When Eric Forrester (John McCook) had a miraculous Christmas miracle of a recovery on The Bold and the Beautiful in December 2023, it was enough to make fans jump for joy. Not only did it mean that Eric wasn’t going to die, it also meant that the culmination of the story played out within the 2024 Daytime Emmy Award nomination window. That’s why McCook is not only nominated for an award, it’s why he should win, too.
McCook is nominated for Lead Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actor and he really deserves a win as Eric Forrester confronted his mortality. The Forrester patriarch noticed tremors in his hands that prevented him from sketching, so he called upon his grandson, RJ (Joshua Hoffman), to help him design. While he didn’t have a diagnosis in the beginning, his instincts told him that this would be his grand finale line so he had to make it special.
RJ and his longtime love, Donna (Jennifer Gareis), were sworn to secrecy about his condition but eventually his family found out about it and they were acting like everything was normal even though they knew he was dying. Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) even threw the results of the fashion challenge to give the honor to his father.
From when he first started showing symptoms to the heartwarming moments when Eric and RJ bonded over designing, and even when he collapsed at the party and ended up at the hospital in a coma, it was hard not to be overcome with emotion seeing the family patriarch struggling so much.
There are soaps fans who talk about how the characters become their “friends” after years and years of tuning in every day. Seeing beloved characters going through struggles is always hard, but watching them march slowly towards death’s door is excruciating, especially during the holiday season. As a relatively new viewer, I watched Eric’s decline and was reminded of the pain of losing my mother during the holiday season.
John McCook’s ability to show Eric’s vulnerability alone makes him worthy of an award. As his condition progressed, Eric’s frustration evolved from concern to, ultimately, resignation of his fate. Thankfully, a combination of his grandson-in-law’s research, divine intervention from his dear departed wife and a true Christmas miracle brought Eric back to life.
Near-death stories are a dime a dozen in soaps, but Eric Forrester’s journey in 2023 was compelling and gut-wrenching, and it’s one of the many reasons John McCook deserves a 2024 Daytime Emmy.
The 2024 Daytime Emmys take place Friday, June 7, at 5 pm ET/8 pm PT on CBS. Paramount Plus with Showtime subscribers can stream the awards live on their local CBS affiliate station; other Paramount tier subscribers can stream the awards the following day.
