Submissions for the 53rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards are now open. In addition, this year’s Daytime Emmy awards features updates to the submission process. These rule changes are effective immediately and will impact this awards cycle and nominations later this year. Nominations for the 2026 Daytime Emmy Awards will be announced in July. The awards will be announced on October 30.
Here are the submission updates for the 53rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards:
Episode-Based Submissions: To align Emmy competitions, the contest has switched to a “Primetime Format” that focuses on episode-based submissions for craft categories, rather than the team-based structure which allowed the full team to be awarded based on a single submission.
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A program is therefore eligible to enter multiple submissions for different episodes and potentially receive multiple nominations within the same category.
Joint Drama/Non-Fiction Categories: In any craft excepting Writing and Directing, Dramas and Non-Fiction Programs will enter alongside one another in Daytime Program categories. These will be split into separate categories IF both the Daytime Drama and Daytime Non-Fiction tracks have at least 10 submissions per track.
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Example: If the Dramas and Non-Dramas each have at least 10 entries in the Costume Design/Styling category, contest administration will create a Costume Design/Styling in a Daytime Drama Series category and a Costume Design/Styling for a Daytime Non-Fiction Program category. If they do not, they will all compete in Costume Design/Styling for a Daytime Program.
Science and Nature Programming: The Daytime Emmys is no longer offering a Science and Nature category.
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Science and Nature programming that has traditionally fallen under the Daytime Emmys, which features an offscreen/voiceover narrator, belongs either in News & Doc or Primetime.
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Science and Nature programming that has traditionally fallen under the Daytime Emmys, which features a participatory host, belongs in Children’s & Family if geared towards viewers from infancy to age 15, or it belongs in Primetime if geared towards older viewers.
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Any programming in any genre that is produced by the documentary department of a platform/network/production company is NOT eligible for the Daytime Emmys. It should instead be entered in either the News & Doc Emmys or the Primetime Emmys.
Guest Performer In a Daytime Drama: The Guest category is now mandated by a MAXIMUM of 19% of episodes aired/streamed for the first time during calendar year 2025. Performers appearing on more episodes than that are eligible only in the Leading, Supporting, or Emerging Talent categories.
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The former definition was “a performance in a limited role with a definitive beginning and end to the story arc.”
Redefining Multi-Cam and Single-Cam: All categories formerly defined or tracked as multi-cam or single-cam have been reclassified as either Studio or Non-Studio. Programs featuring both filming styles must a) choose to enter categories featuring the predominant style and b) may NOT enter certain crafts in one style and other crafts in the other style. Predominant is defined as 50.1%.
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This applies in Non-Fiction Directing, Technical Direction, and Editing categories.
Members-Only Judging: As announced last year, judging for the Daytime Emmys has moved to a members-only model. Judges who are members of either NATAS, the Television Academy, or dual members will automatically be approved to judge. Members in applicable categories will be assigned, at the discretion of competition administrators, to the appropriate category or categories, as outlined in our judging guidelines.
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For categories in which NATAS is unable to field a viable panel solely with member judges — and only in these categories — administrators will also consider judges from the following groups, in order of priority: (1) prior Emmy Award winners, (2) prior Emmy Award nominees, and (3) those who otherwise meet the published membership criteria for their respective Peer Group but have elected not to join at this time.
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NATAS will consider the availability of member-judges in the ongoing viability evaluation of competition categories and may, in the future, eliminate those categories for which full panels of member-judges are consistently unobtainable.
Nominee Count: In any category with fewer than ten (10) submissions, the default number of nominations is 50% of the category’s submissions, rounded up to the nearest whole number, unless a more natural cutoff or a minimum viability limitation applies. Categories with three (3) or fewer submissions have no nominations, though the National Awards Committee may proceed with an award based on a standard of excellence if the category is not otherwise merged or eliminated.
Thereafter, the default number of nominations in a category is as follows:
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10 – 29 submissions: 5 nominations
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30 – 59 submissions: 6 nominations
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60 – 89 submissions: 7 nominations
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90 – 119 submissions: 8 nominations
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120 -149 submissions: 9 nominations
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150 or more submissions: 10 nominations
