Once a major television event that drew as many as 20 million people to witness the ritual sacrifice of Susan Lucci, the Daytime Emmy Awards have fallen on hard times. The ceremony hasn’t aired on a broadcast network since 2011; this year it failed to find a home on TV at all, instead decamping to the final refuge of the soap operas it still ostensibly honors: the Internet. If that was the extent of the hiccups endured by the 41st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, the show would’ve already faded from memory, leaving behind the faint whiff of victory for The Young And The Restless, the small sting of Steve Harvey’s declined invitation, and all of the swearing the FCC had no jurisdiction over. Unfortunately, still to come was nearly two hours of red-carpet coverage from underprepared, desperately ad libbing “social media hosts” and two more hours of the actual show.
As detailed by Deadline and The Washington Post, the television academy tried to make the best of a bad situation, but really just wound up making it worse. Remember First Night 2013, the live New Year’s Eve catastrophe that is still only the second- or third-most embarrassing line on Jamie Kennedy’s resume? This was a lot like that, only with hosts who got stuck asking asking actress Emme Rylan if she was named after the Emmys, then cut the tension by comparing themselves to The Muppets’ Statler and Waldorf.
And then the livestream went completely dark for the first four or five minutes of host Kathy Griffin introducing the ceremony.
Between Entertainment Tonight executive producer Linda Bell Blue paging through a lengthy acceptance speech and Griffin shooing the cast and crew of Young And The Restless off of the Beverly Hilton stage after its win for Outstanding Drama Series, golden award statues were handed out. Not that anyone was there to accept them: Several big-name winners, like Ellen DeGeneres (whose eponymous show took Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show honors) and Katie Couric (Best Talk Show Host) were absent, as was Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was busy receiving a drubbing over on Last Week Tonight. At least the people behind TV’s last surviving soap operas managed to make it out to the ceremony, only to witness a once-proud TV tradition tarnished in the gaudiest, cattiest, most melodramatic fashion possible.
So, all in all, it made a good soap opera, one you can still watch here. A full list of winners follows.
SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Eric Martsolf, Days of Our Lives
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
Amelia Heinle, The Young and the Restless
CULINARY PROGRAM
The Mind of a Chef
CULINARY HOST
Bobby Flay, Bobby Flay’s Barbecue Addiction
LEGAL COURTROOM PROGRAM
The People’s Court”
GAME SHOW HOST
Steve Harvey, Family Feud
TALK SHOW HOST
TIE: Dr. Mehmet Oz, The Dr. Oz Show and Katie Couric, Katie
WRITING TEAM, DRAMA
The Young and the Restless
DIRECTING TEAM, DRAMA
One Life to Live
YOUNGER ACTRESS, DRAMA
Hunter King, The Young and the Restless
YOUNGER ACTOR, DRAMA
Chandler Massey, Days of Our Lives
TALK SHOW, INFORMATIVE
Steve Harvey
DAYTIME TALENT IN SPANISH
Rodner Figueroa, El Gordo Y La Flaca
TALK SHOW, ENTERTAINMENT
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
MORNING PROGRAM
Good Morning America
MORNING PROGRAM IN SPANISH
Un Nuevo Dia
GAME SHOW
Jeopardy
SPECIAL-CLASS SPECIAL
The Young and the Restless: The Jeanne Cooper Tribute
ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM IN SPANISH
Clix
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS PROGRAM
TIE: Entertainment Tonight and Extra
LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA
Billy Miller, The Young and the Restless
LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA
Eileen Davidson, Days of Our Lives
DRAMA, NEW APPROACHES
Venice The Series
DRAMA
The Young and the Restless