Heather Tom Chases a Daytime Emmy Record on Friday

Heather Tom can claim a seventh Daytime Emmy and break the daytime acting record on Friday, Oct. 30, if she wins for Katie Logan on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Variety reported that Tom is tied with Erika Slezak at six wins.

A victory in the outstanding lead actress in a daytime drama category would put her alone ahead of Slezak for most overall wins by an actress in daytime history.

What would a win change for Tom?

Variety identified Tom as the only performer to win Daytime Emmys in all three acting classifications: younger actress, supporting actress and lead actress. Slezak won all six of her awards for lead actress for “One Life to Live,” in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996 and 2005.

She therefore retains the record for acting wins within a single category, even if Tom passes her when all acting classifications count. Tom rejected a rivalry with Slezak. “I don’t think I could be in a rivalry with Erica Slezak because she’s just iconic,” she said. She recalled working with Slezak and admiring her consistency.

Variety’s record of Tom’s wins runs:

• 1993: outstanding younger actress in a drama series for “The Young and the Restless.”
• 1999: the same category for “The Young and the Restless.”
• 2011: supporting actress for “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
• 2012, 2013 and 2020: lead actress for “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

Tom’s current nomination for outstanding lead actress in a daytime drama is her first in that category since 2020, when she won. She is also part of the “The Bold and the Beautiful” team nominated for outstanding writing team for a daytime drama series.

Tom called the double nomination “It’s kind of crazy,” in her remarks to Variety. She described daytime as a small community whose members she had known for most of her life.

Writing beyond Katie Logan

Tom credits “The Bold and the Beautiful” executive producer and head writer Brad Bell with creating her writing opportunity. Bell approved a spec script, then gave her assignments after seeing that she had wanted to write for the series for some time. Tom said she has worked in daytime for almost 37 years.

She writes extensively outside the show and is pitching several projects. She said Bell expects strong delivery and rewards it with access to different parts of her career. If she wins on Friday, Tom said she would thank Bell first and her husband second.

Her favorite awards ritual is an annual actresses’ nominees’ lunch. Tom said Slezak and Susan Flannery created the event, which the previous year’s winner organizes. She described it as a chance for the leading ladies to let their hair down, gossip a little and run up the bill for whoever is paying.

A catalog in an app

Variety reported that “The Bold and the Beautiful” is in its 40th season and recently launched an app containing the full episodic catalog. Tom said the app removes the need to record shows on a VCR. She believes streaming has introduced younger viewers to the soap while bringing some people who had watched it in the past back to the story.

Tom also said Bell has focused the show on family and fashion while restoring the humor she sees in its earliest years. She described “The Bold and the Beautiful” as high melodrama, where life and death coexist with a comic streak dating to the beginning.

Tom has revisited older episodes because a current storyline for Katie draws on earlier plots. She said she has played Katie for 20 years and felt that her life has been documented on screen.

Microdramas beyond the soap

Outside “The Bold and the Beautiful,” Tom is developing microdramas in several formats. She compared the form to the ground floor of daytime television 50 years ago. She said the new form can feature vampires, billionaires and characters whose relationships operate without restriction, giving writers a field with few formal rules.

Tom believes daytime’s high stakes give actors and writers permission to commit fully. She described the resulting programs as entertaining guilty pleasures. Her concepts draw on fairy tales and fables, including “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

She is also developing a vampire-and-werewolf story grounded in the lore and history of both creatures. Tom compared the project’s romantic scale with “Bridgerton,” which she described as a Harlequin romance novel. She said such heightened romance has a broad audience.

Bell’s return to the foundations

Tom said Bell is taking the show back to its roots during its 40th season. The report also described “The Bold and the Beautiful” as marking its 70th anniversary.

She compared daytime drama with Shakespeare, citing warring families, characters returning from the dead, mistaken identity and love triangles. She said this mass-audience formula is what Bell is restoring.

Two strong families and two rival fashion houses embody Los Angeles, California, high fashion and couture. The visual world includes clothes, hair, makeup and sets.

Friday at the Palladium

The 53rd Daytime Emmys take place Friday, Oct. 30, at 5 p.m. PT at Hollywood’s Palladium in Los Angeles. The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences produces the event, which recognizes daytime dramas, talk series, entertainment news, culinary, adventure, instructional and legal/courtroom programming.

“The Young and the Restless” leads all programs with 18 nominations, followed by newcomer “Beyond the Gates” with 15. “General Hospital” icon Genie Francis will receive the lifetime achievement award. There is no host for this year’s ceremony. Viewers can watch the ceremony on YouTube.

Friday’s result will determine whether Tom becomes the highest-winning actress in daytime history, with a second nomination already acknowledging her writing.