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Some Things I've learned about the Daytime Emmys


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Watching the live stream of last night's Awards show, I came to some realizations about the Daytime Emmys and Daytime, in general. I wonder what other people's realizations are.

The Service/Talk shows now Rule the Roost

Even though the majority of the promotion has to do with the Soaps and the majority of the personalities on the Red Carpet are usually soap actors, it is clear that the lionshare of the actual awards will now go to Service and Talk shows. I think this is also the reason for the lack of glamour that the awards once had.

No matter how hard you try, Wheel of Fortune, Let's Make a Deal and The Talk can never be as sexy as 'Love in the Afternoon'.

Many people probably tuned into the Live Stream-- at least, the actual Awards Ceremony

I was amazed at the impeccable quality of the live stream during the Red Carpet portion (it was the only good thing about the Red Carpet) but noticed a few times during the actual show, that the quality of the livestream went down from HD a few times. I suspect, the number of people logging on solely for the actual show (after skipping the Red Carpet) had something to do with this.

Well, at least it didn't crash and for me, except for a few hiccups in HD picture, the quality was mostly good.

The quality of the PP soaps stand up to any of the remaining Network soaps in Daytime

Like others on this board, I thought that the PP soaps had high technical standards in comparison with the 4 remaining network soaps, which I found especially impressive considering their budget. I realize some might disagree but I don't care that some of the set pieces were small but I compare the look of AMC and OLTL with Y&R which I streamed all on my PC's 18.5 inch screen and AMC and OLTL's HD looked superior to Y&R. And after the make-under of the Newman Ranch, I'd say that the PP soaps weren't the only ones that had a few diminuitive set pieces.

Daytime dramas are stuck in a very weird place right now

Maybe it is not so much the soaps themselves (although I've thought that many of these writers need to go back to good ole' fashioned basic storytelling) but watching the ceremony yesterday it made me think that Daytime has thrown away its legacy and heritage while simultaneously remaining stuck in a bygone era.

The storylines and types of characters presented have not progressed (in some ways, what I'm seeing is less progressive than what I saw as a kid in the 80s & 90s) but not seeing any acknowledgement of the legends of the past (other than the late Jeanne Cooper) was a bit dispiriting.

Specifically no Lifetime Achievement Award for a Soap actor, writer, producer or Creative associated with the soaps in how long? I was hoping they'd do it this year but. Alas.

I miss those Musical Montages

Those really well done montages that recapped the highlights of the Year That Was for each nominated Daytime Drama? Does anyone else miss these?

Schadenfreude is shamefully delicious

I could hear the collective groans of some bloggers when certain soaps won while certain soaps left empty handed. Okay, when one of them won I groaned too (Y&R) but that's not the soap I was referring to wink.png The soap that didn't really get to go up on the big stage last night, I admit I took a tiny bit of perverse pleasure knowing that some blog posts extolling the virtues of said show, while denigrating others fell on deaf ears where Emmy voting was concerned.tongue.png Even though I was disappointed that say, Kelly Missal didn't get an Emmy, my schadenfreude with a particular head writer/show not being able to crow about taking home trophies gave me a good belly laugh.

That, and Kathy Griffin cutting off JFP.laugh.png

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I came to this conclusion when I watched the Emmys in 2012 on HLN. It was pathetic. The "tribute" to AMC and OLTL was just painful to watch and so very badly done. The Emmys are dominated now by talk/service/children's shows because that's why dominates daytime now. It's cheaper to produce for more or less the same ratings daytime drama gets, but the reality is that those shows don't inspire the same loyal following. Sure, people like Ellen DeGeneres, and they think she's funny, and some of those people might tune into an award show to see if she wins, but I'd argue that not even she comes close to the cult following that Oprah had back in the day. As for the the rest of the daytime shows... how many hardcore fans do you think there are of Judge Judy or The Price is Right who are willing to sit through a two hour broadcast to see if the show takes home an Emmy? My kid may love to watch Disney or PBS or Nickelodeon, but I'm not going to watch to see if Sesame Street takes home another Emmy.

The fans who care about the award show are the soap fans... and if there are only four soaps, and they comprise just a small portion of the award ceremony, why waste two hours of my time (or more if you watch the red carpet stuff) on the Emmys when I can do exactly what I did last night: watch two more episodes of season 3 of Game of Thrones on my laptop while sporadically checking twitter and SON? I honestly don't know that the Daytime Emmys are long for this world.

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I do think this year was beat the last few years by a country mile. The HLN years were a nightmare. Kathy Griffin did have a joke about last years awards, that I did find funny. And finally, the return of the actors' clips with actual spoken dialogue.

If the Daytime Emmy producers were interested...and if indeed there is a next time, they could balance the scales between daytime dramas and daytime talk/service shows if they added back in those musical montages, bring back the Lifetime Achievement Award and have at least one soap legend included and do an In Memoriam segment. If they feel that time is an issue why not provide extended clips on the website?

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The streaming online version was nice in that it didn't rush the soap opera acting categories. Everyone had clips shown (except poor Chandler Massey, heehee). I definitely liked that. But it would be nice for them to treat the Outstanding Drama Series category the way they used to, where someone would come out on stage and introduce each nominee, followed by a 60-second "year in review" clip.

So true. And that ridiculous OLTL/AMC "tribute" in 2012 was an excellent example. Not even one damn clip. They could easily make the Daytime Emmys like the Academy Awards, where there are beautiful montages of moments past, whether they're clips of shows or clips of previous Emmy moments. And definitely focus on the soaps and the big-name talk show hosts. Billy Bush from Access Hollywood announcing acting categories? C'mon...

I think they could make this awards show something worth watching, they just have to show respect to the genres they're representing and add some much needed class. We know they're on daytime. They know they're on daytime. But let's not diminish it completely. Once upon a time, this was a respected award to win, at least in their community. Oprah, La Lucci, Donahue, Canary, etc. etc. It meant something.

If we are to hope that one day the Daytime Emmys will be back on network TV, just have it be an afternoon event on The Talk or The View. Hell, at this point, The Talk gets more respect. And they actually show interest in the soap stars they're interviewing. The Talk could be expanded to 2 hours for the awards show.

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I LOVED the fact that there were no commercial interruptions but it makes me wonder:

If the Daytime Emmys were to go for slightly higher production values (top drawer host, montage clips for the nominees for Outstanding Daytime Drama with suitable music, Lifetime Achievement Award(s) with clips, well produced In Memoriam segment), would this mean that they would have to open themselves up for advertising of some sort?

I just wonder about this. I have no earthly clue what this show costs to produce and make available for viewing.

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