Eric Braeden, the actor who has spent 40-plus years playing self-made businessman Victor Newman on “The Young and the Restless,” has just been honored with his 10th Daytime Emmy nomination — two decades after his first win.
Braeden, nominated for lead performance in a daytime drama series, hasn’t been recognized for his role since 2004, as he has routinely declined to submit himself for the Emmys in the years since. He has collected 10 Emmy nods for his role in “Y&R,” including a 2002 dual nomination for him and co-star Melody Thomas Scott, who plays Victor’s long-term love interest Nikki Reed. Scott presented Braeden with his first Emmy in 1998, on the set of “The Young and the Restless.”
“I have to tell you, when Mel gave it to me on the set, I had no clue that she was going to do that,” he said in a behind-the-scenes interview at the time. “I couldn’t have received it from a person that I would have more liked to have received it from.”
Scott Clifton, John McCook and Thorsten Kaye of “The Bold and the Beautiful” and Eric Martsolf of “Days of Our Lives” are also Daytime Emmy-nominated for lead performance this year.
Braeden has also been nominated 11 times for the Soap Opera Digest award for leading actor, winning three times.
Braeden, 83, originally meant to join “The Young and the Restless” for a temporary run 1980 portraying an abusive husband later shot by his wife.
But “when I saw Eric Braeden’s first performance — the voice, the power, the inner strength — I knew immediately I didn’t want to lose this man,” “Y&R” creator William J. Bell said as a part of the 1997 Museum of Television and Radio exhibit “Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera.” Bell rushed to persuade Braeden to sign a contract and reworked the character of Victor into a leading man.
Braeden has been with the show since, continuing to act through his 2023 bladder cancer diagnosis, which he beat later that year.
“Do I see myself retiring anytime soon? Hell, no!,” he told People in 2021. “My life has been enriched by having been introduced to so many things.”
The 51st Daytime Emmys will be broadcast live on June 7, at 5 pm PDT on CBS and Paramount+.
“The Young and the Restless” is nominated for a total of 12 awards, including daytime drama series. Click to see the complete list of 2024 nominees.
