 |
| The Young and the Restless was named Outstanding Drama Series. Photo Credit: AP Images/Invision |
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.
DAYTIME SOAP OPERAS
