Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Daytime Emmy Awards: Host Soon, GL Tribute, Date

As announced last week, the 36th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy® Awards will air on the CW Television Network on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 from the historic Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. The show is a unique partnership between Associated Television International (ATI), NATAS and MGM Worldwide Television, which is handling worldwide distribution of the telecast.

ATI’s president of Worldwide Media and Entertainment, Jim Romanovich, has provided We Love Soaps some additional insights into this year's Daytime Emmy telecast.

On who might be hosting.

We are close to naming a host and chances are it will be one person. We have a short list of about 6 people.

On how the date of the telecast was chosen.

I’m still hearing questions about August. I had the whole summer, including June, from which to choose. I chose August 30th as it was the best decision for everyone. Having produced and programmed television shows, I firmly believe that June is the least ideal month to air anything new. The HUT levels are very low. May would have been a great month, but what kind of show would you have had? A terribly rushed one that would have defeated the purpose of our being involved. June, July and most of August were not options. September is the Primetime Emmys and we didn’t want to encroach upon that. October is our World Magic Awards. Now you’re at the end of the year and it’s too late. August 30th kicks off the CW’s season. It’s the end of summer when most people are back and are ready for something new. Given all these options, this is the best for all of us. Next year, we’ll see. But at least we are planning 2010. If we rushed this for June, it would have been detrimental to its survival and our continued involvement. We believe in this show and those that make it possible. But we have to do it right the first time.

On the tribute planned for GUIDING LIGHT.

I know GUIDING LIGHT is looking for other homes and I hope they find it. Perhaps Lifetime or WE would be great options. Nonetheless, a tribute is still planned because its CBS daytime era has ended. We hope a new one will begin for GL. But the fact is, the GUIDING LIGHT of network television is over. Therefore, it is our privilege to do a proper tribute.

On his involvement and interest in daytime.

I’m a fan of daytime. I plan to visit every show in the next five weeks. I want to see how they do it. I want to meet the people that make these shows come alive. I want to support their efforts publicly and hopefully they’ll support mine so together we can continue to work on making sure daytime can survive whatever is thrown at us. It won’t be easy. This format has a future. What that will ultimately be remains to be seen. But soaps will always be a part of whatever comes its way.

Thanks, Jim. It's nice that someone who truly cares about daytime helped make this telecast become a reality.

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