Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series

Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series
Awarded for	Outstanding Performance by Younger Actress/Actor in a Drama Series
Country	United States
Presented by	NATAS ATAS
First awarded	2020
Last awarded	2023 [1]
Most nominations	Two (2) nominations each: Katelyn MacMullen Alyvia Alyn Lind Sydney Mikayla
Website	theemmys.tv/daytime
Related	Replaced the gender-specific Younger Actor and Younger Actress categories

The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series was an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It was awarded annually from the 47th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2020 to the 50th Daytime Emmys in 2023. ^[1] It was given to honor a young actress or actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a role while working within the daytime drama industry.

Prior to this category's introduction, the awards were distributed on the basis of gender, in the respective, Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series categories. An announcement was made to merge in October 2019, and introduce this current single, gender-neutral one. ^[2] Reasons for such change, included that there are fewer daytime soap operas, thus fewer entrants as well as part as the continuous discussion and implementation of gender-inclusive categories at award competitions. In spite of that, only female-identifying actors earned a nomination in the category in the first year the award was merged.

It was announced that for the 48th Daytime Emmy Awards competition, it would be the final year in which the age 25 is the cut-off. It was then lowered that following year to 21, and lowered further to 18 for 2023. With the age being lowered to 18 for the 50th Daytime Emmy Awards, entrants were required to be "no older than 18 on at least January 1, 2022" in order to be eligible. Additionally, when the announcement was made for the 48th Daytime Emmy Awards, Younger Performer entrants were permitted to enter this category an infinite number of times while they are under 18, but once they turned 18, they were permitted to enter only three times before being moved to either the Lead or Supporting categories. Being age-qualified to enter for Younger Performer award does NOT mean an entrant is required to. Lead and Supporting acting categories are also open to performers under the age of 25. It is up to the discretion of the actor to determine which category they should be considered for. ^[3]

The award was first presented to Olivia Rose Keegan, for her role as Claire Brady on Days of Our Lives . As of the 2023 ceremony, Eden McCoy is the most recent winner in this category. Katelyn MacMullen, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Sydney Mikayla and Eden McCoy have the most nominations in this category, with a total of two.

In February 2024, it was announced that the Younger Performer award was being retired, and younger performers will now have to enter into the regular lead, supporting or guest acting categories. ^[1]

Winners and nominees

Listed below are the winners of the award for each year, as well as the other nominees.

Table key

‡	Indicates the winner

Year	Performer	Program	Role	Network	Ref.
2020s
2020 (47th)	Olivia Rose Keegan ‡	Days of Our Lives	Claire Brady	NBC	[4]
	Sasha Calle	The Young and the Restless	Lola Rosales	CBS	[5]
	Katelyn MacMullen	General Hospital	Willow Tait	ABC
	Eden McCoy	General Hospital	Josslyn Jacks	ABC
	Thia Megia	Days of Our Lives	Haley Chen	NBC
2021 (48th)	Victoria Konefal ‡	Days of Our Lives	Ciara Brady	NBC	[6]
	Tajh Bellow	General Hospital	TJ Ashford	ABC	[7]
	Alyvia Alyn Lind	The Young and the Restless	Faith Newman	CBS
	Katelyn MacMullen	General Hospital	Willow Tait	ABC
	Sydney Mikayla	General Hospital	Trina Robinson	ABC
2022 (49th)	Nicholas Chavez ‡	General Hospital	Spencer Cassadine	ABC	[8]
	Lindsay Arnold	Days of Our Lives	Allie Horton	NBC	[9]
	Alyvia Alyn Lind	The Young and the Restless	Faith Newman	CBS
	William Lipton	General Hospital	Cameron Webber	ABC
	Sydney Mikayla	General Hospital	Trina Robinson	ABC
2023 (50th) [note 1]
	Eden McCoy ‡	General Hospital	Josslyn Jacks	ABC	[11]
	Cary Christopher	Days of Our Lives	Thomas DiMera	NBC/Peacock	[12]
	Henry Joseph Samiri	The Bold and the Beautiful	Douglas Forrester	CBS

Multiple nominations

2 nominations

• Alyvia Alyn Lind
• Katelyn MacMullen
• Sydney Mikayla
• Eden McCoy

References

1. "Daytime Emmys Eliminate 'Outstanding Younger Performer' Category, Reveal Other Rules Changes". Variety. February 1, 2024. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
2. "Daytime Emmys Combine Young Performer Categories, Clarify Gender Identity Rules". Variety. October 31, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
3. "The 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Category Changes" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
4. "The 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Award Winners" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. June 26, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
5. "The 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Nominations" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
6. "The 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Award Winners" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
7. "The 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Nominations". New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
8. "The 49th Annual Daytime Emmy Award Telecast Winners" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. June 24, 2022. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
9. "The 49th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Nominations" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
10. Dave Nemetz (April 28, 2023). "Days of Our Lives' Victoria Grace Loses Daytime Emmy Nomination After 'Huge Misunderstanding' — Read Statement". TVLine . Retrieved May 3, 2023.
11. "The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Award Telecast Winners" (PDF). New York: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. December 15, 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
12. "The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Nominations" (PDF). New York/Los Angeles: emmyonline.org and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 2023. Retrieved May 13, 2023.

Notes

1. The 50th Daytime Emmys originally included a fourth nominee in the category, Victoria Grace (Wendy Shin, Days of Our Lives), who was withdrawn by the submitting program on April 28, 2023. Grace (born June 20, 2000) was ineligible to be nominated, as she was older than 18 years of age on January 1, 2022, the date designated for 2023 entrants to qualify for eligibility in the category under the revised age requirements. (She turned 21 about 51⁄2 months before the designated cutoff date for 2023 submittees that met the new age requirements.) ^[10]

External links

• Daytime Emmy Awards at the Internet Movie Database