NATAS President Adam Sharp Sounds Off on Daytime’s Resurgence and Those Talks to Merge Back With the TV Academy

The 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards will take place at Los Angeles' Hollywood Palladium on Friday evening, with a notable presence from creators who have made their mark on YouTube. For the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) president Adam Sharp, the daytime Emmy awards have always been platform agnostic, judging solely based on format and content, not the platform on which they are distributed.

Sharp sees the rise of streaming as a positive development, as it has allowed creators to produce programming that was traditionally found on daytime television. He emphasized that while daytime programming has adapted to new viewing models, there is still a significant audience hunger for traditional soap operas. Sharp highlighted CBS' "Beyond the Gates," the first digital native soap opera, as an example of how traditional daytime productions are investing in shoulder content, such as producing supplementary content on TikTok and engaging directly with fans on social media.

He also praised the show for challenging traditional expectations and casting a diverse range of performers. The Daytime Emmys come at a time when the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Television Academy (ATAS) are in discussions about a reunification after splitting in 1977. The reunification, if successful, would create a single unified community, better serving the members and addressing the increasing expectations for industry professionals to work in various sectors.