Daytime Emmy Award
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Awarded for	Excellence indaytime television
Country	United States
Presented by	NATAS/ATAS
First award	May 21, 1974; 51 years ago (1974-05-21)
Website	theemmys.tv/daytime/

TheDaytime Emmy Awards, orDaytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range ofEmmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-basedNational Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Daytime Emmys are presented in recognition of excellence in Americandaytime television programming. The first ceremony was held in1974, expanding what was originally aprime time-themed Emmy Award. Ceremonies generally are held in May or June, but starting in 2025, the ceremony will be held in October.

The firstEmmy Award ceremony took place on January 25, 1949. The first daytime-themed Emmy Awards were given out at thePrimetime Emmy Awards ceremony in 1972, whenThe Doctors andGeneral Hospital were nominated forOutstanding Achievement in a Daytime Drama. That year,The Doctors won the first Best Show Daytime Emmy. In addition, the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual in a Daytime Drama was given toMary Fickett fromAll My Children. A previous category "Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Programming" was added once in 1968 with individuals likeDays of Our Lives starMacdonald Carey nominated. Due to voting rules of the time, judges could opt to either award one or no Emmy, and in the end they decided that no one nominated was deserving of the golden statuette. This snub outraged then-Another World writerAgnes Nixon, causing her to write inThe New York Times, "...after viewing the recent fiasco of the Emmy awards, it may well be considered a mark of distinction to have been ignored by this group."^[1]

LongtimeGeneral Hospital starJohn Beradino became a leading voice to have daytime talent honored with special recognition for their work. The first separate awards show made just for daytime programming was broadcast in 1974 from theChannel Gardens atRockefeller Center in New York. The hosts that year wereBarbara Walters andPeter Marshall. For years, the gala was held in New York, usually at nearbyRadio City Music Hall, with occasional broadcasts fromMadison Square Garden. In 2006, the Daytime Emmys was moved to theKodak Theatre inLos Angeles, the first time they had ever been held outside of New York.^[2] The Kodak Theatre also hosted the 2007 and 2008 ceremonies, before it was moved again in 2009 to theOrpheum Theatre across town. In 2010 and 2011, the Daytime Emmys were instead held inLas Vegas. From 2012 onward, the Daytime Emmys have been held at various venues in Los Angeles, never to return again to New York (most likely as a reflection of the current state of American daytime dramas, where all New York-produced network soap operas have since been cancelled, and the ones left on the air are being recorded in Los Angeles).

In 2007, child voice actress Danica Lee, the voice for Ming-Ming inWonder Pets! became the first Asian nominee overall in Daytime Emmy history whileEric Bauza became the first adult Asian nominee in Daytime Emmy history.

Due to the relatively small talent pool in daytime television, it has become common for the same people to be nominated repeatedly. The most infamous of these isAll My Children starSusan Lucci, whose name became synonymous with being nominated for an award and never winning, after having been nominated 18 times without receiving an award before finally winning a Daytime Emmy for Best Actress in 1999.^[3]

In 2003, in response to heavy criticism ofbloc voting in favor of shows with the largest casts, an additional voting round was added to all the drama acting categories.^[4] Known as the "pre-nominations", one or two actors from each show is selected to then move on and be considered for the primary nominations for the awards.^[5]

With the rise ofcable television in the 1980s, cable programs first became eligible for the Daytime Emmys in 1989.^[6] In 2013, in response toAll My Children being moved from broadcast tostreaming television, NATAS began accepting nominations to web-only series.^[7] TheAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) also began accepting original online-only streaming television programs in 2013.^[8]

In October 2019, as part of several initiatives regarding gender identity, the NATAS decided to replace both the younger actor and actress in a drama categories with a single gender-neutral one for 2020.^[9]

The47th Daytime Emmy Awards were postponed to June 26, 2020, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, with the traditional in-person ceremony being replaced by a television special featuring remote appearances, and the announcement of winners in leading categories.^[10]

In December 2021, the ATAS and NATAS announced major realignments to the Emmy Awards, accounting for the growth ofstreaming services by aligning their categories and the ceremonies' scopes around factors such as the themes and frequency of such programming, rather than dayparts. This resulted in most dramas (besides soap operas) now falling exclusively under the scope of the Primetime Emmy Awards, and categories for children's television being spun out into the newly establishedChildren's and Family Emmy Awards.^[11][12]

NATAS has periodically awarded the Chairman's Crystal Pillar Award, for special achievement in daytime television, including a 2011 award forOprah Winfrey and hereponymous syndicated talk show.^[13][14][15] In 2021, the Crystal Pillar was awarded to 16 daytime television professionals who "envisioned and implemented procedures that made safe production of media possible during the COVID pandemic" as part of the48th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.^[16]

In January 2025, NATAS president Adam Sharp stated that beginning with the 52nd ceremony, the Daytime Emmy Awards would move from its previous May/June scheduling to October, switching places with theNews and Documentary Emmy Awards to highlight the "timely nature" of news and documentary content.^[17]

