News
Y&R's Kristoff St. John and Tatyana Ali Take Home NAACP Image Awards For Daytime Drama Series Performances!
Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins
Last night at the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards which celebrates, according to official press releases, “the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.” The awards were handed out in ceremonies at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The awards presentations aired live on NBC and was delayed broadcast on the west coast and was hosted by talk show host, Steve Harvey!
Actress Kerry Washington was the big winner of the night taking home three Image Awards for her performances on ABC’s Scandal, and her performance in Quentin Tarantino’s oscar-nominated film, Django Unchained. Washington also picked up The President’s Award for special achievement and exceptional public service.
However, in the Daytime Drama acting categories, it was two stars from The Young and the Restless who came away with some trophies! Kristoff St. John received lead actor honors for his performance as Neil Winters besting: Aaron Spears and Rodney Saulsberry of B&B, Erika Valdez, formerly of General Hospital, and James Reynolds of Days of our Lives.
On the female side, once again Tatyani Ali picked up another NAACP Image Award for her performance on Y&R in the seldom seen and recurring role of Roxanne. Ali bested: Angell Conwell and Julia Pace Mitchell from The Young and the Restless, Kristolyn Lloyd from The Bold and the Beautiful, and Shenell Edmonds from One Life to Live!
So soapers what do you of the wins by Kristoff and Tatyani? Do you think the right nominees won? Let us know your thoughts!
Days Of Our Lives
‘Brilliant Minds’ Officially Canceled After 2 Seasons at NBC; DAYS Alum Al Calderon, OLTL Alum Teddy Sears and Zachary Quinto Among the Cast
After languishing on the bubble for months, on Friday, NBC handed down the decision and canceled the medical drama Brilliant Minds after two seasons.
Brilliant Minds stars Zachary Quinto as neurology physician Oliver Wolf, who’s character and the series is inspired by the life and books of neurologist. Oliver Sacks. The series focuses on the medical mysteries of the mind, as Wolf a larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns explore the last great frontier, the human mind, while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.
The final six episodes of what will now be the end of its second and final season were already set to air beginning on May 27, after being pulled off the network schedule in February as viewership saw a steep decline. Brilliant Minds second season became the lowest-rated drama on linear TV viewing, which didn’t bode well fo a network renewal, although it had its hard core fan base.
Photo: NBC
There are some exceptional notables in the cast along with the talented Quinto that includes Days of Our Lives alum, Al Calderon (ex-Javi Hernandez) who joined the series in its second season as Nurse Nico Silva, and One Life to Live alum, Teddy Sears (ex-Chad Bennett) who plays Wolf’s love interest and fellow physician, Dr. Josh Nichols.
The rest of the talented cast includes: Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop, Alex MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, Donna Murphy, John Clarence Stewart, and Brian Altemus.
In an ironic twist of fate on Thursday, April 30, Days of Our Lives finally revealed the actor who was Al Calderon’s successor in the role of Javi, when they announced that actor Jacob Martinez had now stepped into the role. Since DAYS tapes ten months ahead of streaming new episode, Calderon left in the spring of 2025, but will be seen in the part for the final part this month, and then on June 20, Martinez debuts as Salem’s new Javi.
Taking to his Instagram with a sorrowful and heartfelt post on the Brilliant Minds cancellation was Teddy Sears who wrote, “Thank you, Brilliant Minds. I got the call today and I didn’t want to hear, but I knew that it would come, You have to be a particular vintage to quote Don Henley from memory, but that’s the line that came to mind earlier today after I got off the phone with our inimitable showrunner Michael Grassi who delivered the news that NBC has cancelled the series”.
Photo: NBC
Sears continued, “To say that I feel sad to be moving on from these stories, this character, and this cast and crew just doesn’t paint the entire picture. I’m sad, sure. But I’m also deeply grateful that I got hired to play this part, so proud of the stories we told, and the other actors I got to play alongside. I’m excited to see what comes next, what adventures await, and terrified to be without a professional home. A quick and heartfelt thank you to everyone, all over the globe, who found us and found themselves in us, in our characters and in our stories. We wouldn’t have been able to tell them without you. And we still have 6 fresh episodes yet to air, and I do hope you tune in enjoy the remainder of the series. They’re the best we’ve done.”
