The 2014 Daytime Emmys: A Pleasant Evening Online

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman

Amelia Heinle, Best Supporting Actress

This year’s Daytime Emmys – for the first time, streamed live  online but not televised — they turned out to be relatively painless.  Without commercials, the show flowed nicely, and was capably produced. Hostess Kathy Griffin was funny and full of salt and vinegar as always. The absence of television cameras did not discourage the celebrities and glitterati of the daytime world from showing up, including everyone from legendary  game show host Monty Hall to plenty of nominees plus Best Show presenter Donna Mills, who entered to the theme from Knots Landing.

The big winner was The Young and the Restless, which won for Best Show.   A win for Best Writing (picked up by Shelly Altman) set the tone for Y&R’s winning night. Amelia Heinle (Victoria) won for Best Supporting Actress.  Billy Miller, who had the storyline of the year with his character Billy’s daughter’s death in an automobile accident, won Best Actor.  Hunter King (who plays Summer) won for starring in a storyline which centered on the identity of her biological father.  A most pleasant win was for Special Episode in which the late Jeanne Cooper, who played Katherine for decades, was honored posthumously. Executive  Producer Jill Farren Phelps gave a very gracious acceptance speech. She attempted to give another for Y&R ’s win as Best Show, but was interrupted by Griffin, who was hurriedly trying to close the webcast.

It was a very good year, too, for Days of Our Lives which won Best Younger Actor for Chandler Massey (ex-Will) and Best Supporting Actor for Eric Martsolf (Brady). Martsolf heartily thanked co-star Eileen Davidson, who won for Best Actress.  She kiddingly thanked frequent winner and fellow nominee  Heather Tom (Katie, The Bold and the Beautiful) for “sharing” the award.  Davidson finally got the award she deserves for creating the iconic daytime character Kristen DiMera.

There were echoes of cancelled soaps: One Life to Live won Best Direction. Venice, an online soap, won for Best Limited Series soap. The statuette was picked up by one of its stars, an emotional Crystal Chappell.

The Red Carpet Show was thorough, interviewing everyone from soap stars to soap bloggers, but marred somewhat by the flat jokes of inexperienced nonsoap hostesses.

But all in all, the Daytime Emmys 2014, the first to be streamed online, weren’t bad at all.   As a matter of fact, they deserved to be televised.  

Comments

  1. I have no words! Are you sure you were watching the Daytime Emmys?
    The consensus all over the web is that this was the WORST. SHOW. EVER! Starting with the Red Carpet to the end of the show where Y&R won best drama, this broadcast was a travesty.

  2. I most definitely do not think the Emmy webcast was that great. I found it difficult to watch. It was unfocused and poorly directed. Hell, I wondered if it was actually directed and I could have lived without Kathy Griffin and Sharon Osborne’s use of the f-word and Sharon mentioning blow jobs. They only did it because they could. It was gratuitous and vulgar. And please don’t think I’m an old fogy. Far from it. I don’t blush or cringe when I hear four-letter words. When angry, I use a few of them myself. I had no problem with a few cuss words being used on the online renditions of ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE. But that kind of language is not necessary on an awards show.

    Next topic. I don’t think Y&R deserved to take home the Emmy for best show and best writing. Best writing? Are you fucking kidding me? Now, Y&R getting a writing award is a reason to drop the f bomb. The show DESPERATELY needs a new executive producer and head writers. I guess they submitted the episodes surrounding Delia’s death, which is why they won. Amelia Heinle did not deserve the award she snagged.

    Overall, the Emmy webcast was a dud.

  3. It was a train wreck start to finish!

  4. thadbosley says:

    You are kidding, right? You are just yanking our chains, I am certain, because there is simply no way that the esteemed Marlena actually believes that the POS we were subjected to last night was even remotely watchable. In fact, it was a low point in the history of daytime television.

  5. I actually agree with Marlena. The show was 200x better than that mess we have been getting on Headline News over the past two years.

    And Kathy Griffin? LOOOOOOVE HER!!!!

    She always reminds me of Marlena! 🙂

    • There’s no way this show was ANY better than the HLN telecasts! They were all equally horrid!
      It’s sad that the largest segment of television programming…DAYTIME…gets absolutely no respect from the industry. The daytime shows are probably the biggest profit group and yet they are relegated to a shitty online show with an obnoxious, egotistical hostess? It’s a travesty!

