Mario Lopez, Larry King, Kevin Frazier, Nancy O’Dell and other stars and creators of daytime television packed the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites for the 43rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards.
The room was full of applause as CBS’s “The Talk” won its first Daytime Emmy in six years, beating the prevailing champion, Ellen DeGeneres, and others in the daytime yak pack.
Cast members of “The Talk” told Variety that they were shocked when the winner was announced. “I don’t know if it was something that happened this season that made it a standout, but we’ve been on for six seasons now and it was our time,” said Julie Chen, co-host of “The Talk.” “In daytime TV, viewing habits shift and it takes a while to become a household name and I think we have accomplished that.”
CBS was a big winner last night, nabbing the outstanding morning program award for “CBS This Morning” and the outstanding game show prize for “The Price Is Right.” ABC also thrived, taking home the outstanding drama series honor for “General Hospital” and outstanding informative talk show for “The Chew.” Both networks racked up six awards each.
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“I am so thrilled for all of them,” said Angelica McDaniel, head of daytime programming at CBS. “For everyone’s hard work and efforts, this is just the culmination and it’s a great night to celebrate.”
McDaniel said the network continuously pushes itself to keep its iconic brands such as “The Price Is Right” and “The Young and the Restless” current while paying respect to where the shows come from. She said the biggest challenge is staying relevant.
“We just launched an online series utilizing all of our talent from all of our shows called ‘Not Safe for Daytime’ that consists of parodies, spoofs and viral videos,” McDaniel said. “It’s more in the comedic space because our viewers are online and we want to be where they are.”
The excitement spilled over into the CBS after-party, held at Alexandria Ballrooms in downtown Los Angeles. The exclusive invitation-only event, which had an invite list of more than 1,000 people, celebrates the various teams at CBS that work to bring their programming to life.
The after-party had rolling carts with an array of dim sum, cakes and signature cocktails, including the “Brash and Sassy” (a reference to “Young and the Restless”) and the “Plinko Drinko” (a fun nod to “The Price Is Right”).
Guests took home gift bags valued at over $2,000.
