Daytime Confidential

On Daytime Confidential episode 1216, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels reveal their 2026 Daytime Emmy Award Predictions for soap opera's biggest categories.

Share your predictions in the comments on Daytime Confidential!

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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Outstanding Emerging Talent in a Daytime Drama Series

• Braedyn Bruner as Emma Scorpio-Drake – General Hospital
• Al Calderon as Javier Hernandez – Days of our Lives
• Alice Halsey as Rachel Black – Days of our Lives
• Giovanni Mazza as Gio Palmieri – General Hospital
• Ambyr Michelle as Eva Thomas – Beyond the Gates
• Arielle Prepetit as Naomi Hamilton Hawthorne – Beyond the Gates

Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Drama Series: Actress

• Linsey Godfrey as Sarah Horton – Days of our Lives
• Camryn Grimes as Mariah Copeland – The Young and the Restless
• Beth Maitland as Traci Abbott – The Young and the Restless
• Trisha Mann-Grant as Leslie Thomas – Beyond the Gates
• Amanda Setton as Brook Lynn Quartermaine – General Hospital

Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Drama Series: Actor

• Sean Dominic as Nate Hastings – The Young and the Restless
• Timon Kyle Durrett as Bill Hamilton – Beyond the Gates
• Michael Graziadei as Daniel Romalotti – The Young and the Restless
• Roger Howarth as Matt Clark – The Young and the Restless
• Mike Manning as Bradley "Smitty" Smith – Beyond the Gates
• Lawrence Saint-Victor as Carter Walton – The Bold and the Beautiful

Outstanding Lead Performer in a Drama Series: Actress

• Stacy Haiduk as Kristen DiMera – Days of our Lives
• Karla Mosley as Dani Dupree – Beyond the Gates
• Michelle Stafford as Phyllis Summers – The Young and the Restless
• Heather Tom as Katie Logan – The Bold and the Beautiful
• Tamara Tunie as Anita Williams Dupree – Beyond the Gates

Outstanding Lead Performer in a Drama Series: Actor

• Eric Braeden as Victor Newman – The Young and the Restless
• Steve Burton as Jason Morgan – General Hospital
• Scott Clifton as Liam Spencer – The Bold and the Beautiful
• Thorsten Kaye as Ridge Forrester – The Bold and the Beautiful
• Christian Jules Le Blanc as Michael Baldwin – The Young and the Restless

Outstanding Daytime Drama Series

• Beyond the Gates; CBS
• Days of our Lives; Peacock
• General Hospital; ABC
• The Young and the Restless; CBS

Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series

• Jasmine Burke as June Hughes – Beyond the Gates
• Jeff Kober as Cyrus Renault – General Hospital
• Eva LaRue as Natalia Rogers-Ramirez – General Hospital
• Christopher Sean as Paul Narita – Days of our Lives
• Ray Wise as Ian Ward – The Young and the Restless

On episode 1216 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, The Young and the Restless and Daytime Emmy storylines and headlines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1215 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

Facebook: Daytime Confidential

Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1214 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1213 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr and Joshua Baldwin dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On Daytime Confidential episode 1212 Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines, including:

Is Beyond the Gates dumbing down Dani Dupree? How is it that no red lights are going off for Dani, Nicole or Vanessa about Heather? Especially when Joey is warning everyone how dangerous his sister is? Did the flashback episode give fans the backstroy they needed about Leslie and Ted?

Should Steffy get pregnant with Carter's baby on The Bold and the Beautiful? If she does get pregnant should she pass it off as a surrogacy or keep the baby? Is B&B brave enough to have Steffy get an abortion? Should B&B kill off Finn? Is Steffy better than Brooke? Electra and Dylan face off.

Lexi dies for the second time on Days of Our Lives. In 2027 soap operas need to avoid bringing characters back from the dead to kill them off in less than a year.

Does Anna need therapy on General Hospital? Is karma coming back to haunt Britt? Drew is back on two feet without a cane and already stirring up trouble in Port Charles. Could GH be setting up an Ava, Drew and Jordan triangle?

For the first time in Daytime Confidential history, Luke is on Devon's side on The Young and the Restless. Billy's quest to "reclaim" Chancellor for the Abbotts has the DC hosts rolling their eyes. Luke wonders if Lily could become this era's version of Jill Abott, but Jillian and Melodie aren't having it? Why did we have to sit there and watch Sharon sit in the coffee shop listen to Matt spew his drivel?

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1211 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dive into the latest All My Children, Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines, including:

Kelly Rip and Mark Consuelos are developing two All My Children movies for Lifetime and one of the movies is being written by Jamey Giddens and Ron Carlivati.

Sheila follow Steffy to Italy on The Bold and the Beautiful. Why is Finn such a bad husband? Should Steffy end up pregnant with Carter's baby?

Dani's feelings for Bill are manifesting in dangerous ways on Beyond the Gates. The Dupree's heads spun when she called Bill her husband at the hospital. Andre's past is coming back to haunt him.

