Last night (Saturday, June 23, 2012), the 39th Annual Daytime Emmys aired on HLN. Here are my thoughts on the broadcast, which started at 8 PM EDT and ended about 10:08 PM EDT. Prior to this, HLN had a Showbiz Tonight Special on Friday night, and a red carpet show immediately before the awards. On Sunday night, they are rebroadcasting, the red carpet show once, and the actual awards twice.
While the Daytime Emmys were low-key this year, it was not an advertisement for the tourism board of Las Vegas. I also appreciated that we got some sort of red carpet show. Unlike most red carpet shows, there was little talk of what people were wearing, which is a main reason to watch one of these programs. I'm a girl, I like clothes, and want to know what people are wearing even if it is a bit shallow.
Unlike other Daytime Emmy broadcasts, the awards were not given out in the standard order, as the best actor award was first (and it tends to be at the end of the night) and the second to last award was for younger actresses. They did end the night with best daytime drama, which was odd considering back on May 30th, HLN stated that the best talk show competition between Good Morning America and Today would be featured. Then again perhaps enough of us complained and they changed their minds.
Here is the list of the winners for a full list including who was nominated visit Gold Derby.
• Outstanding Drama Series: General Hospital, ABC
• Outstanding Children's Animated Program: Penguins Of Madagascar, Nickelodeon
• Outstanding Culinary Program: Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction, Food Network
• Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show: Jeopardy, Syndicated
• Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program: Last Shot with Judge Gunn, Syndicated
• Outstanding Morning Program: Today Show, NBC
• Outstanding Talk Show/Entertainment: Live! With Regis & Kelly, Syndicated
• Outstanding Talk Show/Informative: The Dr. Oz Show, Syndicated
• Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series: Heather Tom, The Bold and the Beautiful, CBS
• Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series: Anthony Geary, General Hospital, ABC
• Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series: Nancy Lee Grahn, General Hospital, ABC
• Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series: Jonathan Jackson, General Hospital, ABC
• Outstanding Younger Actress In A Drama Series: Christel Khalil, The Young And The Restless, CBS
• Outstanding Younger Actor In A Drama Series: Chandler Massey, Days Of Our Lives, NBC
• Outstanding Game Show Host: Todd Newton, Family Game Night, The Hub
• Outstanding Lifestyle/Culinary Host: Sandra Lee, Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee, Food Network
• Outstanding Talk Show Host: Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, Live! With Regis & Kelly, Syndicated
The program didn't have an official host, and began with Anderson Cooper and Oscar the Grouch. Anderson Cooper having ties to both daytime and HLN (as CNN is its parent company) would be an obvious choice for the beginning. I liked how Oscar was early in the show, just for kids watching. Oscar makes some negative comments about daytime, but then Anderson reminds Oscar that he has been a daytime star since 1969. When they had Wayne Brady disrespect daytime it was annoying, Oscar is one of the few who can do it, make me smile as it is Oscar being in character as that's his attitude about everything.
The first award was outstanding lead actor and the younger actor nominees (Chad Duell, Nathan Parsons, Chandler Massey and Eddie Alderson, who play or played Michael on GH, Ethan on GH, Will on Days and Matthew on OLTL) are on stage. The award went to Tony Geary as Luke Spencer, which seemed to thrill Nathan obviously as Nathan and Tony worked closely together as father and son on GH. The other nominees in this category were John McCook (Eric, B&B), Darnell Williams (Jesse, AMC), Maurice Benard (Sonny, GH) and Robert S. Woods (Bo, OLTL). Tony mentioned how he knew all the other guys who were nominated for years and he dissed ABC about how General Hospital was almost cancelled in favor of "Celebrity Boob Jobs Gone Wrong". That sounds like a show for some basic cable station.
The next award was given out by the ladies from The Talk, the show CBS put in place of As the World Turns. They announced best game show host and best game audience participation show. Todd Newton won for Family Game Night, on The Hub. I've watched that program perhaps two times, which seems to be a lot more than most people. It actually isn't a bad show, and Todd does a good job. Of course, when I think of Todd Newton, my first thoughts are E! working on the red carpet including the Daytime Emmys (those were with Mimi Torchin), replacing Greg Kinnear on Talk Soup, and his two GSN game shows, Hollywood Showdown and Whammy. The best game show was Jeopardy! which submitted a supercomputer episode and it is their 14th win.
