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.

Y&R's Dapper leads nominees for 14th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards

Y&R hottie Marco Dapper landed seven nominations to lead the pack in the 14th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations, announced Wednesday at soaphunks.net. 79 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

It is the first time a Y&R actor has held the yearly nominations lead.

One of Dapper's nods came in the top category — Best Hunk —along with B&B's Scott Clifton & Adam Gregory and DAYS' Shawn Christian & Eric Martsolf. Gregory, Christian, and Martsolf have six previous Best Hunk nominations between them, but none has ever won the top prize.

Christian, Gregory and Martsolf each received five nods, as did DAYS' Chandler Massey. Clifton got four total nominations.

A total of 33 soap hunks received nominations this year. With 28 nominations, DAYS led all shows for the first time in four years, though it was CBS that led the networks with 32 nominations. NBC scored 29 nods, with ABC at 18.

Other points of interest:

• With his five nominations this year, DAYS' Eric Martsolf passes B&B's Don Diamont for the second-most total nominations all-time with 33. Diamont's two 2012 nominations give him a lifetime total of 32. (AMC's Cameron Mathison remains in first place with 38.)
• The Best Voice nomination for Y&R's Daniel Goddard ties the Aussie actor with GH's Tyler Christopher for an unfortunate record: most nominations without any wins.
• After having won the award for Most Missed Soap Hunk the past two years, DAYS' just-debuted Greg Vaughan turned his one week of eligibility this year into a nomination for Best Face, the 18th nomination of his career.
• The good news for GH's Erik Valdez and DAYS' Schuyler Yancey is that both were nominated as Hunkiest Newcomer. The bad news is that both have already received walking papers from their respective shows. A third nominee, GH's Nathin Butler, was killed off earlier this fall.
• With four of the five nominees in the Best Face category, DAYS becomes the first soap to accomplish that feat since OLTL landed four hunks in the Best Arms race in 2010.
• GH's Drew Cheetwood, who has recurred on the soap since 2006, finally stripped down in 2012, and his first Soaphunks.net Award nomination followed (Best Arms).

The entire list of nominations is available online. A complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

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

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.

More Martsolf laughs

Adorable Eric Martsolf is sure making the Internet rounds. Check out the DAYS hunk below in "2 Hot Guys in the Shower." My only complaint is that the camera could have panned down just a bit. ;)

DAYS' Martsolf strips down for laughs

DAYS' Eric Martsolf shows off his considerable talents for comedy, singing, and shirtlessness in this parody trailer for the would-be summer blockbuster, "Poly-Sci Model: The Musical."

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.

Hunky Martsolf embraces shirtlessness

In Michael Fairman's latest column, DAYS and ex-PASSIONS soap stud Eric Martsolf discusses his lack of a problem (thank heavens) with his characters' frequent shirt-shucking. A very cute interview...plus, an Adonis shout-out!

Check it out here.

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.

Passions hunks headed to DAYS

DAYS has scored a double-sided casting coup, scooping up two of the most popular hunks from the now-cancelled PASSIONS.

Daytime Confidential is reporting that Soaphunks.net Award winner and Adonis 2006 Eric Martsolf has been named as the recast for Brady Black, a role that was made famous by Kyle Lowder, now on B&B.

Also nabbed for a Salem stint was four-time Soaphunks.net Award winner Galen Gering. Less information is available about Gering's character at this time, although he is slated to play an FBI agent who has involvement with Nicole (Arianne Zucker).

Both of these actors are known, of course, for extreme bouts of shirtlessness.

Okay DAYS, this is really good news. Now just scoop up Adrian Bellani and complete the trifecta!

Own a piece of 'Passions'

Passions, the supernatural sudser that had a small but devoted following and which showcased its hunks unlike any other soap, will have its official last airing on Aug. 11 on DirecTV.

In sort of a fire sale mentality, more than 750 costumes and props from the series will be auctioned off online on Aug. 9, via icollector.com, eBay, and Premiere Props. Items up for sale include several shirts worn by Adonis 2006 winner Eric Martsolf, although I don't recall ever seeing the stud wear a shirt during his entire run in Harmony. Check out the entire list of items here, and get registered to buy here.

Passions, we'll miss you here at soaphunks.net. For those keeping score, the former NBC sudser amassed 88 Soaphunks.net Award nominations and 22 wins during its run. (And, yes, it is still eligible for more during the 2008 awards this December.)

Eric Martsolf just can't vote for himself

Ah, a man with standards! Adonis 2007 finalist (and 2006 winner) Eric Martsolf from Passions just feels like he can't vote for himself. (Martsolf's hunky co-star and co-finalist Adrian Bellani doesn't have such hangups!)

No word on James Scott's voting ethics was available at press time. :)