As he wrapped up his sentiments, Sears signed off with, “The more I know, the less I understand. All the things I figured out I have to learn again. I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter. But everything changes…Thank you, Brilliant Minds.”
The medical drama was created and executive produced by Michael Grassi alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman, Lee Toland Krieger, DeMane Davis, Jasmine Russ, Henrik Bastin, Jonathan Cavendish, Andy Serkis and Shefali Malhoutra.
So, what do you think of NBC’s decision to cancel Brilliant Minds after two seasons? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
General Hospital
‘General Hospital’s’ Jonathan Bennett Receives 3 ‘Critics Choice Real TV Awards’ Nominations for Hallmark Series, ‘Finding Mr. Christmas’
Many things are coming up roses for Jonathan Bennett! On the heels of the news that he is set to debut this month in the role of Joe Fitzpatrick on General Hospital, who is rumored to be a new love interest for Lucas Jones (Van Hansis), comes the news that Bennett’s reality series, Finding Mr. Christmas has received 3 nomination for the Critics Choice Real TV Awards.
Bennett’s Hallmark Channel series finds itself in tough competition alongside fellow nominees: RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV), Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix), Survivor 50 (CBS), Top Chef (Bravo) and The Traitors (Peacock). In addition, Jonathan himself is nominated for Best Show Host and the series participants as the Best Ensemble Cast in an Unscripted Series.
The Critics Choice Association (CCA) revealed the nominees for the eighth annual Critics Choice Real TV Awards on Thursday, which recognize excellence in nonfiction, unscripted and reality programming across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms. Winners will be announced online at CriticsChoice.com on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, at 9:00am PT/12:00pm ET.
Photo: Hallmark
Taking to his Instagram to celebrate the nominations, GH’s Bennett, enthused, “3 Critic Choice Nominations! I’m so proud of the FINDING MR CHRISTMAS and to be in the company of all the legends in all these categories is so surreal! Congrats to Hallmark Channel and to our nominated cast and nominated show and everyone who made this magical show possible. This is crazy! This gives FMC 6 Critics Choice nominations in 2 years. Not bad for a little show on Hallmark Channel. What are your thoughts on our show?” Jumping first into the comment thread was one of his new GH co-stars, Dominic Zamprogna (Dante) who expressed, “Yeah buddy!!!🔥🔥”
In the series, Bennett, the host and co-creator spends eight weeks guiding 10 aspiring actors through a series of “festive face-offs” and acting challenges alongside actors like soap opera notables, Hunter King (ex-Summer, Y&R) and Alison Sweeney (Sami, DAYS). Along the way, they develop their skills and a bond with one another. The show, which is available on Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Plus, highlights LGBTQ+ representation with openly gay contestants vying to be the next Hallmark star.
It should be noted that Traitors received the most Critics Choice Real TV Award nominations with 6 nods, followed by Dancing with the Stars with 4.
Bennett is very familiar to daytime fans having started his career as JR Chandler on All My Children in 2000-2001, before landing the part of Aaron Samuels in the motion picture, Mean Girls in 2004 starring Lindsay Lohan, which would become his breakout performance.
You can check out the full list of Critics Choice Real TV Award nominations here.
So, excited for Jonathan Bennett’s General Hospital debut this month? Have you ever watched Finding Mr. Christmas on Hallmark? Let us know via the comment section below.
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General Hospital
‘General Hospital’s’ Kelly Thiebaud on Britt and Cassius Sibling Drama, But Who Will Ultimately Blow His Cover?
On the April 30 episode of General Hospital, Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) had some choice words and warning for her brother Cassius Faison (Ryan Paevey) who has been masquerading as his twin, the very dead, Nathan West.
As the story has unfolded, viewers learned that Britt knew all along that when “Nathan” showed up in Port Charles seemingly resurrected with a missing 7 years of his life unexplained, that Cassius was taking his place.
Now in developments on today’s GH, Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy) is figuring out that this guy pretending to be Nathan is someone else, and Cassius learns from Britt, that Joss is not just a ditzy sorority girl as he claimed, but a WSB agent! The moment stuns Cassius. Are the walls about to close in on him and his charade?
