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Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Daytime Emmy Roller Coaster: A Fan’s View

This year’s Daytime Emmys have been an emotional up and down for this soap fan to say the least.  Before the pre-pre-nominations, pre-nominations, and nominations were announced, I was actually pretty excited about the Emmys.  The final year of One Life to Live (OLTL) was the basis for this premature bliss.  OLTL was amazingly great in 2011.  Critics and fans alike were madly in love with this now departed soap.  I mean a soap opera was actually a critical darling?!  When is the last time that happen?  Of course my other much less friendly reason for wanting OLTL to rake in the Emmys was because I really wanted them to stick it to ABC.  Let’s face it sometimes the best revenge is success.

I already had my favorite picks for each category picked out before I even knew who submitted and what they submitted for consideration (Go, Andrea Evans!).  Unfortunately for my fan girl heart, not all my favorites submitted for the Emmys but I still had my favorites from those that did submit.  By the final nomination announcement though most were out of the running completely.  My excitement all but died.

The biggest disappoint and surprise was that OLTL isn’t up for best show.  OLTL really deserved to win and at the very least should have been nominated.  To make things even weirder, General Hospital (GH) got a nomination - a show that was on such a downward spiral that it’s head writer and producer were actually replaced by the former head writer and producer of OLTL.

GH does have probably the best acting cast in daytime so it isn’t a surprise that the actors from GH got nominated at all.  I’ve watch their Emmy reals and they are really good.  I’m sure they will dominate the acting categories tonight.  I did notice though that the majority of what was submitted by GH belongs to the same story line.  I guess this just goes to show that you only need a few good episodes to get a nomination and perhaps a win.  It really would make more since if there was a way to look at the shows as a whole when making Emmy selections.

Another Emmy low point happened when it appeared that the Daytime Emmys wouldn’t even be televised.  Talk about kicking a genre when it’s down!  Despite the upset with the nominations, I still wanted to see who won, hear their acceptance speeches, and see what they wore (I’m such a girl!).  I hoped that at the very least, there would be a way for me to see it online or that a soap reporter would graciously post a lot of pictures online and live tweet.

When is was announce at almost the last minute that HLN would pick up the Daytime Emmys, my feelings were mixed.  HLN and Daytime Emmys seemed like a strange combination.  They are a 24 hour news network after all.  I think that the fact that they are a 24 hour news network actually ended up being a good thing though.  They were able to turn the Daytime Emmys into news by promoting it through interviews, news stories, and their awesome website.  HLN is showing the soap genre and daytime television much more love than any of the major networks would have.  I’m also excited that they will be doing tributes to the recently cancelled OLTL and All My Children.

My anticipation for the Daytime Emmys is now in a much more positive place than it was a couple of months ago.  I’m more excited than anxious as I wait for them to air tonight.  Who knew the Daytime Emmys would be as dramatic as their shows.

1 comment:

  1. I am very curious to read an updated blog entry on your thoughts about what was aired during the Daytime Emmys. I was so looking forward to this show. But let me start from the beginning, I was very much like you. I had high hopes that OLTL would bring in the noms, I can't believe it was left out in the dust. My only hope is that since OLTL was still on for a brief few weeks in 2012, that it could still be considered for nominations for next year's Daytime Emmys.

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