The 2020 Daytime Emmys

[Daniel Avery]

For the first time in five years, The Daytime Emmys ceremony was broadcast on network television on Friday night (6/26). An upsurge in popularity? Collective guilt from the networks who watched the embarrassing efforts to do the awards online? Nahhhh. The two main reasons they decided to try their hand at a socially-distanced Daytime Emmy ceremony (where presenters, hosts, and recipients were all at their homes) were because CBS (and the other networks) is pretty desperate for some original content, and this could serve as a trial run to see if other, more well-known ceremonies could be staged in a socially-distant way.

I have to say....it was pretty well done. And I'm not just saying it was good in comparison to the s#!t-shows and dumpster fires of the past few years (even prior to the exile into online awards). The hosts didn't go up on their lines. The transitions were mostly smooth. No one used their 30 seconds to make a political statement or virtue-signal to the masses. The minimal amount of clips and 'historical segments' were well-chosen. There weren't any notable 'bad internet connections' or sound/microphone issues. Best of all, most of the winners were well-deserving. Maybe the at-home/ad hoc nature of the ceremony made a lot of the participants more relaxed, and thus less worried about their hair, their dress, or the pre-scripted banter that we typically see. For the first time in a while, it looked like people were enjoying themselves.

So who won?
https://tvline.com/lists/daytime-emmys-2020-winners/

This year's ceremonies had virtually no hype---I'm guessing the network was afraid of building it up too much and having some kind of live train wreck--but I liked this understated version better than the overhyped train wrecks of years past. Maybe they finally found their groove: under-promise and over-deliver.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I would have voted for Maura West, I don't think Y&R is consistently good, they can usually only pull it together when someone dies

 

[Daniel Avery]

Yes, it did make me arch an eyebrow after they showed the fortieth clip of the Kristoff St. John send-off. Of course they did something similar (though not as pronounced) with the GH Christmas episode clips. Just because those are the episodes you submit for the Emmys doesn't mean the Emmy people can't mix in some other notable clips for the sake of variety. But maybe it was because of the shutdown--I recall in years past the Emmy producers would allow the shows' editing teams to put together a 'sizzle reel' to play during the ceremony, but of course the editors, like everyone else, are not available.

Also worthy of an arched eyebrow was the chatty segment with Patrika Darbo, who was credited as a Governor (board member?) of NATAS. It was Darbo who blew the roof off the place last year because NATAS (the Emmy people) screwed up and gave her an Emmy that was later taken back because they claimed she had not been eligible for the award she actually won. I'm fuzzy on the gossipy details, but she and some other performer had been placed in the running for awards and the NATAS people had not bothered to certify their eligibility properly. She set the phaser to "blast" and pointed out how NATAS had a long history of screwing up the process and seemed not to care about learning from mistakes. They had to revamp the nomination processes and set stronger eligibility guidelines, and basically grovel to the public because of how Darbo pointed out their shortcomings. And yet there she was all happy to be one of the faces of NATAS like nothing ever happened.

I too would have loved for Maura West to have won, but I recall so much of this year featured Ava in pity-party mode after Kiki died. I was okay with Tamara Braun winning, but thankfully they didn't make us sit through clips of her final six weeks when Kim was acting like a loony.