These are "The 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards" as the title says and this fairly short awards ceremony at under 90 minutes (under two hours if we count commercials) is not too far away anymore from a big anniversary. As you can see from my rating, I was not happy at all with the outcome quality-wise, but I must say I still hoped this could be better. It took place about a week ago or so by the way and this is also telling because it's tough to imagine any of the really big awards shows, no matter if we are talking music, movies or television to be held on a Friday night. But back to this one here: I have not seen many older editions and I am not particularly aware of most of the nominees here, especially those that are scripted shows. Everybody knows Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, Family Feud (I still think the current host Steve Harvey is amazing and a riot) and some of the other game shows I suppose. The host was Sheryl Underwood (not Carrie) and I guess given her ethnicity, it was not a coincidence they picked her. Of course, the entertainment industry is extremely political. But yeah, she also acts in one of the key show, so nonetheless a fitting choice and better than somebody who is just a big name and does not even appear on daytime television. Underwood did not have a lot of screen time anyway. I will surely forget about her quickly. If you take a look at the trio of people who made this (McKenzie, Merrill, Boone), then you will find a really experienced group that has worked on many other programs already and two of those have even won Primetime Emmys in the past. I would not say they are at fault here honestly, maybe the writers more than the director, but it's literally impossible to turn this event into a quality watch because it is simply too much on the uncreative side just like the programs it supports. Let's be honest here: 95% of people would leave daytime television for evening shows. It's nothing against them though. This is just where the artistic impact is. I am sure there are a few who have the talent to make a transition, but have never gotten the chance sadly. But those are liked too by regular daytime watchers, so it is all good.
As for the acted shows, we have General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, The Bold and The Beautiful and The Young and the Restless here. And this is where the problem starts by definition. All these shows have been on air for many decades and it is literally impossible to come up with new and refreshing stories after all these years. The creative component seems pretty much zero and introducing new and younger characters is not gonna change that one bit. The peak was passed a long, long time ago. The even bigger problem is that the writers are still going for truly dramatic and exaggerated scripts that as a consequence lack authenticity altogether. Why? Because to entertain the simple masses that need their daily fix and they won't get it from unspectacular character studies. It has to be death for example instead. It also gets cringeworthy when they are trying to make an impat in terms of current events. Of course, corona and racism are some of these issues and things get even worse when the viewers then say something like this is exactly how it happens right now because they do not see through this charade. Okay, I am drifting away from the ceremony now, but that needed to be said. I must also say it is pretty embarrassing there is a ceremony that praises these fictitious shows. They deserve no praise, even if it may sound harsh. I do not even think the acting is the key problem here, even if the actors are obviously to blame for accepting those parts. The writing is. But the acting is sometimes an issue too. Like looking at this actress near the end and her scene linked to addiction, I can only shake my head. Absolutely horrible overacting and the fact that they gave a key award to her even makes things much worse. I am hoonestly at the point where I would say that it could be better if daytime television is abolished. Maybe those who are at home all day long can use other ways then to watch actually decent shows or just go outside and enjoy the sun. I am sure they will disagree though.
I am not going too harsh on the game shows here. Jeopardy is awesome. Always has been. May Alex Trebek rest in peace. It was kinda heartbreaking to hear his broken voice in his little video when his nomination was presented. He was already fairly sick at that point obviously. I am happy he won the category and it was nice to see his kids accept the award on his behalf and also nice how a show's producer or something paid tribute to him earlier. At least Johnny Gilbert is still with us. Hope it stays that way for a while. Regis Philbin deserves a mention too. And Larry King. Really quite a few icons from daytime television died lately if we are looking at the non-acting categories. Jessica Walter (in terms of acting) deserves a mention too of course. She is one of the few who really managed an amazing transition. May they all rest in peace. Larry King I have never been a huge fan of or very familiar with, but again it was nice to see his kids accept the award. And I find it pretty sad to see his footsteps are now filled by the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Drew Barrymore. Not even because I think they are bad. But they are quality show hosts and never will be. Clarkson should focus on singing. I liked her at least early in her career and even if she has released some really bad and empty songs over the years too, the talent of her voice is undeniable. Same applies to Barrymore when it comes to acting. I mean Grey Gardens may be over a decade old now. But Santa Clarita Diet was a quality dshow from what I heard. She should be in shows and movies. The extracts from these shows were already pretty embarrassing. I hope her emotions when Spielberg showed up on her birthday were real, but somehow I feel she knew all along what was coming. And from Clarkson I have also seen many unspeakably bad moments from her show that were way worse than her just holding her hands in a certain way that distracted a music guest on her show. It was Garth Brooks, wasn't it?
Anyway, of course the political component is also a factor here again with a Michelle Obama documentary winning a category and with President Biden's wife holding a speech. I would not be too happy about that if I was close to Trebek, but who knows, maybe he would have been. Especially the former, the win I just mentioned, is a key reason why I can give this one two stars out of ten only and not two stars out of five. There are other issues too. I already mentioned the really poor award-winning actress at the end. She will never make it to evening programs I'm sure. Or also how the element of surprise was missing here completely in most of the acceptance speeches because the majority of winners received their awards already days before the show and recorded their speeches. I mean it surely was a challenge with the pandemic, but there were awards shows that showed us how it could be done and how awards would only be given that night of the ceremony. The Oscars did I know for sure. With a similar approach, the Daytime Emmy Awards actually could have made up for some flaws at least. Admittedly, the one moment in which we are supposed to guess which of the two woman is not in the studio with them was kinda creative, even if they also messed up there and acted pretty clumsily with the revelation coming way too fast, only three seconds later or so. Alright, I guess this is pretty much it then. Thanks for reading if you got until here. By now you surely understood that for every mildly decent aspect from this show, there are probably five situations and inclusions where they truly messed up. As a consequence, I give the outcome here the lowest rating possible (from me) and highly suggest you skip watching. I also have not really any idea how this could be handled in a better, more inspired way, so perhaps the accurate decision would be to discontinue this event after its spectacular anniversary two years from now. Major thumbs-down. Oh yeah, I did not mention the cooking and courtroom shows, but they are just as bad, especially Judge Judy (coould be Andy Murray's mother honestly) being so full of herself was impossible to stomach. That's really it now.
