Daytime Emmy Awards visits Las Vegas to honor talk shows, soaps

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Daytime’s stars go to Vegas hoping for trophies

Michael Park and Maura West of “As the World Turns” were named best actor and actress in a soap opera at the Daytime Emmy Awards on Sunday, an emotional send-off for a show that is going off the air in three months.

“The Bold & The Beautiful” won the Emmy for best daytime drama for the second year in a row.

Julie Pinson of “As the World Turns” was named best supporting actress in a daytime drama. The Daytime Emmys took time from handing out trophies to pay tribute to the long-running show, which was canceled because of low ratings.

“It’s not easy to say goodbye,” said actress Kelley Menighan Hensley, whose husband, John, is an actor on the show, as they introduced a reel of clips from the show. The drama, which began in 1956, was up for 14 Emmy Awards on Sunday.

Billy Miller of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a daytime drama. Julie Berman of ABC’s “General Hospital” won her second straight Emmy as outstanding younger actress in a soap, and Drew Tyler Bell of CBS’ “The Bold & The Beautiful” was best younger actor.

“It’s a long time coming, let me tell you,” said Pinson, who was nominated once before without winning.

Discovery’s “Cash Cab” won the Emmy for the best game show for the third year in a row, with Ben Bailey winning his first award as best game show host. The show filmed in the back of a New York City taxi beat out studio shows like “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!”

Dr. Mehmet Oz of “The Doctor Oz Show” was named best talk show host in his program’s freshman year.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences paid tribute to Dick Clark and his long-running musical countdown show “American Bandstand.” Tony Orlando, Chubby Checker and Marie Osmond took the Las Vegas stage to sing hits played on “Bandstand” years ago.

“Without ‘Bandstand,’ without Dick, there would be no ‘American Idol,’” said that show’s exiting judge, Simon Cowell.

The academy gave a lifetime achievement award to Agnes Nixon, who created “All My Children” in 1970 and was an influential writer for “Guiding Light,” ”As the World Turns” and other daytime dramas.

Susan Lucci of “All My Children” called her the “queen of modern daytime drama.”

“I would not even be here today if Agnes Nixon had not created Erica Kane,” Lucci said of her character.

Nixon said she was “overwhelmed” and paid tribute to the audience that shared “our real world of make believe.”

The show got off to a bumpy start with illusionist David Copperfield making host Regis Philbin suddenly “appear” onstage. You could hear Philbin say: “How did you do it? I can’t believe it,” while his lips weren’t moving on his onstage image.

“General Hospital” had 18 Daytime Emmy nominations, while “The Young & The Restless” had 16 and perennial children’s favorite “Sesame Street” had 14.