Kevin Clash, former Elmo puppeteer, is back in spotlight with four Daytime Emmy nominations

The Daytime Emmy nominations were announced earlier this week and while CBS basked in the spotlight after receiving 50 nominations, it brought back one big name back into the headlines: Kevin Clash. The former Elmo puppeteer, who was forced to resign from Sesame Street last fall after allegations of sex with underage boys surfaced, was nominated for four awards.

Clash was nominated for the Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series for his role as Elmo in the long-running PBS series and will compete with two other Sesame Street performers and Jeff Corwin for the award. He is also a member of the directing team for Sesame Street that was nominated for outstanding directing and is credited as co-executive producer, which means that he will win an Emmy if the show wins Outstanding Pre-School Children’s Series.

He was also an executive producer on the PBS program Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce, which was nominated in the Outstanding New Approaches - Enhancement to a Daytime Program or Series category.

Clash’s troubles began in November when he was first accused of having sex with a boy when the boy was just 16-years-old. While that first accuser eventually recanted and settled, he later regretted recanting. There were other accusers who surfaced and Clash eventually resigned from the show. Recently, his lawyer said that these accusers could not sue because the statute of limitations expired.

“Kevin Clash has helped us achieve that mission for 28 years, and none of us, especially Kevin, want anything to divert our attention from our focus on serving as a leading educational organization,” Sesame Workshop said in a statement in November. “Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding Kevin’s personal life has become a distraction that none of us want, and he has concluded that he can no longer be effective in his job and has resigned from Sesame Street. This is a sad day for Sesame Street.”

The Daytime Emmys will be presented on June 16 in Los Angeles. The ceremony will air on HLN.

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on your website.

Learn more about debugging in WordPress.