Among the Daytime Emmy rules, a show must originally air on American television during the eligibility period between January 1 and December 31. Historically, in order to be considered anational daytime show, the program was required to air between 2 a.m. and 6 p.m., and to at least 50 percent of the country.^[18]Shows in syndication, whose air times vary between media markets, could either be entered in the Daytime or Primetime Emmys (provided they still reach the 50 percent national reach), but not in both.^[19] Game shows that reached the 50 percent threshold could be entered into the Daytime Emmys if they normally aired before 8 p.m.; otherwise, they were only eligible for the Primetime Emmys.^[18]

Web television shows must be available for downloading or streaming to more than 50 percent of the country, and like shows in syndication they can only enter in one of the national Emmy competitions. A show that enters into the Daytime Emmys cannot also be entered into thePrimetime Emmy Awards or any other national Emmy competition. Entries must be submitted by late December. Most award categories also require entries to include DVDs or tape masters of the show. For example, most series categories require the submitted DVD to include any one or two episodes that originally aired during the eligibility period.^[18]

Voting is done by peer judging panels. Any active Academy member who has national credits for at least two years and within the last five years is eligible to be a judge. Depending on the category, voting is done using either a ratings score criteria or a preferential scoring system.^[18]

As of the49th edition, eligibility for the Daytime Emmy Awards is now based on factors such as thematics and broadcasting frequency, with certain categories having been moved to other Emmy presentations. In particular:^[11][12]

• Only daytime serial dramas—defined as anepisodic, multi-camera drama that airs on a weekday basis, or areboot orspin-off of such a series—are eligible for drama awards at the Daytime Emmy Awards. All other scripted comedies and dramas now fall under the ATAS and Primetime Emmy Awards, regardless of scheduling.
• Programming targeting viewers aged 15 and younger were spun out into the newChildren's and Family Emmy Awards, also organized by the NATAS.
• Talk shows are divided between the Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards based on "format and style characteristics reflective of current programming in the daytime orlate night space".
• Categories formorning shows were moved to theNews & Documentary Emmy Awards.
• Categories forgame shows and instructional/do it yourself (DIY) programming remained split between the Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards for 2022. Most game show categories were then moved to the Primetime Emmys in 2023, while those game shows featuring children as contestants were moved to the Children's and Family Emmys.^[20]

The show originally aired during the daytime hours (except for the 1983 and 1984 awards, which weren't televised) but moved to primetime in 1991. For many years, the show was produced by one of its own Lifetime Achievement honorees,Dick Clark. Each show from 2006 to 2008 was produced by White Cherry Entertainment.

NBC often aired special primetime episodes of its soaps (such asAnother World: Summer Desire) as alead-in to the ceremony. In 2002, 2005, and 2007, CBS aired special primetime editions ofThe Price Is Right as a lead-in (the first of which tying into its then-hostBob Barker being host of the ceremony, and the last being a primetime encore of his final episode as host, which aired earlier in the day).

In August 2009,The CW broadcast the Daytime Emmys for the first time, due to the other networks declining to carry it (at the time the network did haveone daytime program,Judge Jeanine Pirro). The airing delivered the ceremony's lowest ratings ever (0.6/2 in 18–49, 2.72m),^[21] but it did outperform The CW's weak averages on the night that summer. The second time around,Associated Television International brought the 37th Daytime Emmy Awards to CBS, as well as the 38th, the following year. On May 3, 2012, it was announced and confirmed thatHLN would air the 39th ceremony on June 23, 2012.^[22] In that ceremony, an additional non-Emmy award was awarded by the program's social media partner,AOL, for BestViral Video Series.^{[citation needed]} With 912,000 viewers (not counting four repeat broadcasts which brought the total to 2 million), the broadcast was "the most watched regularly scheduled, non-news telecast" ever on HLN, but by far the least-watched Daytime Emmy ceremony ever.^[23]

For the first time in the event's four-decade history, the 2014 Daytime Emmy ceremony was not broadcast on TV and instead aired only online,^[24] but the Daytime Awards telecast eventually returned to television the following year thanks to a two-year deal with basic cable channelPop.^[25] However, for 2016, the academy announced that ceremony would not be televised for the second time, citing the "current climate for awards shows".^[26]

In 2020, the remotely-produced "virtual" ceremony for the 47th Daytime Emmy Awards aired on CBS, marking its return to both broadcast TV and CBS for the first time since 2011.^[10] On April 1, 2021, the NATAS subsequently announced a two-year deal with CBS, covering the48th and 49th Daytime Emmy Awards.^[27]

Daytime Emmys are awarded in the following categories:

Creative Arts Emmy Awards are awarded in the following categories:

^[29]

• List of American television awards
• List of Daytime Emmy Award winners in acting and drama
• List of Primetime Emmy Award winners
• Primetime Emmy Award § Retired categories

• Media related toDaytime Emmy Award at Wikimedia Commons

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• Awards established in 1974
• 1974 establishments in the United States
• Lifetime achievement awards
• American annual television specials

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