Martsolf, DAYS sweep 14th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards

Eric Martsolf finally took top honors as the winners of the 14th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards were announced Sunday.

The DAYS stud, who has previous lost the awards' top contest three times, finally won the Best Hunk prize. He also won for Best Arms and Best Hunk Over 40, marking the first time the same person has won both the regular and the Over 40 races in the same year.

Martsolf re-tweeted news of his wins Sunday with his thanks.

It was effectively a sweep for DAYS, a soap that had not had as much success the past few years in these awards. With the recently-sweeping but now-cancelled OLTL out of the way, DAYS managed 12 victories in all. The series won its record-setting seventh Hunkiest Soap trophy, in the most dominant race in awards history.

The only person to win multiple awards outside of DAYS was Y&R's Marco Dapper, whose leading seven nominations going in turned into wins for Hunkiest Newcomer, Best Torso, and Best Butt.

It was a pair of victories each for the DAYS trio of Chandler Massey (Best Pecs and Best Eyes), James Scott (Best Abs and Best Voice), and Freddie Smith (Most Shamefully Clothed and Best Smile).

Other DAYS victors: Greg Vaughan for Best Face and Casey Deidrick for Best Hair.

All-time wins leader Brandon Beemer of B&B won Most Missed Soap Hunk, padding his lead with his 18th Soaphunks.net Awards win.

Complete voting results can be viewed at the Soaphunks.net Award archive.

David A. Gregory, OLTL earn near-sweep of 13th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards

David A. Gregory took top honors as the 13th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards were announced live Wednesday.

The OLTL stud, who also won the site's summertime Adonis contest, won Best Hunk and four other categories for the second consecutive year. He also converted his nominations for Best Torso, Best Pecs, Best Abs, and Best Butt into wins. Gregory's win in the top category puts him in select company: only OLTL's David Fumero and DAYS' James Scott have also won the Best Hunk award twice. Gregory's win for Best Torso was particularly noteworthy: with over 63% of the vote, it was the most dominant margin of victory in awards history.

Gregory thanked his fans via Facebook Wednesday after his wins. "Thanks everybody for all your votes," he said. "I'm truly humbled and honored. It's a wonderful way to say goodbye to a wonderful time of my life. You're the best."

It was a banner night for the now-cancelled OLTL, with 10 victories in all. The series won its third Hunkiest Soap trophy.

Fumero, whose win for Best Arms in last year's awards was actually a frequent point of parody throughout 2011, repeated his win in that category and made him the only nominee to send Gregory to a loss this year. Fumero also won the Best Voice prize--the first time in that award's six-year history that it wasn't won by James Scott.

OLTL also pulled wins for co-stars Nic Robuck (Best Face, for the second year in a row) and newcomer Andrew Trischitta (Best Hair).

Other soaps did manage to pull out some wins. B&B saw all-time wins leader Brandon Beemer win Most Shamefully Clothed honors, as well as Best Eyes for a record 6th consecutive year. His co-star, Scott Clifton, won Best Smile.

Though sidelined in many other races, DAYS did claim two victories in two major categories. Eric Martsolf won Best Hunk Over 40 in his first year of eligibility, while Aussie Bren Foster won Hunkiest Newcomer.

Former GH star Greg Vaughan repeated his win for Most Missed Soap Hunk, just as Jonathan Jackson is departing that role. (Hint hint, GH!)

Complete voting results can be viewed at the Soaphunks.net Award archive.

Gregory wins 5 Soaphunks.net Awards as OLTL leads way

In an overall strong showing for ABC's One Life to Live, newcomer David A. Gregory won five awards, including Best Hunk, when the 12th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards were announced live Wednesday.

It's only the second time that a soap freshman has won the site's top award, following co-star his Mark Lawson's 2008 feat. Gregory also converted wins for Hunkiest Newcomer, Best Torso, Best Pecs, and Best Butt.

Hearing about his wins, Gregory offered his Facebook followers thanks and indicated he was grateful to his fans and quite flattered. His five wins tied the record for most wins in a single year. 

OLTL won for the second time as Hunkiest Soap, and Gregory's on-screen brother--fellow newcomer Nicolas Robuck--won Best Face. David Fumero, a two-time Best Hunk winner himself, won his first Soaphunks.net Award in six years with a victory for Best Arms. The win marked Fumero's seventh career win.

