Executive producer Michael Gelman thinks more than 4 million viewers each day can’t be wrong.

He hopes to end “Live With Regis and Kelly’s” Susan Lucci-ish string of Daytime Emmy nominations without a win as best talk show by competing in the new morning show category to be awarded this year.

“America is voting that we have a great show,” Mr. Gelman said.

He has a theory about why members of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences have denied the show the Emmy.

“They’re looking for perfection. Well, our show isn’t about perfection,” Mr. Gelman said. “It’s about live. Those two things don’t always go together. When you’ve a live show it’s about being in the moment, reacting to what’s going on. I think we do that terrifically.”

NATAS sponsors the Daytime Emmy Awards. Last week the organization revealed this year’s nominees—except for the morning show candidates, which will be announced mid-April.

The criteria for the new category include reaching a national audience, originating live and dealing with a variety of subjects. A win would recognize both hosts and show.

Still to be decided is whether to include the category in the ceremony that will be broadcast live from Los Angeles on CBS June 15, or in the non-televised ceremony to take place a week earlier.

“The View” also qualified as a morning show, but has won the talk show category and chose to stick with submitting in that category.

Also eligible for the morning show award: the broadcast network and cable news morning shows, including “Imus in the Morning,” which is telecast live on MSNBC. “Imus” has not entered, sources said.

Shows that have entered include ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “The Early Show” on CBS, NBC’s “Today,” CNN’s “American Morning” and Univision’s “Despierta America.”

Fox News Channel, which abstains from contests, did not enter “Fox & Friends.”

For Mr. Gelman, the decision to vie for morning show honors was simple. “The academy has decided we’re not the talk show they want to win,” he said. “This may be the category we were meant to win. There’s no shame in competing against those other morning shows, which I think are of a good quality.

“Obviously, we’re not doing too many live remotes from Saigon, but they’re also not doing host chat. They also aren’t doing the snow-go wheel dropping down with all kinds of fun and people dancing. So I said why not? Give it a shot.” ?