THE Daytime Emmy Awards are tonight and I have a few bones to pick, starting with Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa.
Think you can guess how many Daytime Emmys Regis has won for Best Talk Show Host?
If you assumed he’s won a truckload of them, you would be wrong.
Regis has won only once in the category, even though he’s been hosting talk shows for so long that “Regis” should be listed in the thesaurus as a synonym for “talk show host.”
Almost as incredible, Kelly, his co-host on “Live! With Regis and Kelly,” has never won an award for Best Talk Show Host.
This year, the voters at the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, organizer of the Daytime Emmys, have a chance to rectify the situation by awarding them both.
Their competition includes Ellen DeGeneres, who has already won three times, and the ladies of “The View,” which had a more interesting season a year earlier when Rosie O’Donnell was picking fights with everybody.
Moreover, “The View” is nominated in another category – Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show – it goes up against “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Rachael Ray.”
“The View” has won once before and “DeGeneres” has won four times. Rachael’s working hard for the money these days: How about showing her some love? Meanwhile, the talk shows have been split into two categories – “Entertainment” (see above) and “Informative” – classifications that are sometimes difficult to separate.
In the “Informative” category this year, “The Tyra Banks Show” is pitted against “Dr. Phil” and “A Place of Our Own/Los Ninos en su Casa,” a PBS talk show with two versions – one in English and the other in Spanish.
That’s a clever idea and it might even be a terrific show, but Tyra’s show is really winning the publicity sweepstakes these days, which probably means the show will beat “Dr. Phil.”
The Daytime Emmys cover a lot of shows, including soaps, kids’ shows and cooking shows (categorized as “lifestyle” programs).
A bunch of them were already awarded at an event last weekend that was not televised. Most notably: Discovery Channel’s “Cash Cab,” hosted by Ben Bailey, won an Emmy for Best Game Show (deservedly so), beating out two giants in the category, “Jeopardy!” and “The Price is Right.”
Court shows are also part of the mix, and this year, five are nominated – “Cristina’s Court,” “Judge David Young,” “Judge Hatchett,” “Judge Judy” and “The People’s Court.”
Who should win? You be the judge!
“The 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards” airs tonight at 8 on ABC/7, live from Los Angeles and co-hosted by Cameron Mathison of “All My Children” and Sherri Shepherd of “The View.” And just in case Regis doesn’t win for Best Talk Show Host, there’s a consolation prize: Don’t tell him this, since it will ruin the surprise, but he’s receiving a Lifetime Achieve- ment Award.