Eric Braeden (Victor Newman from Young and the Restless) comes out to give two awards, outstanding legal courtroom program, and outstanding drama series writing team. I've never seen Last Shot with Judge Gunn, before this Emmy cycle I had not even heard of this program. The writing award went to Days of Our Lives. This was the first time Days has won since 1976, and the team at that point was Pat Falken Smith writing from Bill Bell's outlines. Bill Bell was already running The Young & The Restless at this point, and was nominated in the category but he had to continue providing story for a time for Days. Darrell Ray Thomas Jr. and Marlene McPherson have been fired from Days, and only were at the program for a year, but got these awards. Oddly enough what they submitted was the episode that Matthew Ashford (Jack) used for his acting nomination.
Peter Bergman (Jack on Y&R) comes out to give out Outstanding Supporting Actor. This award was GH actors (Sean Blakemore - Shawn, Bradford Anderson - Spinelli, Jason Thompson - Patrick, Jonathan Jackson - Lucky) and Days Matt Ashford. Jonathan Jackson won this award for the second year in a row, and it is his fifth Daytime Emmy. His others came in the Younger Leading Actor category.
Sandra Lee came out from Semi-Homemade cooking a show I never watched to present a montage of her kind of program, and then Rachael Ray walks in to give outstanding lifestyle culinary host and outstanding culinary program. When she makes a comment about how she knows all these people, I thought about that comment she made when The Chew was announced which irked All My Children fans. Sandra Lee won for host and Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction won for show.
Don Diamont aka Bill Spencer on Bold & the Beautiful comes out and announces Outstanding Younger Actor. Chandler Massey won and on his way up to the stage he got tapped on the butt by Casey Deidrick (Chad), was that one for the people who wish that Will and Chad would chill together as a couple.
Barbara Walters ends up on screen talking about Bill Geddie who is the Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. There are clips of talking heads including David Hartman who I vaguely remember as being a host on Good Morning America, but if I hadn't seen his name I would have never recognized him.
Dr. Drew Pinsky who has a show on HLN comes out to give out the Outstanding Morning Program to The Today Show.
Outstanding Lead Actress is given out by the nominees for Outstanding Younger Actress (Molly Burnett - Melanie Days, Shelley Hennig - Stephanie Days, Christel Khalil - Lily Y&R, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood - Steffy B&B). The winner was Heather Tom (Katie B&B) who is the first actress to trifecta in younger, supporting and lead. Last year, she won her supporting award for Katie, but previously she won twice as Victoria on Y&R in the younger category. Laura Wright (Carly GH, who won last year in this category), Crystal Chappell (Carly Days), Debbi Morgan (Angie, AMC) and Erika Slezak (Viki OLTL) were the other nominees.
Kim Coles (best known as Sinclair on Livin' Single) gives awards out for Outstanding Talk Show Informative and Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment. Back in the day there was only one talk show award. The Dr. Oz show wins for informative, while Live with Regis and Kelly wins entertainment. I was thrilled about Live winning for the last season with Regis. This is a long time coming, and my reaction was a "Hi Gelman" as he finally got that award.
Jack Hanna and Debbie Gibson (who has no tie that I know of to daytime television, I mean her music has been used on soaps over the years, and she may appear on a talk show on occasion, but I don't get it) announce Children's Animated Program and Performer in a children's series. Penguins of Madagascar wins for cartoon, while Kevin Clash who does Elmo for Sesame Street won for performer. Since Kevin Clash wasn't there, the alligator who is on the stage with them nearly attacks the Emmy.
Bethenny Frankel who is a housewife, had her own single reality show on Bravo, and now has a talk show presented AOL best viral video. I remember when we used to kvetch over fan given awards for soap performers (best couple anyone), but what do viral videos have to do with Daytime and something called Kids React wins. People from the Doctors that aren't Jillian Michaels come on stage to give out the new approaches in Daytime Entertainment goes to Take this Lollipop again I have no idea what this is.
