Susan Flannery started. Instead of women competing against each other. Here we have five women who have become friends, lifting each other up and supporting each other. We walk into Friday night with a true gift of friendship. Thank you Nancy Lee Grahn for opening up your beautiful home and catering this incredible dinner. Thank you Dylan for being a good girl for the picture! 🐶”

Meanwhile, Nancy Lee Grahn shared a video on her Instagram of the actresses chatting it up around the dinner table, while explaining she cooked the dinner for all the gals! (You can see it below).

So, what do you think about Nancy serving up the annual Lead Actress gathering with dinner at her house? Excited to see all the nominees together before tomorrow night? Weigh-in via the comment section.

 

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Next week on all-new episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, a new connection is made, Daphne (Murielle Hilaire) is overjoyed to have Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) as her surrogate, while Katie (Heather Tom) and Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang)  get into another heated confrontation, but this time Katie takes things to another level!

In the just released B&B spoilers video, Darcy (Kelly Sullivan), while at the beach house, meets Wyatt Spencer (Darin Brooks)! She says “I’m just here to have fun,” and then tells Wyatt she’s going to take a dip in the ocean and invites him to come with her! Wyatt smiles as if he is interested. Might Darcy become the new woman in Wyatt’s life?

Then, while at the hospital, Daphne look over at Steffy and says, “Nobody’s brought more joy to me than you and Carter (Lawrence Saint-Victor).” Carter tries to continue his lie while Steffy forces a smile knowing she became pregnant through her tryst with Daphne’s husband. Will Steffy eventually crumble and tell the truth?

Photo: JPI

Meanwhile, Brooke is in for a shock after what Don Diamont) shows her. Brooks yells as she looks down at her phone, “This is horrible! Your wife ought to be ashamed of herself.”

Previously, Brooke had hoped that Bill would have been able to get Katie to back off of her revenge plot to take out Forrester Creations, but that’s not what’s happening! Suddenly, Katie is doubling down on it!

Next, we see an unhinged Katie throwing a bottle and having it crash through a window. Brooke screams, “My God, Katie. You’re crazy!” Then, Katie fires back, “And you are evil!”

Take a look at the official B&B spoilers for the week of October 26-30 below.

Monday, October 26

Bill tries to appeal to Katie’s empathy.

Finn and Steffy share a heart-to-heart.

Daphne looks to the future.

Tuesday, October 27

Brooke is devastated by Katie’s latest antics.

Will wants to show Dylan everything his world has to offer.

Wednesday, October 28

Dylan stands up for herself.

Wyatt and Darcy meet for the first time.

Eric is remorseful about Zende’s departure.

Thursday, October 29

Ridge admits to Brooke that Forrester is in trouble.

Katie is furious by what she sees.

Friday, October 30

Katie is on the war path!

Will takes the next step in his relationship with Dylan.

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