Backstage at the 31st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards

By Libby Slate

All evening long, participants in the primetime telecast of the 31st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards had to choose which of two microphones to stand by when speaking with members of the print media covering the event.

Ellen DeGeneres

All but Ellen DeGeneres, that is. As winner of the Outstanding Talk Show category for the freshman talkfest bearing her name, she greeted the press cheerily, then said, "Which do you use? Ah, it’s a psychological thing. I knew you were testing me — that’s why I went for the middle."

Big Bird and Al Roker

A seven-floor elevator ride and two flights of stairs above the show, held May 21 at Radio City Music Hall in New York, winners and presenters took to the mikes with enough emotion for a week of soap operas: laughter, tears, shocked surprise and heartfelt gratitude. DeGeneres provided much of the laughs, then turned serious when asked why she thought the show had won. "I was happy but not surprised," she said. "We went in and I didn’t pay attention to the rules. They said, ‘Here’s what people watch.’ I’ve been doing standup twenty-five years — I go to work and I do what I want and I say what I want. People see that I’m happy and they respond to that. How many people dance at the beginning of their show? Now," she said with a grin, "I guess I’m stuck dancing forever."

Dancing away with her record-setting third consecutive award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series was Jennifer Finnigan, who left The Bold and the Beautiful for primetime and is now co-starring on Crossing Jordan and the new fall sitcom Crazy for You.

"I have a major guilt complex," she said. "I’m shocked and so grateful. What a beautiful way to say goodbye." (At the CBS post-Emmy party, Finnigan explained how to take the sharp-winged statuette onboard the plane home to L.A. in these days of heightened security: "You wrap it in your clothes and put it in your carry-on bag. When they screen it, they go, ‘What is this?’ So you unwrap it and show them it’s an Emmy, and they let you bring it on.")

Finnigan’s Outstanding Younger Actor counterpart, Chad Brannon, has also left his soap, General Hospital. When asked how he might now be brought back, as his character was killed off, he quipped, "Oh, I’m dead, baby — that’s bag’s zipped and gone." He is looking into primetime and film, he said, along with a higher calling, having enrolled in a college to study Christian ministries.

Ruth Warrick

Representing General Hospital as well was Rick Hearst, winner for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, who turned teary-eyed when noting that the evening marked the third anniversary of his father’s death. Asked if he now felt secure on this show after roles on other soaps, he replied, "I don’t think you ever feel secure. The minute you coast, that’s when you begin to stagnate."

Like Hearst, Outstanding Supporting Actress Cady McClain of As the World Turns had years earlier won in the younger performer category. This night, she acknowledged co-star Hunt Block as someone "who presents a real challenge. I rise to his level. He brings out the best in me." Still, working in Brooklyn, all her castmates "keep it real. ‘Did you get your coffee?’ ‘Do you know your lines?’ The important stuff."

Outstanding Lead Actress Michelle Stafford of The Young and the Restless, previously a Supporting Actress winner, experienced a sweet victory after last year’s mishap, when several minutes of her submission tape had been inadvertently deleted. "There was a lot of hoopla made [then], but it wasn’t a big deal to me afterward," she said. Her role as Phyllis Abbott is still rewarding to play after many years because, the actress said, "She’s a freak of nature. She’s manipulative and conniving, and she twists things around to make the audience feel sorry for her and think, ‘She really should be murdering this person.’"

For his part, Anthony Geary of General Hospital, who collected his fourth Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actor, told the press he would like to see his character Luke Spencer be even darker than he already is. "I was hoping the [serial] murderer on Days of Our Lives would turn out to be Luke," he said. That goes for the show itself as well. "I think daytime panders too much. I’d like to challenge the audience. I fight to keep Luke as dark as possible. I like the fact that he has an edge. It makes it exciting for me to play."

John Shaffner

For the GH directors though, who won as Outstanding Drama Series Directing team, it’s not the show’s violence they prefer. "It’s the emotional moments we feel more deeply in our hearts," said Owen Renfroe. "The gift we all get is the opportunity to ignite an actor’s best work. Added Mary Madeiras, "Those smaller moments can be luscious. They are more than magic."

The winning Drama Series Writing team from As The World Turns described their upcoming show plotlines as "betrayal, friendship, secrets and lies." The winning Outstanding Drama Series team from The Young and the Restless, jubilantly claiming their first victory in the category in eleven years, promised more groundbreaking stories on public service issues. Asked about the show’s trademark leisurely-paced plotlines, executive producer John F. Smith said, "We could [accelerate] if we wanted to. We think it’s a very effective way to tell stories. We go into the story and flesh out whatever we need to. If we need to move it along, we move it along."

Outstanding Service Show Host winner Suze Orman greeted the media with, "I’m not a soap opera, but money’s like a soap opera and like a serious reality show." The host of The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life characterized her work as "giving people a perspective on money they don’t get anywhere else. I tell the truth, regardless of the advertisers. We’re all taught to be afraid of money. We don’t talk about it, and we’re afraid to make mistakes with it."

Also visiting the pressroom was Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series Jeff Corwin, star of Jeff Corwin Unleashed. His show stands out among similar shows because, he said, "We have a diverse audience. Children are not going to be talked down to. And we have humor, which you don’t necessarily find in a natural history host."

Joe Stewart, Christopher Goumas, Lance Zeck and Tina Miller

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to ten veteran daytime drama performers. Speaking for her colleagues, Jeanne Cooper of The Young and the Restless said,

"I like who we were, I like who we became and I like who we are. I think it’s very encouraging to young people coming up. And I think we’ve all lived well enough, long enough and happily enough to deserve this."

For a complete list of winners, visit the NATAS website.