Courtesy/ABC
Daytime Emmy winner, Kelly Thiebaud spoke to Soap Opera Digest, about the story point and getting the opportunity this time back at GH to work with Ryan Paevey, when she hadn’t had the chance to before.
BROTHERLY LOVE?
Thiebaud expressed on sharing scenes with Ryan Paevey, “It’s just been so wonderful to have him back and to actually work with him! When he first came onto the show (as Nathan at the end of 2013) I was kind of heading out — it was right towards the end of my contract, so we didn’t actually work together a ton. It’s been really refreshing and so much fun to really spend time together and get to know each other and work together. I think we have really great on-camera chemistry and banter with each other. I really enjoy working with him.”
With the stakes at an all-time, Thiebaud explained how she views her on-screen alter-ego’s involvement with her more hot-to-temper sibling and why Britt revealed the truth about Josslyn to him. “People finding out about Cassius would expose what she’s involved in and what she agreed to do,” explains Kelly “And now Josslyn is digging around, and she’s connected to Carly (Laura Wright) to Jason (Steve Burton) and that whole dynamic! It’s messy!”
BRITT’S MURKY FUTURE
Britt has currently also reached her breaking point with Jason being carted away by the WSB, Rocco (Finn Carr), the child she gave birth to, shooting Cullum (Andrew Hawkes) to protect her and Jason, Marco (Adrian Anchondo) being killed after trying to help her, and Cullum holding over her head getting her Huntington’s disease medication to control her symptoms, while blackmailing her into finishing the research on her father, Cesar Faison’s, final project. Thiebaud summed it up best for Britt right now, sharing, “It’s been a really tough time for her.”
So, who do you think will be the person to blow Cassius’ cover? Will it be Britt herself? Josslyn? Liesl? Brennan? Nina? Lulu? Rocco, Maxie, Cullum or someone else? Let us know your pick in the comment section.
‘Brilliant Minds’ Officially Canceled After 2 Seasons at NBC; DAYS Alum Al Calderon, OLTL Alum Teddy Sears and Zachary Quinto Among the Cast
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I’m sorry… but why does Tatyana Ali keep winning these awards when she’s barely on? She’s on like 1-2 times per year, so how she keeps winning the award is clearly biased based on her past. The other nominated actresses much deserve that award more, more so Kristolyn, whose portrayal of Dayzee Leigh Forrester has been amazing since her inception!
Agreed!
WE FANS LOVE AND MISS VICTORIA ROWELL AS DRUCILLA. IT IS SO NOT FAIR TO DO THIS TO US LONG TIME FANS. WE WANT DRU BACK!
I wish they would use Tatiana Ali more. Such a beautiful woman and a good actress from her old THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR days.
Congratulations to all the winners.
The NCAAP has become a joke with the daytime female acting award. Clearly the voting bloc here has lost all credability. Tatyana is a nice young woman. However she has not been on the show with no story to warrant a nomination so it begs the question who does she know or pay to steal this award three years running when she is a blink and you will miss her character?? Way to make a mockery of the process NCAAP and Tatyana. You especially should be ashamed of yourself!!
To me it further shines a light on the lack of diversity in daytime tv; a new POC with no basis is thrown out to appease. We the audience have a say in this, yet we keep watching.
NEIL BELONGS WITH DRUCILLA ON THE SHOW. ONLY DRUCILLA! LOVE SHARON AND DRUCILLA. 🙂
Nothing but a damn joke. How you gonna reward a freaking day player a Best Actress trophy??
we love Sharon Case. i hope she wins best actress this spring!!!! hey why is our favorite Victoria Rowell still not allowed back when so many wish her return? Drucilla is the best talented actress next to Ashly and Sharon
Well I do not watch Days but from what I hear Lexie’s death was really good so I would have given the awards to Renee Jones &James Reynolds. Kristoff St. John when he is on just comes off as a smug angry black man. Turns me off! The fact Renee Jones was not even nominated is stupid. And if anybody takes my remark about KSJ as racist for the record it is not.
