Daytime Emmys Postpones June Awards Show Until After Writers Strike Ends

Michael Schneider

The Daytime Emmys are once again planning to pivot, as next month’s awards show to won’t go forward as previously planned. With the ongoing writers strike, the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences confirmed on Tuesday that this year’s 50th Daytime Emmys would move from its planned June 16 ceremony to an undetermined later date.

“The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards planned for Friday, June 16 on CBS is postponed due to the WGA strike,” NATAS president/CEO Adam Sharp said in a statement obtained by Variety. “In addition, the Creative Arts & Lifestyle ceremony, planned for Saturday, June 17, has been postponed pending a strike resolution. We look forward to our community gathering together as one to celebrate our Golden Anniversary and all of the talented nominees and honorees at a later date.”

More from Variety

The change comes as the Tony Awards aims to adjust its June 11 show (the Writers Guild of America denied a request for a strike waiver from the show’s producers, but said it wouldn’t picket the show after discussing changes to the telecast). Earlier this month, the MTV Movie & TV Awards switched to a pre-taped clip special after the WGA announced it would picket a live broadcast from Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar (and host Drew Barrymore dropped out). And also on Monday, the Peabody Awards scrapped plans to hold an in-person ceremony on June 11.

Key categories on the Daytime Emmys focus on soap operas, which fall under WGA guidelines, and talk shows — most of which also employ WGA members. With the strike ongoing, it’s unlikely nominees would cross picket lines to attend the show.

Pivots are nothing new to the Daytime Emmys. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, the telecast was delayed two weeks, and then reinvented as a mostly pre-taped, two-hour special produced remotely. That year, presenters filmed five different envelope openings — and every nominee in the major categories presented were asked to tape an acceptance speech and send it to the show. In 2021, the Daytime Emmys was still produced as a pre-taped event, shot at producer Associated Television International’s facilities in Burbank.

Last year, the Daytime Emmys returned to a live, in-person event at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, and “General Hospital” was the big winner with five awards — including best daytime drama. This year’s event, which was supposed to take place at downtown Los Angeles’ Westin Bonaventure hotel, was announced as part of a two-year deal with CBS.

“General Hospital” is looking to defend its crown at the Daytime Emmys, landing 19 nominations this year — the most of any program . CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful” was next in line, with 14 nods, followed by “The Young and the Restless” (13), NBC’s “Days of Our Lives” (11) and the most-honored non-serial, the syndicated “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” also with 11.

RELATED: Daytime Emmys: ‘General Hospital’ Leads 2023 Nominations; Variety Lands Two Nods (FULL LIST)

The Daytime Emmys continue to evolve, following the most recent agreement between the two major TV academies in which several categories have been realigned to focus on genre, rather than dayparts, as a way to divide eligibility between the Primetime (administered by the L.A.-based TV Academy) and Daytime Emmys (handled by the NY-based NATAS).

This means that game shows have now migrated to the Primetime Emmys; meanwhile, children’s and family programming categories have already been removed from both shows and relocated to a new Children’s & Family Emmy Award competition and ceremony, the first of which took place this past December. Also, instructional/how-to programming is now considered strictly the purview of the Daytime Emmys, regardless of daypart. Among other changes this year, informative and entertainment talk show categories have merged into “daytime talk series,” while informative and entertainment talk show host fields are now “daytime talk series host.”

The Daytime Emmy Awards have recognized outstanding achievements in television programming and crafts since 1974. Separate from the June 16 that was supposed to be telecast live on CBS and Paramount+, the Daytime Emmys Lifestyle & Creative Arts Ceremony was originally slated to take place the next day, on June 17. The kudos are produced by NATAS and Associated Television International. Adam Sharp and Lisa Armstrong are executive producers from NATAS, while David McKenzie is executive producer from ATI.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.

Advertisement