Last night on June 27, 2010, CBS aired the Daytime Emmy Awards hosted by Regis Philbin. The show was two hours in length, and seemed to be barely about daytime television. Many people were irate watching the broadcast as it was more about celebrating the best of Las Vegas than any genre of daytime television.
Unlike recent years there was no red carpet on television, which was disappointing. There were no clips with audio of nominated performers either. We saw The Lion King and Blue Man Group, we saw information on a hotel. We saw David Copperfield (whom I vaguely remember as that magician guy) bring out Regis Philbin. We saw David Letterman make fun of Regis via a taped top ten list. Dick Clark was honored for American Bandstand, a show I barely remember, that I primarily saw on VH1 as they edited episodes for broadcast back in the 90s. I know Dick Clark from game shows, the blooper show, his production company and New Year’s Eve. Having Ryan Seacrest introduce the segment at least gave younger viewers a bit of a clue. Of everything during the broadcast, the only segment that seemed long was this one on Dick Clark though I did appreciate how touched he was by the tribute.
Watching this show, I wondered what year was this airing, and what age group were they targeting. I felt confused by many of the vocal performers and wasn’t all that familiar with many of them like The Spinners or Tony Orlando. What I do wonder is what happened to the awards for children’s shows. Yes people weren’t happy with the length of the Sesame Street tribute last year, but this year there were no kid shows, which was just strange. I still miss the in memoriam segment, as that is the one thing they have eliminated that I wish was still included in the broadcast. Considering the amount of musical guests available in Las Vegas, it wouldn’t have been difficult to have someone come out and sing while clips of late daytime alumni appeared behind them.
The winners of Daytime Emmys for soap operas were pretty much from the shows I follow the least. I don’t watch As the World Turns or The Bold and the Beautiful regularly as neither is on Soapnet. The soap awards were predominated by CBS. NBC was shut out again, and ABC’s General Hospital only got two awards.
The winners were the following:
Best Show: B&B (for scenes having to do with the death of Ann played by Betty White)
Best Writing: B&B (ditto)
Best Directing: GH (the carnival) was Cirque du Soleil performing a hint that the carnival would win or just a coincidence?
Best Actress: Maura West (ATWT)
Best Actor: Michael Park (ATWT)
Supporting Actress: Julie Pinson (ATWT)
Supporting Actor: Billy Miller (Y&R)
Younger Actress: Julie Berman (GH)
Younger Actor: Drew Tyler Bell (B&B)
Lifetime Achievement Award: Agnes Nixon (soap creator, soap writer)
Best Game Show & Game Show Host: Cash Cab and its host Ben Bailey
Best Talk Show Entertainment: Ellen DeGeneres Show
Best Talk Show Informative: The Doctors
Best Talk Show Host: Dr. Oz
Since this is the last full year that As the World Turns has eligibility for acting awards, seeing their show bring home three awards was nice for them. Maura West won an Emmy before in 2007, but Park and Pinson were first time recipients. Seeing Maura’s daughter come on stage and her husband in the audience with them was cool. Julie Pinson thanking Barbara Bloom was appropriate even if she is the head of CBS daytime, and ATWT was canceled on her watch. Bloom gave Pinson her job on Port Charles as Dr. Eve Lambert. Billy Miller mentioned his old stomping grounds of All My Children, though he won for The Young & the Restless. His episode was focused upon his character of Billy Abbott, as it was a special holiday show. Like many before her, Julie Berman pulled off a repeat, and Drew Tyler Bell, the one person in the younger actor category who may still play his part, won. Days of Our Lives, Guiding Light, All My Children, and One Life to Live were shut out in the main categories this year. As this is the last time, anyone from GL could win, I can understand why some were disappointed no one from that late show received an award.
Brad Bell was able to finish both of his speeches this year. That was appreciated and the credits began at 10:58 pm. Scott McKinsey spoke for the GH directing team as it was his episode that was used as a submission. He mentioned his mom, the last soap actress Beverlee McKinsey (who was famous for her work on P&G shows Another World, Texas and Guiding Light), thanked P&G, and did a shout out to As the World Turns and Guiding Light (where he first started directing soaps). Even with all of my issues with P&G for more than a decade (meaning prior to Another World ending), without them, the daytime soaps of the recent past and present would have never existed. All of the American soaps currently on the air or recently cancelled were created by former P&G employees.
The Daytime Gives Back segment returned, so hello Montel Williams. And this year they went to see people who lived in the United States. Yes people are poor in the US, and they need help too. Since, Ryan was on earlier in the show, my mind returned to Idol Gives Back and how they helped people within the US and in Africa.
The “As the World Turns” montage was extremely short. I am glad they had some sort of tribute though; I do wish it had been extended. I preferred this montage to what was done for Guiding Light last year, even if theirs was slightly longer. The ATWT montage wasn’t hyped and perhaps that also clouds my view. That and how while some people were missing from the ATWT clip, it seemed like they had more footage that aired on the program before its last year.
The Agnes Nixon tribute was good, but short. Agnes seemed overwhelmed standing on the stage next to Susan Lucci. It was mentioned how she was wrote for or created many shows. While they showed the logo for The City, they did not mention Loving, which it was spun off from and Agnes created. Agnes created Loving, The City, One Life to Live and All My Children. She also wrote for Guiding Light, As the World Turns and Another World. They showed clips of Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser, Darnell Williams, Debbi Morgan, Cameron Matheson, among others talking about Agnes, and also video from famous stories like Cindy has AIDS and Bianca coming out to her family.
Like every year, many weren’t happy about the Daytime Emmy broadcast. To say that people criticized the Daytime Emmy broadcast is an understatement. If this was the last year, it is too bad that it goes out in a year when it was less about daytime and more about Las Vegas. Hopefully the winners enjoyed their awards and those in attendance enjoyed the parties.
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