Ali wins? Really? Shines light on a serious overlooking of creating characters for women of color in daytime. Let’s work on that.
tatyana ali mentioned that she only goes to y&r if someone’s having a party! talk abt tokenism. this is a large part of ratings being down for soaps and primetime tv as well. it;s the utter lack of diversity from the tolerant crowd of hollywood. representation from hollywood and the manhattan mainstream media is a zero sum game. more representation for a racial minorities would necessarily have to come w/ a decreased representation for the white demographic w/c is already represented too much. and white actors don’t like that one bit. They enjoy having the limelight all to themselves. that utter love of attention is something that is subconscious and conscious depending on the actor and actress. thus there’s never a push from white actors and actresses for more
racial diversity.
white actors and actresses are part of the problem. hollywood casting is the largest part of the problem. they often want white actors only for parts. look at the gh casting for the new char. they ask for african american actors and mixed race. evenracial minorities have to be part white to be more favorably considered by hollywood! and yet they keep preaching tolerance.
I don’t believe they are like acting awards like Emmys or Oscars or Sags. I thought these awards were more about the individual person- and their contribution to promoting positive image for people of color in their personal and professional endeavors. So assuming there must be other criteria other than acting skill there could be reasons why Tatyana has won this award three times. If it is solely based on her acting performance than I don’t understand how it is possible for her to win for her role on Y&R. So there must be more to it.
it’s great that the naacp were open and inclusive to Asian american actresses freida pinto and archie panjabi and sandra oh attending their image awards unlike very commonly unwelcoming hollywood. there’s the alma awards for latino american contributions and then there’s highly publicized glaad but of course there’s no naacp and alma equivalent for Asian american actors and actresses.
that’s bec Asian americans are systematically discouraged from even entering acting by racist hollywood thru casting Asian american citizens and historical figures and fictional chars w/ white actors while casting Asian american actors w/ stereotypical and unflattering roles. this becomes a feedback loop that hollywood uses to explain their lack of Asian american representations. Asian americans are the most bullied demographic in elementary school but no athlete and hollywood personality would ever speak against Asian american bullying bec it won’t get them any press unlike all the publicity of speaking against gay bullying. Asian american teenage girls have the highest depression rate of any demographic.
that’s not suprising when hollywood’s highest rated tv show recently bullied an Asian american female teenager! american idol bullied and mocked a teenage auditioner who was a female Indian american. the panel kept mockingly repeating her indian name bec hollywood ahs made it acceptable to laugh and mock Indian cuisine and accents and customs and names. religious beliefs and customs of indians are mocked the very “tolerant” and openly gay nph’s bollywood themed music video. but no backlash for nph and idol from the tolerant manhattan mainstream media and hollywood of course. did idol’s panel mock the white gay guy that called himself papa peaches on that same episode where they mocked the indian american female? of course not bec gay bullying is the only kinda bullying hollywood’s against.
and yet the Office of Minority Health (OMH) and National Asian Women’s Health Organization (NAWHO) has reported the following: Asian American girls have the highest rates of depressive symptoms of any group! Asian american women ages 15 to early 20s die from suicide at a higher rate than all other groups. Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death among Asian americans overall compared to the ninth leading cause of death for white Americans. While Asian american women have the highest suicide rate of all women 66 and older. 71 percent of southeast asian americans meet the criteria for depression and other major affective mental disorders w/ 81 percent among Cambodians. And nearly 16 percent of u.s. born Asian american women have contemplated suicide compared with 13 percent of other Americans.
fashion and the mainstream manhattan media and hollywood often shape the culture. hollywood has made it palatable to bash Asian americans and therefore hollywood has directly contributed to these high suicide rates among Asian american women. bullying Indian american female who is a teenager on american idol is a form of entertaining for hollywood. it’s great when people like wiliam hung are bullied and mocked for ratings right? it’s bec hollywood has to discriminate against asian american males by portraying them as asexual and dorky and heavily accented right? that’s how hollywood operates. they are openly racist to Asian american males and females but scream against any homophobia and are only concerned w/ lgbt suicides bec their lives are more significant right? typical from the tolerance crowd of hollywood.
Well I for one am very happy that Tatyana Ali won another award. She’s a wonderful actress and a very talented singer too. I don’t believe that any awards show is based on the quanity of episodes one days. In truth, Tatyana isn’t onscreen that much, but when she is, she always knocks her scenes out of the park and she does a good job too. I do wish that Y&R would utilize her more and even have her sing – she sings great! But I’m still glad that she won and don’t think it matters that she’s not onscreen that much.