Monday, June 23, 2014

2014 Daytime Emmy Awards Wrap-Up: The Good and the Bad

The Young and the Restless was named Outstanding Drama Series.
Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision
The Daytime Emmys were held on Sunday, hosted by Kathy Griffin. The live-streamed red carpet show, which was the worst in history, was followed by a ceremony that concluded in less than two hours and featured more categories than ever before. Below are some good and bad highlights from the show:

The Good:
* Wonderful speeches were made by the winning soap opera actors, especially Amelia Heinle, Eric Martsolf and Eileen Davidson, all first-time winners. The actors were allowed to talk without getting played off in 30 seconds, and it provided some very nice moments.
* Kathy Griffin's opening monologue felt more like her stand-up comedy routine but it was funny, and better than anything we've seen at the Daytime Emmys in a while.  Her making fun of last year's Daytime Emmys on HLN, including the horrible onstage couch and Robin Meade's singing, was hilarious and on point.
* Clips were played for the nominated actors. Viewers of the webcast, and those in attendance, got to see the work of the nominees and really appreciate their performances, with one exception (see below).
* The live stream stayed up and there was nice camera work for the most part, with shots moving between the stage and the audience.
* Theme songs from the winning shows were played as the winners walked to the stage.
* A web series category was presented during the ceremony for the first time, with indie soap Venice taking home the Emmy. Executive producer Crystal Chappell was joined on stage by her fellow producers Christa Morris, Hillary B. Smith and Katherine Kelly Lang, along with Galen Gering.
* The wonderful Jeanne Cooper Tribute episode of The Young and the Restless won as the Outstanding Special Class Special.
* The names of classic soap operas were mentioned more times than in any Daytime Emmys in history.  Donna Mills talking about how much she learned working on The Secret Storm was one of the best Emmy moments in a long time.

The Bad:
* The word "f*ck" or "f*cking" had to be used more times during the 2014 Daytime Emmys than in any awards show in history. If this were a more casual event, I wouldn't mind. But it was supposed to be Daytime TV's biggest night, a glamorous celebration of the best and brightest, and it came off at times as a bit tacky.
* For similar reasons, Sharon Osbourne on stage needed to tone it down. I personally love her, and she's very entertaining, but did she have to yell, "I feel like I've been here five f*cking hours!"
* Kathy Griffin also insulted the audience and nominees by saying this year's Daytime Emmys: "It's not even a real show. It's like Twitter."
* When Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series category was presented, a clip of Days' of our Lives current "Will Horton" (Guy Wilson) was used in place of the correct clip from the eventual winner, Chandler Massey. How can the Daytime Emmys make a mistake like that? Massey won the two previous years as well so he should be a recognizable face. Why didn't anyone notice this, at the very least during tech rehearsal?
* The winning Entertainment Tonight producer gave a speech that went on and on and on. A seemingly tipsy Kelly Monaco (who could blame her after that Red Carpet disaster) said she had never seen "wrap it up" on the teleprompter that many (6) times before.
* Many of the biggest names in Daytime TV did not show up, including some of the winners last night like Steve Harvey, Ellen DeGeneres and Katie Couric (who just got married so is excused this year).

The Good and Bad:
* Kathy Griffin interrupting Jill Farren Phelps acceptance speech after The Young and the Restless had some funny elements, and was good Web TV. Griffin was funny and Phelps handled it well, giving as good as she got. But whether you believe Y&R deserved to win or to, no other awards show would cut off the winner of the biggest award of the night except the Daytime Emmys. And the show had been on for around 1 hour and 47 minutes at that point. It almost seemed like a scripted interruption since Phelps was famously cut off in the same spot years ago.
* Griffin's story about Susan Lucci not liking Sarah Michelle Gellar when they worked together on All My Children, and Lucci getting Gellar fired, was really fascinating and funny but it would be have been nice if that time was spent talking about the nominees and stars that were there this year versus two winners from the 1990s.
* I liked the addition of the three Spanish awards on paper but perhaps they should have shown clips or presented them back-to-back since the crowd seemed rather uninterested.

