Latest news with #RachelSchwartz
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why buzzy new soap ‘Beyond the Gates' isn't eligible at the 2025 Daytime Emmys, how the number of contenders is determined, and more burning questions answered
Rachel Schwartz is the first female Head of the Daytime Emmys and Children's & Family Emmys, and she has a rich history with Gold Derby. "I was one of the original forum moderators back in early 2000," she tells us. "It's always great to talk to people who are into the nitty-gritty like we are." With the 2025 Daytime Emmy nominations scheduled to be rolled out beginning tonight (the first eight categories) and tomorrow morning (the rest of the races), Schwartz sat down with Gold Derby to dish exclusive details as well as inside-baseball information that only true awards aficionados would appreciate. The Daytime Emmys are bestowed annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). More from Gold Derby Everything to know about 'Wednesday' Season 2 as trailer drops: New mysteries, returning cast, and big surprises Addison Rae, Katseye, and Nikki Glaser lead list of new Recording Academy invitees First things first, the awards boss wants fans of Beyond the Gates, the buzzy new soap opera that has been airing on CBS since February, to know why it won't be receiving any nominations on Thursday morning. "They weren't eligible this year only because our eligibility window is calendar year," she says, "but we are looking forward to their participation next year" at the 2026 Daytime Emmys. Beyond the Gates is the first new network soap to featuring a predominantly Black cast in 35 years, and the first new network soap of any kind in 25 years. Some years the main Best Drama Series category has only three nominees, while other years it's four, five, or — in the case of 2024 and 1989 — six. So, what gives? Schwartz won't reveal the number of submissions in any year due to a NATAS policy that guarantees "equity for the submitters and for the communities we serve." However, she does reveal that "last year, there were six nominees due to a difference in the rules then versus now." She explains: "Last year, entrants into that category were divided into 'subcategories' of A and B dependent on their number of episodes — subcategory A was 52 or more episodes per year, and subcategory B was 51 or less episodes per year. The content was all judged together, but the scoring allowed for up to five nominees from each subcategory to be nominated. So, what you saw last year was a mixture of programming from each of the subcategories. We eliminated that division this year for a number of reasons. We do allow both types of programming to enter there, but the nominees will just be the highest-scoring entries." Another rule that was applied with "greater detail" this year by the National Awards Committee (NAC) is categories not nominating more than 50 percent of the total entries. Schwartz details, "This is similar to what Primetime does with their nomination counts being proportional to their number of entries. Up until this year, the NAC applied expansions to oversubscribed categories but rarely decreased the number of nominees in undersubscribed categories. This application has been something the NAC has been doing, and will continue doing, to all categories in all of our Emmys competitions." 'General Hospital': Meet the 15 longest-running cast members of all time View Gallery15 Images Refuting speculation that anyone who submits receives an automatic nomination, the Schwartz says, "We believe the Emmy is the highest standard of achievement in the television industry and therefore the standard for nomination should be higher than just being able to submit." Asked about the decline of daytime dramas, Schwartz concedes, "There used to be a lot more soaps on the air, and I think the reduction in numbers has had several key factors. First is that they were created as programming for women who were ostensibly home all day. That has not been the case by and large for many decades. Streaming has changed the way we collectively view content. People are much more used to the binging model, where you can get through a whole program in a few days, instead of something where you are invested day in and day out all year round." She suspects that "the soap is ripe for a resurgence," and viewers are seeing that right now with Beyond the Gates. "The success of things like The Bold and The Beautiful on the Paramount+ platform and Days of Our Lives in its full move to Peacock also show how successful this format can be without a traditional linear network. I think we are going to see some of the most creative minds and soap lovers in the country coming up with ways to reinvent the genre. Perhaps it's not necessarily daily, or perhaps the episode lengths are different, or perhaps the episodes are released in blocks ... who knows?" Best of Gold Derby Everything to know about 'Too Much,' Lena Dunham's Netflix TV show starring Megan Stalter that's kinda, sorta 'based on a true story' Cristin Milioti, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actress interviews Paul Giamatti, Stephen Graham, Cooper Koch, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.
Los Angeles Times
16-04-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Holocaust survivor, ex-Navy pilot among seniors suing L.A. over Palisades fire damage
A dozen Pacific Palisades and Malibu residents are suing the city of L.A., alleging the Department of Water and Power and others could have done more to prevent and contain the massive January wildfire that destroyed their homes. The list of plaintiffs, all 70 or older, reads like a cast of Hollywood characters, including a Holocaust survivor and a former U.S. Navy pilot undergoing cancer treatment. In a complaint filed late Monday evening, they alleged the city should have ensured that key reservoirs were filled with water and that all fire hydrants were operational prior to the Palisades fire. The Times previously reported that in the lead-up to the Jan. 7 inferno, the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been empty for months and more than 1,000 hydrants were in need of repair. As the fire spread that night, scores of hydrants in Pacific Palisades ran low on water. The complaint also claims the DWP ignored urgent wind warnings and kept its electrical equipment in the area energized, which 'contributed to the fires or sparked new spot fires' in the Palisades burn zone. 'All of that taken together makes the city, including DWP, culpable for the harms that the clients have suffered – losing their homes and all of their valuable possessions,' said Crystal Nix-Hines, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the law firm representing the plaintiffs. 'This could have been prevented.' A spokeswoman for the DWP declined to comment Tuesday afternoon because the city attorney's office had 'yet to be served with the official complaint.' Several similar cases have been filed in the months since the Palisades fire killed 12 people and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures. So far, the plaintiffs have only sought compensation for the loss of their property; the city of L.A. has immunity against claims over emotional distress and some other impacts from the fire. The Times reported in February that the DWP approved a three-year, $10-million contract with the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson to defend the utility against the growing number of lawsuits. The plaintiffs in the latest case essentially allege that the city destroyed their property without giving them fair compensation for the loss. The complaint, filed in state superior court in L.A. County, includes several harrowing narratives. One passage describes how Rachel Schwartz, 93, 'arrived in Detroit with her sister in 1946 after surviving the Holocaust, including the Warsaw Ghetto, three concentration camps, and a death march.' Schwartz moved to L.A. in 1960 and bought her home in Pacific Palisades 28 years ago. She lost the home and many priceless possessions in the fire. Kenneth and Kristina Peterson were with their two children visiting Hawaii for Kristina's 60th birthday when the fire broke out. They 'watched helplessly as images of their burning community played over and over on the television,' according to the complaint. Ken Peterson, 75, was undergoing treatment for cancer at the time. A former U.S. Navy pilot whose grandfather and father served in the two world wars, his keepsakes were all destroyed in the fire, including a 'Navy Commendation Medal for sustained meritorious service, flight suits, pilot's license, and log books.' In a bright spot amid all the destruction, a neighbor saved the Petersons' dog before the flames consumed their home, the lawsuit says. The involvement of multiple Malibu residents — including the Petersons — in the case is unique amid the recent wave of cases. Malibu is a separate city from Los Angeles, but the plaintiffs allege that L.A. and its DWP's actions and inaction before the fire broke out contributed to its spread to the neighboring coastal enclave. 'The city's conscious decisions to leave its reservoir dry and its power on are simply unforgivable,' said Jeffrey Boozell, another attorney for the plaintiffs.
