Daytime veteran Heather Tom has earned yet another pre-nomination at the Daytime Emmys for her role as Katie Logan on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Her career has spanned three decades on three different soap operas, and now she’s on the verge of history. One more victory would tie her with Erika Slezak as the most awarded actress in Daytime Emmy history. But that historic win has proven elusive in recent years.
Tom got her start on “The Young and the Restless” as corporate heiress Victoria Newman. She joined that show in 1990 when she was just a teenager and played the role for 13 years. Along the way she earned nine Emmy nominations, winning Best Younger Actress twice (1993 and 1999).
Then Tom moved over to “One Life to Live,” where she took over the role of Kelly Cramer for three years (2003-2006) and earned two more Daytime Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actress in the process (2005, 2007). Her 2005 nomination was itself historic. That was her 10th bid, which set a record for the most nominations for an actress under the age of 30.
Finally, in 2007 Tom took over her current role as Katie on “B&B,” which had initially been played by Nancy Sloan on and off since the show’s premiere in 1987. Once again the television academy showered her with accolades: six more nominations, including three wins in a row: Best Supporting Actress in 2011 and then Best Actress in 2012 and 2013. She’s currently the only woman to have won Emmys as a younger, supporting and lead performer.
But she needs one more Emmy to tie Slezak. Her former “One Life” co-star won six out of her nine Best Actress nominations for her iconic role as Victoria Lord (1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, 2005). Perhaps she would have won more if the ABC soap hadn’t been cancelled in 2012 (it returned in 2013 for a short-lived online revival), but now that she’s out of the soap game Tom continues to chase her record.
However, Emmy number-six keeps slipping away from her. Tom has been nominated two more times for Best Actress (2014, 2017) since her last victory, but it has now been six years since her last visit to the winner’s circle. Will this be her year? According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, she might be on the bubble. She ranks sixth in the Best Actress race with odds of 28/1.
However, 14 of our Top 24 Users (who got the highest scores predicting last year’s nominations) are betting on Tom to earn her 18th nomination, and two of them say she’ll get that record-tying sixth victory. Are they right? History shows it’s never a good idea to underestimate Tom at the Daytime Emmys.
Be sure to make your Daytime Emmy predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see how their shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions until nominees are announced on March 20. And join in the fierce debate over the 2019 Daytime Emmys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our daytime TV forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