As for the acted shows, we have General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, The Bold and The Beautiful and The Young and the Restless here. And this is where the problem starts by definition. All these shows have been on air for many decades and it is literally impossible to come up with new and refreshing stories after all these years. The creative component seems pretty much zero and introducing new and younger characters is not gonna change that one bit. The peak was passed a long, long time ago. The even bigger problem is that the writers are still going for truly dramatic and exaggerated scripts that as a consequence lack authenticity altogether. Why? Because to entertain the simple masses that need their daily fix and they won't get it from unspectacular character studies. It has to be death for example instead. It also gets cringeworthy when they are trying to make an impat in terms of current events. Of course, corona and racism are some of these issues and things get even worse when the viewers then say something like this is exactly how it happens right now because they do not see through this charade. Okay, I am drifting away from the ceremony now, but that needed to be said. I must also say it is pretty embarrassing there is a ceremony that praises these fictitious shows. They deserve no praise, even if it may sound harsh. I do not even think the acting is the key problem here, even if the actors are obviously to blame for accepting those parts. The writing is. But the acting is sometimes an issue too. Like looking at this actress near the end and her scene linked to addiction, I can only shake my head. Absolutely horrible overacting and the fact that they gave a key award to her even makes things much worse. I am hoonestly at the point where I would say that it could be better if daytime television is abolished. Maybe those who are at home all day long can use other ways then to watch actually decent shows or just go outside and enjoy the sun. I am sure they will disagree though.
I am not going too harsh on the game shows here. Jeopardy is awesome. Always has been. May Alex Trebek rest in peace. It was kinda heartbreaking to hear his broken voice in his little video when his nomination was presented. He was already fairly sick at that point obviously. I am happy he won the category and it was nice to see his kids accept the award on his behalf and also nice how a show's producer or something paid tribute to him earlier. At least Johnny Gilbert is still with us. Hope it stays that way for a while. Regis Philbin deserves a mention too. And Larry King. Really quite a few icons from daytime television died lately if we are looking at the non-acting categories. Jessica Walter (in terms of acting) deserves a mention too of course. She is one of the few who really managed an amazing transition. May they all rest in peace. Larry King I have never been a huge fan of or very familiar with, but again it was nice to see his kids accept the award. And I find it pretty sad to see his footsteps are now filled by the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Drew Barrymore. Not even because I think they are bad. But they are quality show hosts and never will be. Clarkson should focus on singing. I liked her at least early in her career and even if she has released some really bad and empty songs over the years too, the talent of her voice is undeniable. Same applies to Barrymore when it comes to acting. I mean Grey Gardens may be over a decade old now. But Santa Clarita Diet was a quality dshow from what I heard. She should be in shows and movies. The extracts from these shows were already pretty embarrassing. I hope her emotions when Spielberg showed up on her birthday were real, but somehow I feel she knew all along what was coming. And from Clarkson I have also seen many unspeakably bad moments from her show that were way worse than her just holding her hands in a certain way that distracted a music guest on her show. It was Garth Brooks, wasn't it?
Anyway, of course the political component is also a factor here again with a Michelle Obama documentary winning a category and with President Biden's wife holding a speech. I would not be too happy about that if I was close to Trebek, but who knows, maybe he would have been. Especially the former, the win I just mentioned, is a key reason why I can give this one two stars out of ten only and not two stars out of five. There are other issues too. I already mentioned the really poor award-winning actress at the end. She will never make it to evening programs I'm sure. Or also how the element of surprise was missing here completely in most of the acceptance speeches because the majority of winners received their awards already days before the show and recorded their speeches. I mean it surely was a challenge with the pandemic, but there were awards shows that showed us how it could be done and how awards would only be given that night of the ceremony. The Oscars did I know for sure. With a similar approach, the Daytime Emmy Awards actually could have made up for some flaws at least. Admittedly, the one moment in which we are supposed to guess which of the two woman is not in the studio with them was kinda creative, even if they also messed up there and acted pretty clumsily with the revelation coming way too fast, only three seconds later or so. Alright, I guess this is pretty much it then. Thanks for reading if you got until here. By now you surely understood that for every mildly decent aspect from this show, there are probably five situations and inclusions where they truly messed up. As a consequence, I give the outcome here the lowest rating possible (from me) and highly suggest you skip watching. I also have not really any idea how this could be handled in a better, more inspired way, so perhaps the accurate decision would be to discontinue this event after its spectacular anniversary two years from now. Major thumbs-down. Oh yeah, I did not mention the cooking and courtroom shows, but they are just as bad, especially Judge Judy (coould be Andy Murray's mother honestly) being so full of herself was impossible to stomach. That's really it now.