Last year's Best Hunk winner, B&B's Brandon Beemer, registered two more trophies for Best Abs and Best Eyes. Those are his fifth consecutive wins in both categories, and they put him in first place all-time for career wins, with 15. DAYS' James Scott, the winner for Best Voice, is right behind with 14 career wins.

GH's Steve Burton won Best Hunk Over 40 in his first year of eligibility, while former co-star Greg Vaughan achieved the night's most dominant win as Most Missed Soap Hunk, with over 45% of the vote in that race.

Other winners: DAYS' Shawn Christian (Most Shamefully Clothed) and Eric Martsolf (Best Smile) and B&B's Zack Conroy (Best Hair).

Voters continued the drought for GH's Tyler Christopher, who now is 0-for-13.

Complete voting results can be viewed at the Soaphunks.net Award archive.

David A. Gregory, OLTL lead 12th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations

With a near-record seven nods, OLTL breakout sensation David A. Gregory led all nominees Wednesday as the 12th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations were announced live at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Gregory placed in the top category--Best Hunk--along with B&B's Brandon Beemer, OLTL's David Fumero, DAYS' Eric Martsolf, and GH's Brandon Barash.

Beemer won Best Hunk last year, while Fumero won in both 2001 & 2002. Beemer is now the only person to be nominated for the top award in four consecutive years, while Fumero's mention ties the record for most Best Hunk nominations ever with five. This is Martsolf's third career Best Hunk nod, and Barash's debut appearance here marks GH's first inclusion in the top category since 2005.

A total of 38 soap hunks received nominations this year, down one from 2009 but still among the most ever. With 25 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the third consecutive year, helping ABC lead the networks with 41 nominations. CBS scored 20 nods, with NBC right behind with 19.

Other points of interest:

• As the world stopped turning for ATWT this year, so did its luck with the Soaphunks.net Awards, placing in only two categories: Best Butt for Billy Magnussen and Most Missed Soap Hunk for Austin Peck. ATWT finishes with a total of 64 nominations and (thus far) 12 wins.
• For the first time in awards history, one soap has managed to claim four of the five available spots in a category. The Best Arms race this year pits OLTL's Fumero, Gregory, Mark Lawson, and Max Tapper all in the same category.
• After 2009 finally saw wins for perennial bridesmaids Thad Luckinbill and Shemar Moore of Y&R, now GH's Tyler Christopher widens his stance in the role of the Soaphunks.net Susan Lucci. Christopher's Best Arms nomination is his lucky 13th with no wins.
• For the first year in Soaphunks.net Awards history, AMC's Cameron Mathison was not nominated in any category. Mathison had placed in at least one category every year since the first awards in 1999. Still, the former Best Hunk winner holds the all-time record for most nominations with a whopping 37.

The entire list of nominations can be streamed online, while the text version is also available. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

As always, voting begins December 1 at soaphunks.net.

Beemer beaming as TV Guide Canada's 2010 Sexiest Man Alive

Well, Nelson Branco confirmed what we already knew. B&B's Brandon Beemer is a hunk! This site's 2009 Best Hunk was recently named TV Guide Canada's Sexiest Man alive for 2010.

Says Beemer, about the tough job he has being so sexy, "Let me tell you, when you’re standing on set with a fig leaf around your crotch, basically naked and exposed, life isn’t easy, it’s tough!"

Kudos to Nelson Branco for making a wise decision. You can check out the entire TV Guide Interview with Brandon here.

Beemer, DAYS sweep 11th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards

A clean sweep for Brandon Beemer gave the B&B stud his first win as Best Hunk in the 11th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards, announced live Wednesday.

Beemer won all five categories in which he was nominated. In addition to the top award, he also won trophies for Best Pecs, Best Abs, Best Butt, and Best Eyes. The abs & eyes awards are his fourth consecutive wins in both of those categories.

Hearing about his wins, a wry Beemer told TVGuide Canada's Nelson Branco, "It's extremely flattering. Soap fans are so loyal. I was very impressed with the voter turnout because my competition was, um, stiff. As long as I make people happy, especially in these dark times, I'll continue to take my shirt off while acting my heart out."

