Sydney Applebaum: Illuminating Lives Through Art And Resilience

When talking about an award night, including the Emmy Awards, without some losers, there surely cannot be winners.

And about the highlight of the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony? Fans of the soap opera not only had the opportunity to watch it, but they could also do so thanks to realtime award updates. That meant that we could all watch speeches made, honors given out, and history made.

To be honest, there were also a couple less than stellar instances on show. So let’s quickly review the highlights and lowlights of this year’s Daytime Emmys broadcast. Ready?

The biggest low was—as we say every year—the complete lack of acting category video. Yes, they were finally shown during the top-tier awards, but we’re confident that every single lover of soap opera would concur that more clips would have been much preferred to a second Michael Bolton song.

The most unexpected news was that not many winners mentioned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade before the big night. The topic was mostly avoided, except for a few seemingly comments, particularly from co-host Nischelle Turner (who deliberately emphasized it was her “decision” to wear the clothing she had chosen). Remember, women’s rights are human rights, Turner said in the final seconds of the broadcast.

Best Accessorized: Walking on the red carpet, the very outspoken Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis, General Hospital) made sure everyone knew where she stood. She later said on Instagram, “I did my best to use my privileged platform to honor women’s rights to dignity, choice, and sovereignty over their own bodies.

Best Speech: Mishael Morgan (Amanda, The Young and the Restless), the Outstanding Lead Actress winner, first appeared to be having trouble speaking since she was so surprised by her victory. But after speaking wonderfully about her journey, the first Black woman to win the honor did so.

Most Touching Moment: When Susan Lucci was asked to introduce the show’s annual In Memoriam portion, she was sobbing uncontrollably as she spoke of her loving husband Helmut Huber, who passed away earlier this year. She emoted, “They believe grief is the price we pay for love. Grief is a painful price to pay, but I wouldn’t give up love for even a moment.

Best Segment: After receiving a standing ovation from the audience when she entered the stage as Days of Our Lives’ Suzanne Rogers (Maggie), she introduced a video package in which Jennifer Aniston spoke about her father, Lifetime Achievement Award recipient John Aniston (Victor).

Best Retaliation: Kelly Thiebaud in General Hospital, the first winner of the evening, had the funniest comment. The Outstanding Supporting Performance recipient confessed that when she first started acting, her brother told her she wasn’t very good. I’m grateful that you gave me something to rub in his face, so.

Biggest Improvement: Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Spencer), who appeared on stage to accept the Outstanding Younger Performer award, revealed, “Just a little over a year ago I was selling cars in a little beach town in Florida!”

Moving away from the side events in the main event, lets take a peep Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, one of the winners at the Emmys award night.

Zendaya is a successful Disney superstar and actress, who won the award for the most outstanding lead actress in a drama series, ‘Euphoria’.

Euphoria has enjoyed massive success with fans worldwide, talking about how relatable the TV drama series has been, as it related what might be going on in the lives of teens in the 21st century.

For the most outstanding lead actress category, Zendaya was nominated alongside Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Oh, Laura Linnie, and Jodie Comer. This is her second Emmy win for her role in #Euphoria.