  6. Marlene says:

    OOh Marlena! I read your posts religiously and love them but don’t always post. However, I had to reply to this one. You are usually spot on with your analyses but this time…? The Emmys were a disaster. The red carpet event hosted by two women I had never seen or heard of before, was one of the most tasteless spectacles I have ever seen. It was just a prelude to the tastelessness of the award show itself. The daytime actors and actresses are every bit as talented as their primetime counterparts, some more so, and should be accorded the same respect. They were weren’t. What a miasma maestrom of trash! Soap stars deserved better.

  7. When they gave all the awards to Kill Farren Phelp[s, I was reminded of how GH use to win it all when she was running that show. Undeserved . What exactly does that women know that she seems to be able to get the awards, and we know she has NEVER DESERVED ANY OF THEM. GH IS NOW A TRAIN WRECK, SO I WAS NOT SORRY THEY WERE LEFT OUT, NOT FOR THE ACTORS. y&r ? Anyway congrats to the winners. Next year they need to give the daytime Emmys to shows ON IN DAYTIME.

  8. Jeanine harris says:

    I wanted to see it televised I am mad because I couldn’t watch why why Web cast. Very very upset

  9. Hey, Marlena, I’m with you on this year’s awards ceremony – it was a marked improvement over last year’s dismal event. Kathy Griffin was funny, no bright red “interview” couch (thank God) AND actual clips of the nominated performances were shown!!! However, the red carpet pre-show was painful to watch – and why did the red carpet last 2 hours while the awards had to hurry up and end after an hour and 45 minutes??

  10. Richard Hammer says:

    It was dreadful..Absolutely dreadful. I felt bad for the nominees and winners. They deserved better. And so did we! Whomever was responsible for making the decision to hire those four whining ‘social media experts’ deserves to lose their job. If the Academy were smart they would take a full page ad out in Variety and apologize to the industry at large.

  11. Linda Dano has a well written,thoughtful and honest piece on how she felt about the Daytime Emmys on her Facebook page.

  12. The Daytime Emmy telecasts have sunk so low over the last few years that this year’s was almost bearable, but that doesn’t mean it was good. Of course, that can be said about the nominees as well. I remember years when competition was fierce, and the best of daytime was magnificent. Now Y&R wins Best Show for a recycled, slickly produced couple of episodes that would not have made the final cut, say, twenty years ago.

    But back to the show . . . yes, why did the telecast have to wind up at an hour and 45 minutes? As JFP said after the “ceremony,” the Best Drama Series Emmy is for the entire SHOW, and she had not finished thanking the winning cast and crew before Kathy Griffin cut her off. And what for? A commercial break? No. A time constraint? There were none. Phelps-haters across the Internet are celebrating her embarrassment, but it was undeserved. Imagine if a host had done this to, say, Bill Bell or Claire Labine. Critics and fans would be howling and rightly so. It was wrong and offensive and another milestone on daytime’s slide into oblivion.

    • What a well written letter and how true!!! Jill has always been a lightning rod for controversy but regardless,,.,.she is the most awarded Emmy winning producer in the history of daytime. Her work is broad and her mistakes are legendary….but this is her own industry that awards her with these. So she does deserve her moment in the spotlight and not to be humiliated by foul mouthed Kathy. However…….I read a post on here saying that it was poking fun at how Jill was cut off a few years ago. And looking back….either Jill is a very good sport….or something was planned because Jill seemed a little too in on the joke. I would like to think it was a planned staged thing and that is clever and makes me laugh. If not, then it was mean spirited and stupid!!

  13. I thought Kathy Griffin interrupting was a “joke” based on how that happened to JFP at another Daytime Emmy Awards and also because that once happened to Brad Bell as the home audience didn’t hear his speech though those in the ballroom did. Of course, no one is saying that it was a call back to either of those previous ceremonies.

    The on-line pre-show was a mess. The actual show was better than it has been in years, though obviously if it had been on television the swearing would have had to be bleeped. When it comes to the winners specifically I still dislike how the winners are decided from the pre-nomination round as it is possible someone would vote differently when they compare the work in 4-5 reels versus 10-12 reels.

  14. David C says:

    Oh I get it. This is fake Janet from All My Children (Marlena/Connie’s been thrown into a deep well!).Interesting comments, um, “Connie aka Marlena”. Aw yes, even literate soap critics have an evil twin from time to time too!

  15. Dwight Schrute says:

    Mon Dieu, Marlena! That preshow was a career killer.

    I mostly enjoyed the show despite disagreeing with some of the winners. At least I didn’t feel like the awards were a backdrop to a Las Vegas infomercial. It was great to finally see clips again but how could they make a mistake like they did on Chandler Massey’s clip, showing a clip of Guy Wilson, who replaced him the role in a way that was textbook on how NOT to replace your two time (at the time) Emmy winner.

  16. Out of 19 comments, only 16 were positive.

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