The second of two Daytime Emmy ceremonies airs tonight on the HLN cable channel. The first, which was last Sunday evening, was not televised. That's the one where June Foray won her first Emmy at age 94. I do not know for a fact that they will show a clip of that moment (or any moments from last Sunday) on tonight's telecast but it wouldn't surprise me.
It's interesting that there's so little interest in this ceremony. The first time I was nominated, it was not televised. The event was an afternoon, non-tuxedo event at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City and I found it pretty boring and did not go the next few times I was up for a statue. By that time, they'd begun airing it on TV…and as I recall, it aired during the daytime, preempting The Price is Right or other shows, for a few years until they tried it in prime-time for a while. It's still pretty much the same event it ever was but no one seems to want it these days. HLN was a last-minute deal because nothing more appropriate seemed possible. The E! Network didn't want it. TV Land didn't want it. And even though much of it is about their shows, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox didn't want it.
I understand institutions like the Miss America Pageant losing a mainstream audience. Beauty contests celebrate some kind of antiseptic, phony worldview that most folks today don't relate to. But awards for soap operas, game shows and kids' programming have not gotten any less relevant or any more interesting. I don't think it's a bad thing that folks no longer care that much about such honors. It may even be a good thing. It's certainly an odd thing.