Aside from Beemer's wins, everything else went to Sony's soaps, DAYS and Y&R. The well-organized DAYS voting bloc, in particular, managed a first-ever shutout of nominations leader ABC. (ABC voters managed a reverse rout in 2005.)

DAYS claimed the Hunkiest Soap title for the sixth time and saw five of its stars win individual awards: Shawn Christian (Best Hunk Over 40 & Best Arms), Mark Hapka (Hunkiest Newcomer & Best Face), Eric Martsolf (Best Chest), Galen Gering (his fourth Best Hair win) and James Scott (Best Smile & Best Voice).

The wins for Scott and Beemer moved both into a tie for the most Soaphunks.net Awards ever. Each actor has a career 13 wins from 18 nominations.

Voters also ended the staggering droughts of two Y&R hunks this year as Thad Luckinbill & Shemar Moore both won their first awards. Luckinbill's win as Most Shamefully Clothed was his first in 18 nominations (a record). Memo to Y&R: Get Luckinbill naked now! Moore's win as Most Missed Soap Hunk was his first in 13 attempts and was no doubt aided by Darius McCrary's recent casting as Malcolm Winters.

Those wins now move GH's Tyler Christopher into the role of the Soaphunks.net Susan Lucci, as now he holds 12 career nominations but no wins.

Complete voting results can be viewed at the Soaphunks.net Award archive.

11th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards: Polls open!

It's December 1st, so voting for the 11th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards officially started at midnight ET. You can access the ballot at soaphunks.net/vote.

As always, we have gone to great lengths to provide evidence for each nomination to help make you a more informed voter. "Review the Evidence" links are all over the ballot. Click them before voting! This is one ballot that you will want to spend some time on!

And as usual, in the top category of Best Hunk, we have For Your Consideration videos of all of the five nominees' hunky achievements from 2009. Behold the beauty, then go vote!

11th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards announced!

With six nods each, DAYS' Shawn Christian and OLTL's Mark Lawson led all nominees Wednesday as the 11th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations were announced live at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Both Christian and Lawson placed in the top category, Best Hunk, along with B&B's Brandon Beemer, OLTL's David Fumero, and Y&R's Daniel Goddard.

Lawson won Best Hunk last year, while Fumero won in both 2001 & 2002. Beemer is now only the third person to be nominated for the top award in three consecutive years. This is Christian's second career Best Hunk nod, and Goddard's debut appearance here marks Y&R's first inclusion in the top category since 2005.

A total of 39 soap hunks received nominations this year, a tie for the second-most ever. With 18 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the second consecutive year, helping ABC lead the
networks with 33 nominations. CBS scored 28 nods, and NBC nabbed 19.

Other points of interest:

• The good news for CBS: B&B once again broke its own record for nominations, with nine nods spread amongst Beemer, Don Diamont (scoring his 26th career mention), Texas Battle, and Rick Hearst. Similarly, sister soap Y&R had its second-best year ever, with 14 nominations. (The CBS flagship soap received 17 nominations in 2000.)


• The bad news for CBS: ATWT posted its worst showing in six years, scoring only three nominations. What's worse: the de-hunkified sudser saw all three of those nods (Van Hansis, Billy Magnussen, & Jake Silbermann) in the Most Shamefully Clothed Category. Memo to ATWT's powers-that-be: Shirts! Off! More!

• The nominations for Murray Bartlett and Lawrence St. Victor mark the final nods for GL, bringing its series total to 28 nominations...and no wins.

• Will you guys ever give the boy a trophy? The Soaphunks.net Susan Lucci, Y&R's Thad Luckinbill, is back with two more nominations, extending his unfortunate lead in the no-wins race, with 18 career nominations but no wins.


• AMC's Cameron Mathison, suddenly finding himself eligible for Best Hunk Over 40 honors, picked up two more nominations this year, widening his lead as the most nominated soap hunk ever, with 37 career nominations.

The entire list of nominations can be streamed online, while the text version is also available. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

As always, voting begins December 1 at soaphunks.net.

OLTL's Mark Lawson wins Best Hunk

OLTL's Mark Lawson won the 2008 Best Hunk award Thursday night as the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award winners were announced, marking the first time in history that a newcomer has won the top award in his freshman year. Of his leading (and record-tying) eight nominations, Lawson also won the awards for Hunkiest Newcomer and Best Chest.

