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.)