Despite some of the negatives, it was the best Daytime Emmys ceremony is the past several years.  That's not saying much, but at least it trended up, a bit.

9 comments:

  1. I pretty much agree with everything you've written.

    The Chandler Massey faux pas is especially curious, because, how and why didn't they just choose a moment from the reel that he actually submitted (as seemed to be the case with the other nominees)? And then, how or why did a clip from calendar year 2014 get used, since these awards are for work broadcast in 2013? Oh well, he laughed it off pretty good.

    In the needed improvement area, I would have liked to have seen some better shots of the audience and close ups of the "circles of people" at various tables.

    In the bad, I would add: No "In Memoriam" segment? Gosh, if they're that lazy, they could have contracted with WeLoveSoaps to do it. ;-)

    But wasn't Donna Mills just the best? Not only did she look great, but her love and appreciation for the genre and mention of Secret Storm was so special. It really was the highlight of the evening, and her special moment of class and elegance almost made up for the crude and vulgar ones we had to sit through with others. Take note, boys and girls: Stay classy!

    But as you conclude - Overall I enjoyed the show more than the last few years and certainly did not miss any of that obtrusive singing and dancing.

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    1. Thanks for mentioning the In Memoriam segment. I said that on Twitter last night but forgot to add that here. It crossed my mind though that an In Memoriam may have seemed out of place at last night's event. I can't imagine them going to from F-bombs to remembering greats like James Rebhorn. But somehow they should have found a way to do it.

      Speaking of singing, it might have been nice to let the original song winner from Friday, All My Children's Denyse Tontz (Miranda), perform her winning song.

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    2. I think you may have mentioned sometime ago on WLS, Roger, that the Tonys put the unedited version of their In Memoriam on their Website. I wished the Daytime Emmys had done that-- like you said the somber tone may have felt strangely out of place with last night's raucous ceremony.

      Also, I'm disappointed that there was no Lifetime Achievement Award but you're right, Roger...so much better than the last few years, particularly the HLN years.

      If they come back next year, I'd suggest someone like Regis Philbin hosting, if they can afford him and if he is able.
      On the red carpet, I'd suggest Linda Dano, Mark Consuelos and Colleen Zenk.

      I would have loved to see Denyse Tontz perform her song! She could have sang over a montage of images from the previous year in Daytime TV.
      Speaking of soap music...
      Some were complaining about OLTL's theme song when they went to accept for Outstanding Direction but I actually liked it, and I thought that version (melodic) was suited to the occasion.

      I'd love it if the Daytime Emmys paid more homage to the Classic Soaps, especially the ones that are no more. The Donna Mills segment was touching and classy.

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    3. Besides the In Memoriam segment, I missed was the montage clips of the Best shows. But was happy for the clips and no commercials.

      I had texted Guy after the snafu and he said it was f*cking weird, but see it as a sign, he will be nominated next year.

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    4. also wasn't the OLTL win and the GH snubs interesting?

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    5. @MK Scott - IA, I thought with "unlimited" time constraints it would have been the perfect opportunity to present Best Show montages, as in the past. After all, if one of the goals was to make the awards appeal to younger audiences, why wouldn't the shows want to jump on that and actually give these potential viewers an overall vibe of what the shows are all about, featuring, of course, a lot of their younger talent.

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  2. This was the best daytime Emmy's I have seen in the past 5 years. The red carpet event was a little off, but other than that I really enjoyed the live stream.

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  3. Why wasn't Melissa Archer at the Daytime Emmy Awards last night to support her OLTL team, Roger?

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  4. There was a lifetime achievement award winner, but that was awarded during the Creative Arts Emmys, which was a bit surprising though other award shows do that, but at least show a clip of the person who got the award.

    I agree having the Spanish awards all together would have made sense. That said I find it weird how many talk categories they have now and that all the children's programming was in the creative arts. That said due to the cursing, I'm glad for this year they were moved even if I like to see the Muppets.

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