Also winning three trophies was B&B's Brandon Beemer, who won all of his categories except the top one. Beemer took Best Pecs, Best Abs, and Best Eyes, meaning he repeated all of his wins from 2007 while on DAYS. Beemer's wins in 2008 mark the first awards in history for B&B, which finally scored after receiving 28 total nominations.

Lawson and Beemer were the only soap hunks to win more than one trophy in 2008.

OLTL was named the year's Hunkiest Soap, the first time that sudser has won that award after six tries. It was only the second time ever that an ABC soap won Hunkiest Soap, following AMC's win in 2005.

In his first year ever as a nominee, classic soap hunk Shawn Christian of DAYS won for Best Hunk Over 40, meaning that for the first time, a single soap has now produced a winner in every single category of the Soaphunks.net Awards, as DAYS claimed a prize in the only category in which it was lacking a win.

DAYS also took the award for Most Missed Soap Hunk for its alum (and 2003 Best Hunk winner) Eric Winter. Winter has logged appearances on several primetime series this year, and he also won this category last year.

In a somewhat amazing turn of events, DAYS' James Scott, the Best Hunk winner the past two years, only converted one of his three nominations into a win in 2008. Scott easily won again for Best Voice, three-peating in a category that only he has won since its debut in 2006. Scott may have only nabbed one win this year, but one was enough to tie him with AMC's Cameron Mathison for the most Soaphunks.net Award wins ever, with 11 each.

In the narrowest margin of victory in Soaphunks.net Award history, ATWT's Van Hansis won Best Butt by one vote over Y&R's Joshua Morrow (22.73% to 22.59%). Similarly, OLTL's John-Paul Lavoisier eked out a razor-thin win for Best Hair over PAS' three-time champ Galen Gering (28.04% to 27.90%). The win was Lavoisier's first since 2002. Gering's narrow loss also meant that PAS would officially finish its awards run with no new wins, giving it a series total of 96 nominations and 22 wins.

GH scored a trophy for three of its hunks. Two-time Adonis runner-up and 2005 Best Hunk winner Greg Vaughan upset James Scott to win Most Shamefully Clothed for the second time. His co-star Steve Burton flexed his muscles in the Best Arms category with his second career win, following a victory for Best Pecs in 2003. Jason Thompson won Best Smile, an award he previously won in 2006.

Thompson fell in his other category, Best Face, to ATWT's now-fired Dylan Bruce. Bruce's win marks the first time that a CBS actor has won in that category.

Overall, OLTL won a leading five awards, followed by B&B, DAYS, and GH with three each. ATWT won two, while AMC, GL, PAS, and Y&R were shut out.

Among networks, ABC had eight wins, with CBS taking five and NBC three.

And yes, once again, Y&R's Thad Luckinbill went home empty-handed. His two losses leave him with 16 career nominations and no wins.

For the complete race-by-race results this year, visit http://soaphunks.net/awards-year.php?year=2008.

The polls are open!

It's December 1st, so voting for the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards officially started at midnight ET. You can access the ballot at soaphunks.net/vote.

As has been the case the last few years, we have bent over backwards to provide evidence for each nomination to help make you a more informed voter. "Review the Evidence" links are all over the ballot. Click them before voting!

And as usual, in the top category of Best Hunk, we have For Your Consideration videos of all of the five nominees' hunkitude from 2008. Behold the beauty, then go vote!

10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award Nominations Announced!

OLTL newcomer Mark Lawson scored a record-tying eight nods Wednesday as the 10th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations were unveiled at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Lawson's eight nominations include the top category, Best Hunk, and tie him with Mark Collier's record-setting number of mentions from 2004.

Also up for Best Hunk and scoring four nominations each were B&B's Brandon Beemer, DAYS' Shawn Christian, OLTL's John-Paul Lavoisier, and PASSIONS' Eric Martsolf, who helped that now-cancelled soap to its final haul of eight total nominations, for a series total of 96 nominations.

Christian's nod marks the first time in awards history that a contender for Best Hunk Over 40 also landed in the overall top category. Beemer, Lavoisier, and Martsolf each have one
previous Best Hunk nomination, though none of them has ever won it. Beemer is the only nominee to have also been in the top category last year.

