Don’t count Daytime television out just yet! This year’s 44th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards presented the gold standard in more ways than one. Hosted by Mario Lopez and Sheryl Underwood, this year’s Daytime Emmys had a fast pace, structure, and entertainment quality that has been missed in the last couple of years. With the decline of viewers and cancellation of daytime dramas in the last ten years, the Daytime Emmys have struggled to find a proper platform to be viewed on. It’s gotten so stressful that in the last few years, there have been quite a few snafus during the show when it did air. Yet this year’s awards ceremony far surpassed expectations with its airing on Facebook Live. I daresay the structure and creativity with which the ceremony was tackled on this particular platform might just set the bar for various awards ceremonies to come.
Accompanied by the Crenshaw High School choir, The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Karla Mosley, Reign Edwards, and Jacob Young, the Young and the Restless’s Tristan Lake Leabu, General Hospital‘s Robert Palmer Watkins, and Days of Our Lives‘s Eric Martsolf and Nadia Bjorlin opened the show with “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway musical Rent. You could tell from the passion the performance was infused with that the show was going to be fantastic.
The three hour show compacted an array of humorous, proud, and poignant moments. Sheryl Underwood was on a mission to increase her Twitter following, and I’d wager she got them with what could only be described as her happy dance for her show The Talk‘s win during the program. The Daytime Emmys pulled off a first for any Hollywood awards show with its “March of the Bassett Hounds” in order to raise awareness for all the dogs on stage who are looking to be adopted (you can go to daphneyland.com for details). Tim Allen presented Mary Hart with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on Entertainment Tonight, poking fun at his lack of Emmy (“It feels good to hold one of these!”). Luckily the one thing this particular awards show didn’t have was a miscommunication of announcements, though Dr. Oz took the time to double-check his envelope to be sure! “La La Land” did not win the award for Best Picture, nor did it win Best Game Show, despite the attempt to seem so.
It wouldn’t be a true ceremony without paying tribute to the talents in daytime television who passed this year. The Young and the Restless‘s own Max Ehrich took the stage to perform Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” for the In Memoriam. There were too many extraordinary names included in this year’s category, which closed with undeniably one of the hardest losses of the year, Days of Our Lives Phoenix, Joseph Mascolo. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Erica Kane herself, the legendary Susan Lucci, returned to the Emmy stage to pay tribute to her mentor, the late Agnes Nixon. Nixon created the daytime dramas All My Children and One Life to Live, creating stories of social conscience and social justice which weren’t being discussed at the time. All My Children‘s Darnell Williams, Cameron Mathison, Michael E. Knight, Kim Delaney, and One Life to Live‘s Erica Slezak, Eden Riegel, Andrea Evans, and Thorsten Kaye all spoke through tears about what Nixon did for daytime drama, for the entertainment industry as a whole, and for them individually. As Kaye put it, those stories and the characters she created to tell them, really were all her children.
Here is the full list of Winners:
-Outstanding Morning Program: Good Morning America
-Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which just celebrated the 20th anniversary of Ellen’s coming out episode.
-Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host: Hosts of The Talk, Sheryl Underwood, Sharon Osbourne, Sara Gilbert, Julie Chen, and Aisha Tyler.
-Outstanding Entertainment News Program: Entertainment Tonight, who paid tribute to Bonnie Tiegel and Lifetime Achievement Winner Mary Hart.
-Outstanding Game Show: Jeopardy, which paid tribute to Cindy Stohl, a contestant who won 6 episodes of the show, raising $100,000 for cancer research while battling cancer.
-Outstanding Game Show Host: Steve Harvey (for Family Feud)
-Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host: Steve Harvey
-Outstanding Informative Talk Show: The Dr. Oz Show
-Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program: Gaby Natale, host of Superlatina with Gaby Natale, who dedicated her award to those who resist intolerance.
-Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish: Destinos
-Outstanding Culinary Program: Eat The World With Emeril Lagasse
-Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series: Jim O’Hair, who played one half of the crazy couple Quinn, and later Sally, encounters on their plane travels on The Bold and the Beautiful.
-Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series: Lexi Ainsworth (for her role as Kristina Corinthos on General Hospital), who received the award from her onscreen sister Kelly Monaco.
-Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series: Bryan Craig (for his role as Morgan Corinthos on General Hospital), surrounded by basset hounds who tried to interrupt him, dedicated his award to anyone who suffers from mental illness.
-Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Steve Burton (for his role as Dylan McAvoy on The Young and the Restless)
-Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Kate Mansi (for her role as Abigail Devereaux Dimera on Days of Our Lives)
-Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Gina Tognoni (for her role as Phyllis Summers on The Young and the Restless)
-Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Scott Clifton (for his role as Liam Spencer on The Bold and the Beautiful), who becomes the first actor to win in all three major categories for Outstanding Younger, Supporting, and Lead Actor.
-Outstanding Drama Series, Directing Team: General Hospital
-Outstanding Drama Series, Writing Team: The Young and the Restless
-Outstanding Drama Series: General Hospital (Presented by Gladys Knight!)
Do you agree that this year’s production of the Daytime Emmys was the highest quality in years?
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