Theo and Abe learn Lexi is dying on Days of Our Lives. Why is Dimitri become "icky" in terms of how he engages with Leo? John Oliver's cameo has social media buzzing.

Curtis if found guilty on General Hospital. Jacinda skips down after drugging Willow. Who would believe that Jason is out of the mob?

Joshua Morrow is spinning shit into sugar with Nick's storyline on The Young and the Restless. Y&R is very hard to watch while we wait for the new writing team's scripts to debut.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1210 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr and Melodie Aikels celebrate the announcement that Jamey Giddens and Dan O'Connor have been named the co-head writers of The Young and the Restless, replacing Josh Griffith.

In this supersized episode Luke and Melodie reflect on Jamey's 20 year arc, first appearing on the podcast as the "soap historian" and how his Wishful Castings on the podcast and blog were inspired by his creativity, knowledge and love for the genre. The two talk about how his pursuing his writing career with creating Ambitions, being apart of the writing teams at Days of Our Lives and Beyond the Gates has culminated in Giddens becoming the first black male-co headwriter in soap opera history.

The two delve into the many things that need to be fixed in Genoa City from the the core families (Abbotts, Newmans, Chancelor/Winters) to undoing Griffith's legacy of destruction. The two share what they are looking forward to most about Jamey and Dan taking over, while at the same time discussing the reality of what co-head writers can actually control on a soap opera.

After the hour long Y&R discussion, the duo delve into The Bold and the Beautiful. Melodie is loving the drama unfolding on B&B. Luke and Melodie degate whether Brad Bell should bring Amber Moore back and how she could be reintroduced since she has connections to so many characters.

Luke is estatic over Alison Sweeney and Christie Clark returning to Days of Our Lives. But these two TV sisters aren't the only ones returning, so are Chandler Massey and Bryan Dattilo. Melodie grudgingly admits Luke was right about Lexie's return from the very beginning.

General Hospital recast the character of Ethan only to immediately ship the character out of Port Charles.

Hayley is being written into a corner on Beyond the Gates and there aren't many ways for the writers to get her out of the aspiring black widow character. Could Hayley end up working for Vanessa once her dastardly deeds are discovered?

All this and more on this nearly two-hour episode of Daytime Confidential!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1209 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dish Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines, including:

Joey's sister returns on Beyond the Gates. Bill collapses. Kial's son Noah debuts.

Eric gets KAPOWED on The Bold and the Beautiful. Brooke and Katie throw down!

Gwen diseappears on Days of Our Lives, but who snatched her up? Gabi thinks Xander and Philip are responsible for the knock-off handbags, but are they?

Nina pushes Drew into the lake on General Hospital. Liz and Stella decide Stella's fate. Portia gives birth to a baby boy. GH doesn't know what to do with Trina.

Adam buys back Newman Media on The Young and the Restless. Y&R is a true struggle bus right now.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1208 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels react to the 53rd Annual Daytime Emmy Award Nominations.

The DC trio dive into all the biggest soap opera categories. They applaud some nominees, scratch their heads at others and identify which actors they think are nomination oversights.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1207 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr and Joshua Baldwin are joined by Regan Cellura to dive into General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful. The trio dive into the two shows before Luke and Joshua tackle Beyond the Gates, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

Facebook: Daytime Confidential

Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1206 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.

The DC crew remember J Bernard Jones, who passed away this past week. A Daytime Confidential writer and podcast regular during the early years, J Bernard left an unforgettable mark in the world of soap opera commentary. In late 2025, Jones returned to the podcast for a special Daytime Confidential Reflections episode and shared his thoughts on the current state of soups and the health challenges he'd faced down. It was a wonderful episode and anyone who misses his prescence in the soap opera community should listen to it.

Kat donates her organ to save Eva on Beyond the Gates and while still "under" she experiences a "What if" nightmare where she finds herself in Eva's shoes. Many soap fans, including Luke, felt the show was making Kat more evil than she really is, but Melodie has a very different take on went down. Last week, the DC co-hosts noted that Juneteenth wasn't mentioned during the big disaster event and wondered whether we'd see it this week. There wasn't a peep. Is it odd that BTG didn't mention Juneteenth when Days of Our Lives has integrated it into its storylines so well?

Logan vs. Forrester is delivering juicy drama and the feud between Katie and Brooke has Donna caught in the middle. Is The Bold and the Beautiful the most improved soap opera of 2026?

Is Days of Our Lives getting lost in the weeds with the Liam Selejko storyline and how it connects to Holly's overdose and viewers finding out that everything bad is connected to EJ and a batch of bad pills that were buried on Horton island. DAYS delivers all the great flashbacks for Deidre Hall's anniversary with the show.

Anna DeVane is back on General Hospital. From Drew to BLQ, at least four different Quartermaines are gunning for Willow. Will she go down because of one of the Q's? Luke really enjoyed the Carly and Lucas scenes this week.

