The year 2000 had many highs according to the results of this year's ATWT Online Awards. Fans of the show voted in a variety of categories over the past month, choosing the top performers, storylines and favorite characters, among other categories.
The Dankies, as the awards are known, showed no clear-cut winner. Three performers grabbed two awards apiece, making them the most-honored in this year's awards.
Another World refugee Tom Eplin (Jake McKinnon) was named Outstanding Leading Actor, garnering over half of the total votes cast. Another newcomer, Hunt Block (Craig Montgomery), finished fourth behind Jon Hensley (Holden Snyder) and Michael Park (Jack Snyder).
By an even larger margin than her male counterpart, Martha Byrne (Lily Snyder and Rose D'Angelo) easily cruised to the Outstanding Leading Actress title. Maura West (Carly Tenney) came in a distant second with just 16% of the vote.
Actress Terri Conn (Katie Peretti Fraiser) walked away with the Outstanding Supporting Actress award. Conn also squeaked out a win in the Outstanding Younger Performer category, where she edged out Kristina Sisco (Abigail Williams) for the award.
The Outstanding Supporting Actor category was a horse race with a photo finish. Paul Taylor (Isaac Jenkins) edged Trent Dawson (Henry Coleman) by just two votes. Those two votes gave Taylor a one-percentage point victory over Dawson.
Craig Montgomery, who finished last in the Outstanding Leading Actor field, did manage to pull in one win. The actor won Outstanding Newcomer, a field in which Supporting Actor winner Paul Taylor also ran.
Jon Hensley and Leslie Kay (Molly Conlan) were named the most attractive performers on As The World Turns. Kay's victory was by a pretty safe margin, but the men ended in a near dead heat. Just four percentage points separated first from fourth place among the men. Hensley's squeaker came by less than fifteen votes over Michael Park and Paul Leyden (Simon Frasier) and by 31 votes over Tom Eplin.
Terri Conn's award-winning performance also helped power her plotline to Favorite Storyline status. "Comeuppance," as we dubbed it, a storyline in which Katie's dirty deeds were aired on videotape at an awards banquet, topped Vicky's ghostly return as the top storyline of the year. Additionally, the moment in which the tape played was named the Most Memorable Moment.
The Least Favorite Storyline category went down to the wire. In the end, "Castaways," Lily and Simon's desert island antics, edged Andy's faked paralysis saga.
Jake McKinnon earned top honors as the Favorite Character while Lisa Brown (Iva Snyder Benedict) picked up the award for Most Missed Performer. Brown makes occasional appearances, but fans are clearly looking for a more permanent return.
In the Outstanding Overall Performer category, each of the nominees in the Outstanding Leading Actor and Actress and Outstanding Supporting Actor and Actress categories were placed in a single category. Voters were then asked to pick one of those performers that turned in the best overall performance in the past twelve months.
Martha Byrne's double duty as Lily Snyder and Rose D'Angelo helped power her to an easy win in the Overall Performer category. The Emmy winning actress raked in 43% of the total vote. Tom Eplin finished second with 21% of the vote and Maura West finished third with 9%.
All of this year's ATWT Online Dankies winners will now be entered in a final ballot contest with the winners of the other nine current soaps' winners to determine the best of the best of soap opera 2000.
