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The 2008 Emmy broadcast was by all accounts a complete ratings bust.  The show was one of the least watched if not THE least watched telecast in Daytime Emmy history.  I am not sure if it’s a reflection of the decline in daytime viewership or if it’s the telecast that’s at fault.

I have long been a believer that the Daytime Emmy broadcast should be broadcast in DAYTIME when the fans usually watch their shows.  People have such busy lives and even given the success of SoapNet, most people watch soaps still during the day.  With all the cable channels, there is just too much to choose from in primetime to broadcast the Emmy’s at that time.

Another thing that has hurt the Emmy broadcast is that the nomination procedures have reduced the nominees to multi-Emmy winners who are there on their name value and actors who don’t deserve to be in the running.  The fans watch the nominating process and become very disheartened that the truly deserving are overlooked year in and year out.   It is those same fans who don’t want to watch a broadcast filled with actors who they think shouldn’t even be in the running much less turn out to be the winners.

I’m not at all sure that my suggestions are the right ones to right the Daytime Emmy broadcast ship, but I do know that the networks won’t keep showing a ratings dog and advertisers won’t pay to support an ever sinking ship.  Changes need to be made and the sooner the better…for everyone.

The lead actor category is filled with past multiple Emmy winners, season vets, perennial power actors….and one very surprising, very deserving newbie!

The nominees this year are:

David Canary (AMC)
Thaao Penghlis (DAYS)
Anthony Geary (GH)
Peter Bergman (Y&R)
Christian LeBlanc (Y&R)

Canary, Geary, Bergman, and LeBlanc are all past Emmy winners.  All four of them consistently turn in stellar performances no matter what material they are given.  They can take even the worst drivel a soap writer can turn out and turn it into must see TV.  Giving the award to any of the four of them would be justified…but wait…there’s one more…

Thaao Penghlis has been one of my favorite actors in daytime for many years.  He has such a nuanced performance and given that on DOOL one has to sometimes suspend belief to play out the story, he still makes Tony a believable character.  Someone that while he can be ruthless and yes even evil, he is still someone you like deep down.  Someone you want to watch.  Someone you can empathize with.  His sly grin and clever turn of phrase never fails to catch my attention. 

DOOL usually gets pretty much shafted in the acting categories by the Emmy voters.  I think it’s because a lot of the storylines are seen as “fantasy” or “camp” and not what some would consider “serious” soap opera.  While that may be true to an extent, the show this past year has had quite a good supply of “real” soap opera storylines.  Thaao did an amazing job with the story he had and I think is quite deserving of the Emmy this year. 

So how about it Emmy voters?  Give a newbie a chance why don’t you…

The 2008 Daytime Emmy Nominations are out and I thought I would give my thoughts on them starting this week with Lead Actress.  I would give an overview of the Blue Ribbon judging panel and the voting, but it has become so convoluted that it would be easier if they just said eenie, meenie, minie, mo and were done with it.  Having said that, let’s go over this year’s nominees:

Maura West - Carly (ATWT)
Crystal Chappell - Olivia (GL)
Nicole Forester - Cassie (GL)
Michelle Stafford - Phyllis (Y&R)
Jeanne Cooper - Katherine (Y&R)

Out of these 5 actresses 3 have had strong enough storylines to warrant a nomination - West, Chappell, and Forrester.   While Michelle Stafford is one of THE best actresses on TV, her storyline has not been that strong this year and there were lots of other actresses that could have been nominated.  Jeanne Cooper also did not have a strong screen time consuming storyline this year.  I can honestly say that out of these nominations, hers is the most puzzling for me.

West, Chappell, and Forrester all had great storylines this year and they all played them extremely well.  If I were voting it would be a hard decision between West and Chappell, but I think I would have to give it to Chappell this year. 

The one actress I would like to have seen make the nomination list from the prenomination list is Allison Sweeney- Sami (DOOL).  I think she had outstanding material this year and she played it extraordinarily well. 

It will be interesting to see how it plays out in June.  Next week, the even more interesting Lead Actor category.

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Deborah

Editor All Soap Scoops

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