TV Review - The 47th Daytime Emmy Awards (Pride Month)

The nominations for the 47th Daytime Emmy Awards were announced on May 21. The ceremony will be on broadcast TV. This is the first time that the Daytime Emmys will be on broadcast TV nationwide since the 38th Daytime Emmys in 2011. The past four years, the ceremony was broadcast online via social media platforms. It was on cable television for the 42nd Daytime Emmys in 2015. Given the restrictions for social gatherings due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it's unclear how the ceremony will proceed logistically, but I wanted to make note of the fact that the show will take place during Pride Month, which is June, the month that commemorates the start of the gay rights movement in the United States or the push for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. There are several programs and performers who have been recognized this year as being part of the LGBTQ community, and I wanted to spotlight them.

For Outstanding Drama Series, the nominees are CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful, NBC's Days of Our Lives, ABC's General Hospital and CBS' The Young and the Restless. In terms of what LGBTQ representation those shows had, Days of Our Lives introduced its first, bisexual character, named Evan Frears aka Christian Maddox, played by Brock Kelly. The character was a third wheel to an already established same-sex couple on the show. General Hospital had the implosion of its same-sex male couple, which was only the second same-sex male wedding in daytime history.

For Outstanding Digital Drama Series, the nominees are Amazon Prime's After Forever, The Bay the Series, DARK/WEB, Netflix's Eastsiders and Amazon Prime's Studio City. Pretty much all of the nominees here have some kind of LGBTQ representation. In fact, these programs, which are online, mostly have LGBTQ characters as leads. Mike C. Manning notably joined the cast of The Bay the Series. Manning is an openly bisexual actor.

For Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Digital Drama Series, the nominees include Rowin Amone from YouTube's Issa Rae Presents King Ester. Amone is a black, trans-gendered person. She follows Laverne Cox who was the first trans-gendered person nominated for an Emmy, specifically a Primetime Emmy.

For Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Digital Drama Series, the nominees include Veanne Cox, no relation to Laverne Cox. Veanne Cox is featured in Vimeo's Indoor Boys, a web series about same-sex male roommates who become more than that.

For Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, the nominees include Chandler Massey (pictured above) in Days of Our Lives. He plays Will Horton, one-half of the aforementioned, established, same-sex couple on that show. Massey made history when he became the first actor to receive a Daytime Emmy Award for playing a gay character. He then went on to win the same award three times in a row. This will be his fifth nomination.

For Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Digital Drama Series, the nominees include Willam Belli for Eastsiders. Belli also makes history or "herstory," as Out magazine put it. Belli is the first drag performer to be nominated in an acting category at the Emmys. Some other names in this category are Leith M. Burke in Eastsiders and Lenny Wolpe in After Forever. Both Burke and Wolpe play gay characters.

For Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Drama Series, the nominees include Scott Turner Schofield in Studio City. He joins Amone as another trans-gender actor to be nominated. It's record-setting because Schofield would be the first trans-gender male to be recognized.

For Outstanding Principal Performance in a Daytime Program, the nominees include Damian Toofeek Raven in The Chadwick Journals, Season 3: Oren, a web series on Amazon Prime about a black man who interviews black gay men as part of a book he's writing. It's a spin-off of The DL Chronicles (2007), a TV series on Here!. Another name in this category is Brianne Tju in Hulu's Light as a Feather. Tju plays Alex Portnoy, a popular tomboy and dancer who is a lesbian.

For Outstanding Limited Performance in a Daytime Program, the nominees include Sara Ramirez (pictured below) in YouTube's The Feels and Alice Kremelberg in The Feels. Ramirez is best-known for her role of Callie Torres on the hit TV series Grey's Anatomy. Ramirez played a bisexual doctor on that series and stands as the longest-running LGBTQ character in television history. In The Feels, Ramirez plays "S," a gender-queer character in a poly-amorous relationship. Kremelberg plays Kat, a woman in a relationship with a bisexual man.

Other LGBTQ nominees are Ellen DeGeneres, Sara Gilbert and Mo Rocca as hosts of various programs. There's also one final show that I'd like to spotlight. Stonewall OutLoud was a program on YouTube that was nominated for Outstanding Directing Special Class. The documentary premiered on YouTube last year during Pride Month. It's only suiting that the doc be recognized during that very same month as it is about the Stonewall riots, which kicked off the LGBTQ movement this very same time. Hopefully, it will get its due, but we'll see.

The 47th Daytime Emmy Awards will air on CBS on June 26 at 8PM.