Who Wants To Be An Emmy Winner?
Now that Susan Lucci has finally won, the Daytime Emmys need another lovable loser looking for that first trophy. Would you believe Regis Philbin?
The host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire earned Daytime Emmy nominations Wednesday for best game-show host and best talk-show host.
Philbin has been nominated seven times before for his role on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, but has never won an Emmy.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire earned a nod for best game show. Even though it is routinely the top-rated show in prime time, Millionaire was shunted off to the Daytime Emmys, since there's no game-show category for prime time Emmys. The move was made much to the annoyance of ABC, the show's producer and Philbin.
"I don't know why a prime-time show ends up on the Daytime Emmys," Philbin said Wednesday. "But I never understood the Daytime Emmys all these years."
The soap opera The Young and the Restless earned a staggering 28 nominations, more than twice its closest competitor, Sesame Street, which had 13.
Philbin's Live with Regis and Kathie Lee will compete with Donny & Marie, The Martin Short Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show and The View for best talk show.
Kathie Lee Gifford, who announced she will stop doing Live with Regis and Kathie Lee this summer, shared a nomination with Philbin for best talk-show host. She's been nominated six times before with no wins. In past years, the show itself has earned 25 nominations and zero wins.
Lucci knows something about paying dues. She won her first Daytime Emmy as best soap-opera actress last year in her 19th try. She was not nominated this year for her role as Erica Kane on All My Children.
Nominees for best actress on a daytime soap opera were Finola Hughes of All My Children; Susan Flannery of The Bold and the Beautiful; Hillary B. Smith of One Life to Live; Jeanne Cooper of The Young and the Restless; and Jess Walton of The Young and the Restless.
Best actor nominees for soap operas were David Canary of All My Children; Anthony Geary of General Hospital; Robert Woods of One Life to Live; Peter Bergman of The Young and the Restless; and Eric Braeden of The Young and the Restless.
In addition to Philbin and Gifford, nominees for best talk-show host were Donny and Marie Osmond, Short, O'Donnell and the crew from The View: Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Joy Behar and Lisa Ling.
Notably missing from the nominations for talk show and talk show host was Oprah Winfrey, who has won 15 Daytime Emmys. She took herself out of the running in both categories.
Competing against Philbin for best game -how host are Tom Bergeron of Hollywood Squares; Alex Trebek of Jeopardy; Bob Barker of The Price is Right and Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune.
Best game-show nominees include Wo Wants to Be a Millionaire, Jeopardy, The Price is Right, Hollywood Squares and Win Ben Stein's Money.
The awards will be given out May 19 in a ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York, televised by ABC.
Members of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences select the winners.
Written By DAVID BAUDER
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