OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS
Wow. Three war horses and two dark horses. Despite work so consistently fine the quality has become a bit of a yawn, Ehlers, Flannery and Zimmer might just cancel one another out. Not necessarily a bad thing for an opinionator, since it's pretty hard to choose between those three ladies. Eeeny, meenie...when in doubt, choose the meanie?

What's left...Eakes and Monaco. While I'm sure Monaco would like to boogie her way up to the podium Friday night, I'm not convinced her character has the maturity and oomph the characters of her competition have. I think Eakes has a bit of struggle in store as well - despite the fine work she's turned in with her new character and her restored career, Krystal is in the difficult position of being amusing.

Despite my distaste for choosing based on scenes with things that go bang, Stephanie's scene with Brooke, the gun, and some vile, ugly taunts was disturbingly beautiful.

My pick for Outstanding Lead Actress: Susan Flannery (Stephanie Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS
I keep hearing lovely things about Renee Goldsberry, but in my opinion the contest is for Gina Tognoni and Jennifer Ferrin to duke out and win.

I'm not sure what Tracey E. Bregman was thinking when she sent in tapes from cute scenes. Was it a strategy to stand out, or is she just happy to be nominated? Lauren Fenmore had a heck of a lot of DRAMA to pick and choose from. Crystal Chappell is so talented and previously well respected, she's fine to go home empty handed this year.

I love the character of Dinah Marler - she's got dysfunction, she's got rising from the ashes, she's got one heck of an actress to play her, one of the best recasts EVER. But she doesn't have a dead baby (this year) or one of the silliest but still incredibly affecting drug addictions presented on soaps to date. I'll just never mind that Jennifer Munson typically makes me want to slap her.

My pick for Outstanding Supporting Actress: Jennifer Ferrin (Jennifer Munson, As The World Turns)

OUTSTANDING YOUNGER ACTOR
I had a crush on my cousin once. He had a motorcycle. My crush was legal in most states. Except for the part with me being only 9 years old. Enough said?

My apologies to Scott Clifton, but I haven't seen enough of General Hospital this year to really appreciate his work one way or the other, and I haven't heard enough unbiased drum beating on his behalf to convince me that I should put my chips on him. Not that the General Hospital machine isn't impressive, and worthy of it.

Here's a smack upside the head to tptb at Y&R (again). Bryton McClure earned a nod based on NOTHING. You people are wasting a fine actor and you only have yourselves to blame. Please give this guy something to do before he runs screaming at the end of his contract!

What to do, what to do...should I go with the bookend to the dead girl, or the bookend to the dead baby girl? This is a tough call. Michael Graziadei did a great job with the Cassie storyline, and continues to get better and better all the time. Just like Jesse Sofer, another actor that started great and continues to grow, but with a head start on MG. For that reason, I'm going to table Graziadei (just for now, I know I'll get more and better chances to pick him in upcoming years), and go with Sofer. Gwen and Will are a powerful one-two punch, and he should be able to ride that wave right up on stage. And deservedly so.

My pick for Outstanding Younger Actor: Jesse Soffer (Will Munson, As The World Turns)

OUTSTANDING YOUNGER ACTRESS
I know, I know, the hot money is on the Autistic character. Read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time". It's even better. Here's a shout out to the girl from that wonderful little college down the road - you go ahead and put Otterbein on the map, Mandy Bruno. And if you win, we can legally toast your success in restaurants in town now that Westerville has finally gotten over Prohibition. Here's to you, and here's to beer, here's looking forward to your brilliant career!

Christel Khalil - I know these scenes aren't on the tape she submitted, but I can't get over the "I ran over my dad!" and the "I only wanted a boyfriend!" tedium of the character overall. She's out gunned in this category. The nomination itself is her accolade.

Here's where I make the Y&R board hate my guts. I love Camryn Grimes. She's wonderful. She was done wrong. But Y&R gave her squat to do, then they killed her off. There's not enough tape available to really show what an amazing actress they stupidly fired for the most abysmal reason possible. If Camryn wins this year, it's because the voters considered the depth and breadth of her work over the years, not because Camryn gave us the best head-wrapped-in-gauze, gasp-whisper-die stuff EVER, and no soap will ever dare touch that particular cliché again because Y&R did it so well it's ruined for everyone else.

I have no idea how Jennifer Landon picked her scenes for her tape. She could have used a dart board and blind fold, she had so much available to her. What's the difference between a truck load of dead baby scenes and a truck load of Emmy statues? You can't unload Emmy statues with a pitchfork.

My pick for Outstanding Younger Actress: Jennifer Landon (Gwen Norbeck, As The World Turns)