Vincent Irizarry, John Aniston
Nominations for the 38th annual Daytime Emmy Awards won't be announced until May 11 but we can tell you right now which soaps are most likely to land in the Outstanding Daytime Drama competition. Here's a look at what each of the seven serials submitted for the top prize and how they stack up.
All My Children (episode 10,505; airdate November 23, 2010)
A strong, crackling hour during which Dr. David Hayward — not dead after all — walks into the courtroom during his murder trial and shocks the snot out of everyone in Pine Valley. Oddly, there are no out-of-the-park performances here but the noir-ish flashbacks detailing how the dastardly doc (played by fan fave Vincent Irizarry) faked his demise and tried to frame his rival Ryan are exceptionally well crafted and quite riveting. The stuff of grand memories? Not really. But this is good, solid work and in some years (like this one) that's more than enough to put a show in the race.
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Melody Thomas Scott
Nikki Newman is back the way we like her...hitting the sauce, baby! TV Guide Magazine caught up with The Young and the Restless' Melody Thomas Scott to chat about her character's latest fall off the wagon and an array of other hot topics — including her outrageous Emmy snub!
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Don Diamont and Heather Tom
Best Soap: The Bold and the Beautiful
How can one show be both gloriously uplifting and dirty as hell? That's the marvel of B&B! After back-to-back Emmy wins as best soap, this CBS serial should make it three in a row thanks to its daring lung-cancer plot involving big mama Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery) who nearly chose death over life. Episodes with Stephanie visiting the homeless on L.A.'s Skid Row, and giving them a chance to tell their life stories, made for important and transcendent TV.
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The Young and the Restless
The most desperate housewife in soaps — The Young and the Restless' Nikki Newman — has secretly gone off the wagon after years of sobriety. But on October 21 she'll get busted! This vodka-sluggin' mama, played by the blazingly brilliant Melody Thomas Scott, didn't mean to relapse. Blame it on her nogoodnik secretary Meggie (Sean Young) who got Nikki hooked again by quietly spiking her fruit smoothies. Now Meggie, who wants to get her mitts on Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) and his moolah, has joined forces with town pariah Deacon (Sean Kanan) to ruin the upcoming Nikki-Victor nuptials. Will they succeed? Will Nikki end up in Deacon's bed? TV Guide Magazine got the scoop from Thomas Scott.
TV Guide Magazine: Best. Storyline. Ever. There's nothing like our Nikki back on the sauce! It's been too long!
Thomas Scott: I was never happy with the way her initial addiction to drinking and pills ended so unrealistically years ago. She just woke up one morning and was fine. I mentioned that to [current Y&R head writer] Maria Bell at lunch ...
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Doug Davidson, The Young and the Restless
This has gotta be some sort of TV record. On the Nov. 25 episode of The Young and the Restless, Paul (Doug Davidson) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) will have sex—three decades after the characters last did the deed! The surprise recoupling happens when Paul offers Nikki a place to stay while she copes with the death of her best friend, Kay (Jeanne Cooper), and recovers from her abusive relationship with Victor (Eric Braeden). They begin to reminisce about the past and end up in the sack.
"It's love ...
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Melody Thomas Scott by Robert Voets/CPT/CBS
Melody Thomas Scott of The Young and the Restless is giving the single greatest performance in soaps these days and, word is, we ain't seen nothing yet. This week, her sob-queen character, Nikki, will hit the bottle down in Mexico when she thinks her ex-hubby Victor (Eric Braeden) has died in a boat crash. Great news for us Nikki nuts (we love to see her suffer!), but bad for Nikki, who's been a recovering alcoholic since the early '90s. "When Nikki isn't drowning her sorrows in the local cantina and drunk-dialing Katherine, she's staggering along the beach hoping for some sign of Victor," Scott says. "He finally turns up and we have scenes that are very Scarlett and Rhett, and I don't mean that in a romantic way but in the true sickness that was Scarlett and Rhett. It's really good stuff — like classic Y&R from 20 years ago." — Michael Logan
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Catherine Hickland by Donna Svennevik/ABC; Melody Thomas Scott courtesy CBS; Jon Hensley courtesy CBS
Best Soap: One Life to LiveIt started the year utterly crappy thanks to head writer Dena Higley, but after Erika Slezak (our hero!) royally blasted Higley on the Web, ABC fired the scribe and promoted wonder boy Ron Carlivati. Like magic, the show instantly regained its heart, its thrills, its smarts. The cast is a dream, especially Slezak, whose Viki found heaven in a Texas diner, Catherine Hickland as crazy (or is she?) Lindsay and Tuc Watkins as that gold-digging man-whore David. Once again, we're loving Life!Best Actress: The Young and the Restless' Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki)As the distraught mama faced with divorce and a comatose daughter, she pulled out all the stops, then pulled out a few more we never knew existed. This was deep, blistering work. Plus the lady gets extra points for acting sans makeup on high-def TV!Best Actor: As the World Turns' Jon Hensley (Holden)His quiet, no-baloney performance was a relief in a year of so much male showboating. Whether playing Holden'...
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Melody Thomas Scott and Eric Braeden by Monty Brinton/CBS
CBS Daytime's premier supercouple, Victor and Nikki on The Young and the Restless, will decide to get a divorce on Oct. 5 — and there's nothing civil about it. "We start out trying to be decent to each other, but things don't turn out that way. It's really pretty brutal," says actress Melody Thomas Scott, now in her 28th year as Nikki. "At one point Eric Braeden [Victor] and I just threw out the script and went for it. We're both Aries, and when we get going in fight scenes, we'll kill each other unless someone yells 'Cut.'"The marriage started heading south a few months back when ex-stripper Nikki made an unsuccessful run for the Wisconsin state senate. She then slept with her campaign manager, which sent control-freak Victor over the edge. But this isn't their first divorce, and it probably won't be the last. "Let's face it, they're addicted to each other," Thomas Scott says. "Nikki is the only woman who can make Victor this angry." — Reporting by Michael Logan
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Eric Braeden, The Young and the Restless
Outspoken Young and the Restless superstar Eric Braeden made no secret of his displeasure with Victor Newman's story line — or lack thereof — during the past year. But it's 2006, and the Daytime Emmy winner is tentatively optimistic that his sidelined character could become a titan with teeth once again. In this exclusive interview with TVGuide.com, Braeden frankly shares his current feelings about the role he's played for 25 years. But read carefully, suds fans: It's what this gentleman says between the lines that's most telling!
TVGuide.com: Last year, you expressed unhappiness with your Y&R role in the soap press. Have the show's producers talked with you about this?
Eric Braeden: Not really. They're working on things, as far as I know. What can I tell you? I'm sure it will right itself again.
TVGuide.com: From what I know of upcoming plotlines, Victor's story prospects are looking up.
Braeden: Yes. It's high t
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