The Awful (Well, Mostly) 2026 Daytime Emmys

I went to the Daytime Emmys for the first time in 1981, when Douglas Watson (Mac, “Another World”) and Judith Light (Karen, “One Life to Live”) won Best Actor and Actress. How great it was, then and in many years after, to get all dressed up, and head to the Red Carpet, reporter’s notebook in hand. Meeting the stars! Being eyewitness to the winners! Partying the night away with soap actors, producers, and fellow soap press friends!

But that was another life, when the Daytime Emmys were in New York and the networks proudly televised them in primetime. Friday night I watched them in my pajamas on YouTube, the ratings-starved networks having exiled the Emmys onto the Internet. This year’s show was awful. Well, mostly.

I was shocked at how disorganized the show was. There was no host to hold the show together. Why? There was a periodic announcer, a food show host named Matthew Hoffman who comically mugged for the camera, trying in vain to enliven the dull proceedings. Much of the show’s dialogue was disjointed and made little sense.

On a more positive note, someone at the Academy deserves thanks for the good idea of bringing on long ago soap stars, like “Passions”’ Juliet Mills and “Santa Barbara”’s A. Martinez, to be presenters. The show opened (huh?) with Eva Larue, herself nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the murdered Natalia on “General Hospital,” looking lost as she improvised about her years as Dr. Maria Santos on “All My Children.” I was embarrassed for this nice woman and exceptionally good actress. Marlena wonders if this clumsy show even had an overall script.

We soap fans love that the Daytime Emmys reward our shows. At the same time, other daytime shows in other categories also receive Emmys: talk (congratulations Sherri Shepherd who won for Best Talk Show, I miss you), cooking, home improvement shows, travel, etc. This year it seemed forever until the show finally got around to the soap awards. The first daytime award to Beth Maitland who won as Supporting Actress for her Traci Abbott on “The Young and the Restless,” a role she’s played for 44 years. She won the same award for the role back in 1985 (my next column will be an interview with this refreshingly intelligent woman). Next up was another winner from “Y&R” — Best Supporting Actor Roger Howarth, who plays psycho Matt Clark. He was the Younger Actor winner in 1994 for playing Todd Manning on “One Life to Live.” Now that executive producer /headwriter Josh Griffith has left the show — he brought Howarth to Y&R — will the actor be sticking around? Good question!

Speaking of repeat awards, Scott Clifton won his third Best Actor for playing Liam Spencer on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Of course, we practically watched him grow up on “General Hospital” as Tracy’s son Dillon. As Liam, he’s been particularly good on “B&B.” As of last week, his character was given a promising new love interest in Darcy, Dylan’s mother, played by Kelly Sullivan.

Tamara Tunie, Best Actress

Next up was the most glorious acting award of the night, as Tamara Tunie won the Best Actress award for her role of Anita Dupree on “Beyond the Gates.” Tunie, who is a wonderful Broadway and primetime actress, played Jessica Griffin on “As the World Turns” for many years. She and Clifton Davis, who plays husband Vernon, are centerpiece couple of “BTG.” Did you see the gigantic hug creator/headwriter Michele Val Jean gave Tamara the second award that was announced? Later, in a sweet moment, she dedicated her award to her 91-year-old mother Evelyn. who stood up in the audience and took a bow.

For Best Emergent Talent, I had been rooting for my guy Giovanni Mazza, who plays Gio on “GH.” The award went to another promising young talent, Amber Michelle, who plays Eva on “BTG.” She gets substantial airtime and grows more interesting all the time. Speaking of interesting, Jeff Kober won the Guest Performer Emmy for playing complex villain (his second Daytime Emmy) Cyrus on “GH.” I would love it if they brought him back. His villainous character is so cerebral as to be just fascinating. The character is also a half-brother of Mayor Laura Collins.

I especially liked two parts of the show for personal reasons. Every year the show does a death roll as most award show do. Included was Soap Opera Festival founder/longtime soap journalist Joyce Becker Sugarman. We were friends for many decades, and she always lovingly supported me and my work. I also like that Mark Teschner, who I’ve known professionally for a very long time, won the award for Best Casting Director at “GH.” He and his casting picks is one of the major reasons “GH” has had so much success over the 30 years he’s been there. As I always write, he never misses!

Genie Francis, Lifetime Achievement Award

And so, the show finally got on to the main event of the evening: the Lifetime Achievement to Genie Francis, who first started playing Laura Webber (now Collins) when she was 19 years old. She’s also had memorable roles on “All My Children” and “Days of Our Lives.” I interviewed Genie for the first time for Sassy Magazine not long after her debut and she was just lovely even then. During the ensuing years we’ve watched Laura grow, especially into her mythical marriage to Luke (Tony Geary) as the two became a national phenomenon. Many of her loving castmates (like Jon Lindstrom and Maurice Benard) appeared on the awards show to congratulate her.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by her husband Jonathan Frakes (“Star Trek”). As you know, she met him when she played Bret Main on the ABC miniseries “North and South in 1985. I interviewed Genie again years later, when she was dating Jonathan, for my newspaper syndicate. She was clearly ga ga in love with him. Probably the nicest moment of the whole Emmy evening was when the couple’s two children escorted her to the podium to accept for award from her husband. She was in tears and so was I!

“General Hospital” won for Best Show, and headwriters Chris Von Etten and Elizabeth Korte won for Best Writing. I warmly congratulate them and the show; despite some misgivings I’ve had lately. Indeed, “GH” was the best soap most of the year. These writers have been masterful. However, as I noted in an earlier column, last summer around the time of Cullum’s death and John Oliver’s guest appearance, the show suddenly seemed to fall apart, with sloppy storylines and characters who made little sense. It was almost as if whoever runs this show had lost control of it.

Of course, what I wrote angered many fans who love the show no matter what. Well, we all want the same thing: continued success for this American institution that has been with us since 1963, and a healthy future for our beloved soap opera genre. So, let’s just agree to disagree and move on.

And so, another Emmy year is over. I just hope that next year the Academy cares enough to put on a quality show after this year’s vast disappointment. After all, many of us are lifelong soap fans and we deserve a quality show to best celebrate the medium we love. This wasn’t it!