General Hospital’s SURPRISING Daytime Emmy History!

On Sunday, May 5 the 46th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be live streamed across multiple online platforms giving fans the chance to join in on the most important night for soap opera performers.

And, if the nomination list is anything to go by, devotees of ABC’s lone sudser General Hospital may very well get to cheer on their favorite actors and actresses as they accept a golden statuette.

With 12 acting nominations, GH is the second most nominated soap opera (behind NBC’s Days Of Our Lives). But what many fans may not realize is that this is an especially important awards season for the serial who, 40 years ago this month, won its very first Daytime Emmy Award.

In May of 1979, GH was seen as the proverbial bridesmaid who could never land a groom. It had the great distinction of being nominated in the first-ever category devoted to soap operas at the Primetime Emmy Awards show (it lost to NBC’s The Doctors).

Since 1973, it had been nominated a total of nine times in various categories and had failed to come home with a single win.

However, at the 6th Annual Daytime Emmy ceremony, that streak of bad luck was finally ended. Veteran performer Peter Hansen, who played Lee Baldwin, was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

Hansen had been nominated for his riveting performance as an alcoholic who flung himself off the wagon when his lady love, Gail Adamson, declined his marriage proposal.

Accepting his trophy on stage Hansen quipped, “When I was in the elevator the other day, I heard someone say, ‘He’s a late bloomer.’ Well, Better late than never!”

The 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards air Sunday, May 5 at 5 p.m. PST and 8 p.m. ET. The program can be viewed on the Daytime Emmys’ official Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on YouTube and at emmyonline.tv.

Don’t miss Soap Hub’s live red carpet coverage of the Daytime Emmy Awards on our popular Facebook page.