Congratulations, Days!

Best Drama Series, Ken Corday, Executive Producer, Edward Scott, Co-Executive Producer, Gary Tomlin, Co-Executive Producer, Noel Maxam, Supervising Producer, Janet Spellman-Rider, Senior Coordinating Producer, Tom Walker, Senior Coordinating Producer, Tim Stevens, Coordinating Producer and Albert Alarr, Producer.

Peter Reckell for Lead Actor and Tamara Braun for Supporting Actress. Rachel Melvin was nominated for the second year in a row for Outstanding Younger Actress, as was Darin Brooks for Outstanding Younger Actor. Blake Berris was also nominated for Outstanding Younger Actor.

Rachel Melvin was thrilled to be nominated for the second time in as many years. She tells us she "found out from Stephanie Sloan of SOD via text. We're pretty good friends and it was nice of her to pass along the congratulations, as well as the knowledge! Since they left out the younger categories when they announced them on the Today show, I was relieved that at least someone was in the know to pass along the information as early on as she was able to.

"I was pretty excited to find out I'd been nominated again. As the saying goes, the nomination alone is such an honor, and it truly is, especially since I'm no longer on the cast. It's kinda great to be wrapped back into the show with all the excitement surrounding all our noms, especially the show's. I was pretty excited for Blake Berris, too. I thought he should have been nominated last year so it's great that his talent is recognized this time around.

"My Emmy submission this year was when Chelsea had gone back into the hospital with "the infection" after Bo's pancreatic transplant. I had a heart-to-heart with Hope about the effects of killing Zach and how I believed it was Karmic retribution that I wasn't going to be able to have children. I really liked how that played out between me and Kristian. I thought those scenes were executed the best I could have done. I tend to submit something I know I did my best on, because if my best wasn't good enough for a nom, at least I'm not beating myself up about what I could have submitted instead that COULD have made a difference. It's just better for my neurosis!"

We spoke with Peter Reckell, who received his first nomination. He found out when Noel Maxam, Days' supervising producer, called him. Peter says, "I was giving Loden her breakfast, and we were just laughing and having fun. Noel called and said "Hey, guess what?" I honestly didn't even know the nominations were coming out today. I'd really given up on accomplishing something like this and I was just doing my thing."

"It was kind of strange. Like I said, I was wrapped up in playing with Loden and Kelly. I told her and Kelly was excited, jumping up and down, telling me to call my mom. Then she went out to do some errands and I was playing with Loden, then I put her down for a nap. After that, I thought, whoa, this is exciting. It sort of took awhile to sink in. I don't know why, but once it sunk in, it's pretty exciting."

Darin Brooks said "I'm surprised, excited and grateful. I'm super stoked for everyone that was nominated, and I'm proud of the work we 've all done here at DAYS."

Blake Berris said "this is incredible validation for everyone." He continued, "Rachel actually called me and told me. I had checked online and it had everything up except for Best Younger Actor/Actress, and so when I saw Rachel's number, my stomach kinda dropped because I knew she would probably have news, good or bad. Then she told me and I think screamed some profanities and then ran around my house like a crazy person!" He submitted the episode where Nick finally admitted to killing Melanie's father.

The show was also nominated in the follwing categories:

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design for a Drama Series, Dan Olexiewicz, Production Designer, Tom Early, Art Director, Jennifer Savala, Art Direction and Danielle Mullen, Set Decorator.

Outstanding Achievement for a Casting Director for a Drama Series, Marnie Saitta, Casting Director.

Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team, Noel Maxam, Albert Alarr, Herb Stein, Phil Sogard, Mike Denney, Kathryn Foster and Grant Johnson, Directors; Joseph H. Lumer and Michael Fiamingo, Associate Directors; Francesca Bellini de Simone, Gary Wente and Stuart Howard, Stage Managers; and Denise White Serrette, Krista Cremidan and Sara Peterson, Production Associates.

Oustanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series, Ted Polmaski and Mark Levin, Lighting Directors.

Outstanding Achievement in Live & Direct to Tape Sound Mixing for a Drama Series, Roger Cortes and Zoli Osaze, Production Mixers; Harry Young, Jacqueline Frazier and Hector Sarabia, Boom Operators.

Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Drama Series, Gail Hopkins, Head Makeup Artist, Deidre Decker-Wilson, Joleen Rizzo, Glen Alen Gutierrez and Nina Wells-Orme, Makeup Artists.

Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series, Stephen Reinhardt and Amy Evans, Music Directors; Ken Corday and D. Brent Nelson, Composers.

Congratulations, nominees, and best of luck to all of you.