Finola Hughes who won her Daytime Emmy for lead actress as Anna on GH in 1991 (not that she was there to get it) comes out to give Supporting Actress. Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis from GH) won, and the last time she won was back in 1989 when she tied with Debbi Morgan in supporting. Nancy was on Santa Barbara back in those days and she wasn't at the show tonight. The other nominees with Rebecca Herbst (Liz GH), Melissa Claire Egan (Annie AMC), Genie Francis (Genevieve Y&R), and Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Y&R). Rebecca Herbst was in the same story as Jonathan Jackson and Tony Geary, which is why many expected her to win.
Now on to the part of the show I was waiting for the tribute to All My Children and One Life to Live there is a quick b&w clip of talking head of Agnes Nixon (soap creator) and Ricky Paull Goldin (Jake AMC). Susan Lucci aka Erica Kane comes out to talk, and this is more about her life and experiences that AMC. She mentions the don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened. This quote is credited to children's book author Dr. Seuss. Cameron Mathison (Ryan AMC) who was on that show on and off over a 15 year period and Erika Slezak who was Viki and her altars on OLTL for over 40 years. They mention other late soap operas like Guiding Light (which Cam said started on radio) and As the World Turns. What isn't mentioned and should have been was the connection between Agnes Nixon and Irna Phillips as Irna (creator of GL and ATWT) taught Agnes the business and without that working relationship there would never have been an AMC or OLTL. Also how this was the end of the NYC based soaps wasn't mentioned. That portion ended with a "We Love You and We'll Miss You" well ditto that. Not having any clips was strange, and it is too bad that they didn't have anyone on the stage representing the other NYC shows that have ended. This felt more like a tribute to what was with soaps than one specific to AMC/OLTL but that perhaps was just my general impression. There were no clips, and people wondered if HLN didn't get the rights to show them.
Lisa Rinna (Billie on Days who hosted SoapTalk) announces Talk Show Host which goes to Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. And my mind drifts back to years past when they talked about not being nominated.
Deidre Hall (Marlena on Days) comes out in a blue dress, that was chosen based on votes from the viewers, She announces directing team, which goes to General Hospital. William Ludel whose episode was used to win the award gave the speech.
This year after much griping the "In Memoriam" segment was back on the Daytime Emmys. A lot of the people I was unfamiliar with, but I was glad it was back on the program.
At this point, if someone was DVRing the show they would have missed these awards as the Daytime Emmys went over the allotted time.
Kristian Alfonso (Hope on Days) presents Younger actress to Christel Khalil, and Kristian seems disappointed that someone from Days didn't win. It took four nominations for Christel to win.
Susan Lucci comes out again to give out the last award of the night: Outstanding Drama Series. General Hospital won (against Y&R, Days & AMC). Jill Farren Phelps gave her last speech as outgoing executive producer as she is no longer with the program, but it was her episode that won the award. She wasn't cut off this time, and she mentioned the new guard referencing the new executive producer Frank Valentini.
This show was one of the better Daytime Emmys in recent years, though I haven't been happy since they moved the show out of New York City. I didn't have high expectations as HLN only announced they were airing this show less than a month prior of it airing. The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California is one of the most famous venues for such shows as the home of The Golden Globes (and former home of The Soap Opera Awards from Soap Opera Digest). I missed the music and announcer that was used in those shows during this broadcast. Generic tuneless music was used, along with no show themes. I wonder if this was a cost cutting measure.
I thought it was disappointing that no one from All My Children in its last eligible year or One Life to Live with only 9 episodes available for any 2012 won an award on the broadcast show. While General Hospital was the biggest winner with three awards in acting along with directing and show, at least CBS and NBC weren't shut out completely. B&B had Heather Tom's win to celebrate, Y&R had Christel's and Days had their writers and Chandler. I prefer when there is a true blue ribbon panel instead of what was done this year, prenoms voted on, and then the nominees and winner based on who got most votes out of a dozen or so instead of four or five. I'm glad for twitter and other sources to be able to see photographs of everyone who was at the awards telecast.
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