Heather Tom could make history this Friday at the 53rd annual Daytime Emmys. “The Bold and the Beautiful” star is in line to win her seventh Daytime Emmy, which would give her the most wins by an actress in daytime history. As it now stands, “The Bold and the Beautiful” star is tied with Erika Slezak (“One Life to Live”) at six each.
Tom scored a nomination this year in the outstanding lead actress in a daytime drama field (her first nod in the category since 2020, when she won) for playing Katie Logan on “B&B.” But that’s not all: This year, Tom is also nominated as part of the writing staff on “Bold and the Beautiful,” in the outstanding writing team for a daytime drama series category.
“It’s kind of crazy,” she tells Variety of her rare double nomination. “I love the night. [Daytime is] a very small community, and I’ve known most of these people for literally most of my life. It’s always nice to be recognized and to go and hang, and two in one night seems insane!”
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Tom won her first Daytime Emmy in 1993 in the outstanding younger actress in a drama series category for “The Young and the Restless,” followed by another one for “Y&R” in the same category in 1999. As part of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” she won the Daytime Emmy for supporting actress in 2011, followed by lead actress wins in 2012, 2013 and 2020. She’s the only performer to ever win Daytime Emmys in all three classifications of younger, supporting and lead.
Slezak won all six of her Daytime Emmys in lead actress (for “One Life to Live” in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996 and 2005) and will continue to hold the most acting wins in a single category. But when all acting categories are counted, Tom could surpass Slezak this year for most overall wins. But Tom stresses that she doesn’t feel like she’s in competition with the daytime icon.
“I don’t think I could be in a rivalry with Erica Slezak because she’s just iconic,” Tom says. “It kind of floors me to think that I’m kind of in the same conversation as her, because I was such a huge fan. I had the honor working with her and I just loved every single second. She always just brought it. There was never a day where she phoned it in. I certainly cannot feel like I’m in the rivalry with her because I would just have to say that she’s already won.”
Tom notes that her favorite Daytime Emmy tradition was actually started by Slezak and another former winner, Susan Flannery (“Bold and the Beautiful”): an annual actress nominees’ lunch, organized by whoever won the previous year.
“We have the leading ladies’ lunch, and it’s something that Susan Flannery and Erica Slezak actually created,” Tom says. “My favorite thing to do is get together with all these amazing ladies and just have a good hang. We let our hair down and dish a little bit and run up the bill for whomever’s paying. It’s really my favorite part about being nominated.”
As for her other nomination in writing, Tom credits “Bold and the Beautiful” executive producer and head writer Brad Bell for giving her the opportunity behind the camera.
“He’s always been extremely supportive of what I’ve wanted to do and branching out,” she says. “I’ve been doing daytime now for, gosh, almost 37 years. Along the way I kind of wanted to start trying other things. I write extensively outside of the show and have a bunch of things that I’m pitching right now. Brad allowed me to do a spec script because he knows that I’ve been wanting to write for the show for a while. And then he kind of gave me an opportunity to do a few scripts. He expects a lot from the people who work for him in all capacities. And so I think as long as I deliver, he’ll give me the opportunity and I couldn’t be more grateful for that. It’s really rare to have a boss who’s willing to encourage all aspects of my career.”
That’s why, if she does win on Friday, “the only person that I absolutely 100% have to thank is Brad,” she says. “And as long as I get his name out, then I’ve done my job. And then, second is my husband. That’s kind of all I have in my brain.”
The 53rd Daytime Emmys, which recognizes daytime dramas, talk series, entertainment news, culinary, adventure, instructional and legal/courtroom programming, takes place Friday in Los Angeles at Hollywood’s Palladium. “The Young and the Restless” leads all programs with 18 nominations this year, followed by newcomer “Beyond the Gates,” with 15. “General Hospital” icon Genie Francis is set to receive the lifetime achievement award. There is no host this year.
Meanwhile, as “Bold and the Beautiful” marks its 40th season, the show also recently launched an app where its entire episodic catalog lives. Tom believes that the streaming age has helped expose the soap to new audiences.
“People used to have to tape it on their VCR. Now they don’t have to do that; it’s right at their fingertips,” Tom says. “I think a younger generation is discovering it, and people who used to watch are coming back to it. I also feel like Brad is really kind of taking the show back to its roots and focusing on family and fashion. ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ has always been a fun show. We’re high melodrama, of course, because we’re a soap opera and everything is life and death. But at the same time, there’s been an element of humor to the show from the very beginning, and I think he’s hearkening back to that and it seems like the people who are watching really like it.”
Tom says she’s revisited old episodes recently because of a current “Bold and the Beautiful” storyline for her character, Katie, that’s inspired by past plots.
“I’ve kind of gone back and watched some stuff,” she says. “It’s so crazy to think that I’ve been on this show for 20 years. Time just goes by so fast, and I have a hard time even wrapping my head around that. But it’s fun to think that, like, basically my whole life has been documented in one way or the other.”
Outside of “Bold and the Beautiful,” Tom is busy at work on developing microdramas in a variety of formats.
“It’s the ground floor of what daytime was 50 years ago,” she says of the new format. “We are creating some, and I love that they’re willing to kind of go crazy with them. It can all be about vampires and billionaires, and everyone’s sleeping with everybody else. I mean, I love daytime. I’ve spent my life in this genre, and I love it because the stakes are always so high. It gives you permission to just lay it all out there. It’s fun as an actress, it’s fun as a writer because there are no rules. You can write whatever you want, and then 100% commit to it so that it works. People love watching it, it’s entertaining and it’s a guilty pleasure and all those things are what entertainment should be.”
Tom says she’s developing microdramas that are inspired by fairy tales and fables, including projects inspired by “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
And then, “Of course we have to have our vampire/werewolf one. We’ve really gotten into the lore,” Tom says. “I was like, ‘Let’s write one that has all this accurate stuff about vampires and werewolves and the history and the lore of it.’ So I know more about vampires than I ever needed to know. Honestly, you look at a show like Bridgerton, which is just a Harlequin romance novel, like it’s wildly romantic. People love it, and so that’s what we’re writing. This is my wheelhouse, so I’m having a good time.”
As “The Bold and the Beautiful” marks its 70th anniversary, Tom says Bell is taking the show back to its roots.
“I always say that the daytime is Shakespeare,” she says. “You have these two warring families. You have people coming back from the dead. You have mistaken identity. You have love triangles. It’s for the masses. That’s really what daytime is, and I think that for Brad, he’s going back to what ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ has always been: You have the two strong families, you have the two fashion houses that are going head to head and you really can see those essences of Los Angeles and California and high fashion and couture. It’s about clothes and hair and makeup and sets. It’s fun. So I think for the 40th, that’s where we’re going.”
The 53rd Daytime Emmys, produced by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, takes place Friday, Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. PT. Watch on YouTube here.
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