Josh Griffith is OUT at The Young and the Restless and no tears are being shed on the podcast. After gutting the writing team and making the No. 1 soap opera nearly unrecognizable, we are ready for a new era at Y&R. Should CBS consider an interim head writer while an exhastive search is made to find Griffith's replacement? Someone to wrap up Josh's storylines and set the table for a new head writer.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1205 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Joshua Baldwin dive into the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

Facebook: Daytime Confidential

Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode 1204 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels take a deep dive into the Beyond the Gates' disaster spectacular that brought The Young and the Restless' Newmans, Abbotts and Winters to Fairmont Crest.

The DC trio shares what stood out to them, before digging into the meaty drama of the past week.

From Victor Newman's (Eric Braeden) arrival by helicopter to Jack (Peter Bergman) and Diane (Susan Walters) dodging Tomas (Alex Alegria) and Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Hayley's (Marquita Goings) chemistry, they delve into the Genoa City guests at Martin's (Brandon Claybon) fundraiser. Should Kyle visit Fairmont Crest again in the future or Hayley set her sights on Kyle after scoring a fortune from Bill?

The Young and the Restless dropped the ball on aligning its storylines with the crossover's continuity.

Before the fundraiser kicked off viewers finally learned the idenitity of The Impaler.

Super Joey Armstrong (Jon Lindstrom) saved Abby (Melissa Ordway) from a chandelier cake topper, but why was he so front and center in the disaster? Why wasn't he kicked out instead of being allowed to hang around. Why is Vanessa (Lauren Buglioli) so stupid?

Kat (Colby Nixon) and Eva (Ambyr Michelle) trapped together provided great drama, but will anyone be on Kat's side when she doesn't want to donate a kidney to save her half-sister's life? Leslie (Trisha Mann-Grant) had some of the best singers of the event, but BTG still gave her moments of humanity as she searched for her missing daughter.

Bill (Timon Kyle Durrett) and Dani (Karla Mosley) had sex in the elevator, but what does this mean for Dani and Andre (Sean Freeman)? Should BTG tell a who's the daddy storyline or should they leave a baby out of the picture? Andre professing his fear of losing Dani tore the DC hosts apart. Does Bill want back in the Dupree family?

Martin went from being trapped under a tree to an asshole in the blink of an eye.

A couple characters' wigs and eyebrows distracted the hosts from the drama.

The tornado event definitely provided an opportunity for some actors to step up, while other actors stumbled under the weight of the special episodes.

The hosts reveal their final thoughts on the Beyond the Gates / The Young and the Restless disaster crossover before rating the event.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1203 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dive into the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless headlines and storylines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

Facebook: Daytime Confidential

Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

On episode #1202 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dive into the biggest headlines and storylines that stood out for them on Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1201 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Melodie Aikels and Joshua Baldwin count down the Top 5 Current Soap Actors Who Have Leveled Up.

These are the soap opera actors from your favorite soaps who started out their runs not knowing how to act or made questionable acting decisions but who have since improved. Some of these actor's left soaps and returned better actors. Others were "learned" at the knee of soap thespians like Maura West, Heather Tom, Don Diamont, Rena Sofer, Rick Hearst, Jane Elliot and more.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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Daytime Confidential celebrates its 1200th episode with the return of Jamey Giddens to the podcast. Join Luke Kerr and Jamey Giddens as they reminisce over the show's 1200 episodes, dive into Jamey's award-winning writing career, the great news of Beyond the Gates' two year renewal and reveals publicly for the first time the cancer diagnosis and treatment he underwent over the past year.

The duo discusses Jamey's evolution from soap opera journalist to daytime and primetime soap opera writer on shows like The Rich and the Ruthless, Tyler Perry's Sistas, Days of Our Lives and Beyond the Gates. Jamey recounts the impact of Will Packer's mentorship through their show Ambitions and acknowledges the karma in going from a podcast journalist critiquing TV writing to being on the receiving end of fan critiques.

The two celebrate the two-year renewal of Beyond the Gates, what it means for the show and for the soap opera genre as an industry. Jamey credits Michelle Val Jean for the show's success and gives a shout out to the show's amazing cast, crew, writing team and production assistant.

Luke and Jamey observe how daytime talk shows are being slaughtered by video podcasts and which talk shows remain unique while others seem to be Oprah or Ellen knockoffs.

Luke and Jamey remember early Daytime Confidential listener The Best, better known as Tiggz, and co-host of The Chat. Our thoughts go out to those closest to him.

Luke and Jamey delve into the nuance of the WGA's new deal with the studios.

Jamey shares his life-altering prostate cancer diagnosis, treatment and how the experience and his continued recovery has made him face some things he never anticipated.

All this and more on Daytime Confidential's 1200th Episode!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode 1199 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe and Melodie Aikels dive into the latest Daytime Emmy Award Nomination changes and juicy storylines from Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

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On episode #1198 of Daytime Confidential, Luke Kerr, Jillian Bowe, Joshua Baldwin and Melodie Aikels dish the latest Beyond the Gates, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless storylines.

All this and more on the latest Daytime Confidential podcast!

Bluesky: @DCConfidential, LukeKerr, JillianBowe, Josh Baldwin, and Melodie Aikels.

Facebook: Daytime Confidential

Subscribe to Daytime Confidential on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.