DAYS' James Scott, who won Best Hunk in 2006 and 2007, in addition to summertime Adonis titles both years, was left out of the race this year, though he did score three other mentions,
including Best Chest and Most Shamefully Clothed. (His relative lack of onscreen shirtlessness in 2008 was to blame.)

A total of 42 soap hunks received nominations this year, five more than in 2006 or 2007. With 20 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the first time in history, helping ABC lead the
networks with 33 nominations. (ABC was in last place in 2007 on that count.) CBS scored 28 nods, and NBC nabbed 11. DirecTV's network The 101, which aired the final season of
PASSIONS after it left NBC, got credit for that show's eight nominations in 2008.

Other points of interest:

• B&B had its best year ever in the nominations, thanks to strong showings by Beemer and newcomer Texas Battle. The show managed seven nominations.


• ATWT's Jon Prescott scored a Hunkiest Newcomer nomination, despite the fact that he has already been released from the sudser. Perhaps even more noteworthy was the strong showing of his former co-star, Dylan Bruce. He has also been let go from the soap, but managed four total nominations, tying him for second place this year.


• The two nominations for Y&R's Thad Luckinbill (Best Hair & Most Shamefully Clothed) extend his unfortunate lead in the no-wins race, with 16 career nominations but no trophies.


• GL crashed and burned this year, scoring a worst-ever single nomination (Murray Bartlett for Best Voice).
  
• Like it or not, the absence of James Scott (and GH's Greg Vaughan) in the Best Hunk category sets up the most unpredictable Best Hunk race in years.

The entire list of nominations can be streamed online, while the text version is also available. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

As always, voting begins December 1 at soaphunks.net.

Michael Fairman interviews the hunks...and gives us a shout-out

Even though I thought you guys should have beeen checking out Michael Fairman's great soap interview site already, now I really do! :)

In the past couple of weeks, Fairman has debuted interviews with two of daytime's hottest current hunks: two-time Adonis winner James Scott from DAYS and five-time Soaphunks.net Award winner Brandon Beemer of B&B.

In addition to being great reads on regular soap level, Fairman also pumps Beemer for workout info and generally asks all about what it's like being so damned hunky. And in Scott's interview, hear why he hates having his photo taken (sacrilege!) and look for Fairman's shout-out to soaphunks.net...thanks, Michael!

• Michael Fairman's Interview with James Scott
• Michael Fairman's Interview with Brandon Beemer

Beemer beams to B&B

The rumors are true, and recent DAYS cast-off Brandon Beemer is set to join B&B later this month in an as-yet-unnamed role. Whispers had been circulating online ever since the actor's DAYS departure that he might be headed to either B&B or OLTL. The length of Beemer's stay is also unclear at this time.

Beemer has been a very popular feature at soaphunks.net since his debut, racking up 9 Soaphunks.net Award nominations and 5 wins, plus a 6th place finish in Adonis 2007.

DAYS writing out Brandon Beemer

Breaking (and shocking) news: DAYS is writing out the core characters of Shawn and Belle, leaving successful recasts Brandon Beemer and Martha Madison out of a job. Their dismissal has been a shock to DAYS fans everywhere. The pair will tape through March.

In less than a two year period, Beemer managed a 6th place finish in Adonis 2007 and won 5 Soaphunks.net Awards.

9th Annual Soaphunks.net Award Nominations Announced!

The nominations for the 9th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards were unveiled today at soaphunks.net. 16 categories, 80 nominations, and limitless soaphunkery!

Check out the Flash nominations show here, or just refer to the text list here. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

Matching last year's number, a total of 37 soap hunks were recognized this year. DAYS led all shows with 17 nominations, and CBS & NBC tied for the network lead with 28 noms each. This is the first year that CBS has ever been in the lead; ABC had 24 nods.

DAYS' Brandon Beemer & Marcus Patrick tied with PASSIONS' Adrian Bellani for the individual nominations lead, with 6 nods each.

The Best Hunk nominations went to Beemer and Bellani, as well as AMC's Cameron Mathison, ATWT's Austin Peck, and DAYS' James Scott. The latter three are all former winners in that top category.

As always, voting begins December 1 and runs about three weeks into the month.