Why The Daytime Emmy Nominations For Best Soap Opera Have Fans Scratching Their Heads

The nominations for the 49th Annual Daytime Emmy nominations are out, and while you'll see many of the typical names listed in the performing categories, there was one nominee for best soap opera that came as a surprise to many. 

Longtime soap fans have seen the cancellation of daytime drama after daytime drama through the 1990s until 2011 when the last of the classic soap operas, "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," were given the ax (via Deadline). That has meant that in recent years, the best soap nominees have been far from surprising.

All four remaining daytime dramas — "Days of Our Lives," "General Hospital," "The Young and the Restless," and "The Bold and the Beautiful" — have been nominated for an outstanding daytime drama Emmy since 2014, although the other categories typically have had five nominees, according to Deadline. But all that changed in 2022 when a fifth show ended up in the best soap column despite the fact that new soaps have premiered during the afternoon daypart on the broadcast networks over the past year.

For the first time ever, a soap opera exclusive to a major streaming channel — with only five episodes under its belt, no less — got nominated alongside the four traditional broadcast soaps. "Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem," the "Days of Our Lives" mini-series spin-off that began streaming on Peacock in the late summer of 2021, earned three Daytime Emmy nominations. The show not only ended up in the best soap category, but it also picked up nods for best writing and best directing, according to TV Line. Notably absent from the writing and directing columns was "The Bold and the Beautiful."

The Peacock series was listed strictly as "Beyond Salem" with the official list of Emmy nominees, although it is typically referred to by its full name, "Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem." Both the NBC daily version of "DOOL" and the Peacock spin-off version pit the same nominees against one another as both shows have the same production and writing teams.

A second installment of the Peacock "DOOL" spin-off will stream this coming summer from July 11-15, with Salem superstars Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso returning to their iconic roles of Bo and Hope Brady, per TV Insider. According to IMDb, Reckell left the soap behind in 2015 and Alfonso departed "Days of Our Lives" in 2020.