Emmy Facts: 10 Things About The Daytime Emmys You Probably Don’t Know

With the Daytime Emmys fast approaching at the end of next month, the entire soap industry and fans alike are waiting with bated breath for the final list of nominations to come out.

While we wait, Soap Hub thought we’d tide you over with some Daytime Emmy trivia you may not have known. The Emmys have had quite a history, so here are some things that might surprise you.

1. The first Emmy awards given for achievement in daytime programming were not a part of the Daytime Emmys. In fact, there were no Daytime Emmys back in 1972 and The Doctors won the first-ever award for Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Drama, competing against General Hospital.

2. That same year, All My Children’s Mary Fickett (Ruth) won for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual in Daytime Drama.

3. By 1974, The Daytime Emmys became an entity unto itself, with the ceremony held at Channel Gardens by Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

4. The Daytime Emmys were a New York event for many years, as most soaps were taped in NY, and stars from the Los Angeles shows traveled to the opposite coast. The ceremony was often held at NY’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and then later, Radio City Music Hall. In 2006, the awards move to LA, but also spent a few years in Las Vegas.

5. The Outstanding Younger Leading Actor and Actress Awards were not given out until 1985. And the actress category even had a different name–Outstanding Ingenue. In 1986, the category changed to what it is called today.

6. The first performers to win in the Outstanding Younger Actor and Actress categories were Brian Bloom from As the World Turns and Tracey E. Bregman from The Young and the Restless.

7. The pre-nominations are a fairly new Emmy 21st century phenomenon introduced in 2003 to avoid block voting within show casts.

8. The most famous Daytime Emmy winner is All My Children’s Susan Lucci, who was nominated 18 times before she finally took home the gold for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1999.

9. The first Emmy tie was in 1989 when Debbi Morgan (Angie, All My Children) and Nancy Lee Grahn (Julia, Santa Barbara; now Alexis, General Hospital) won for Outstanding Supporting Actress.

10. The last time the Daytime Emmys were aired on TV was in 2015 when Pop TV carried them. Since then, the awards have been streamed.