In an emotional twist of fate, the two stars of “As the World Turns,” the 53-year-old soap opera that taped its final show just last Wednesday, won the top acting awards last night on the Daytime Emmys.
Maura West and Michael Park, who play one of the soaps’ most enduring couples — Carly and Jack Snyder, known as “Carjack” to fans — swept both ends of the awards race on a vote that seems to have been a parting gift from their fellow soap actors.
“As the World Turns” was the latest soap to bite the dust as the world of daytime dramas once a foundation of afternoon TV — continues to shrink. Only six soaps remain on TV, down from 12 just 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Manhattan surgeon who became a daytime star this year under the wing of Oprah Winfrey, won the Daytime Emmy for best talk-show host last night, in a big surprise.
It was the first year of eligibility for Oz, who beat out longtime talk-show stalwarts like Regis Philbin, Barbara Walters and Rachael Ray.
Oz, who still sees patients and maintains his surgical practice while doing his talk show, did not attend the show last night in Las Vegas because of his obligations to patients in New York.
The popularity of doctors on daytime TV has suddenly made the Emmy the most sought-after medical award after the Nobel Prize.
In the category of best “informative” talk shows, all three nominees had medical degrees of one type of another — Dr. Phil McGraw, Dr. Oz and the panel show “The Doctors,” starring four physicians with different disciplines.
The Emmy went to “The Doctors,” which is produced by Dr, Phil’s son, Jay, who seemed to take great pleasure in beating his father last night.
The Daytime Emmys are perhaps the clubbiest of all the major award shows since most of the nominated stars and programs have been on the air for years, if not decades.
Oprah long ago took herself out of the running for best talk-show host so that others might have a chance. It didn’t help much.
Ellen DeGeneres’ show won for best talk show, its fifth win since 2004. And “The Bold & the Beautiful,” TV’s top-rated soap, won for best daytime drama for the second year in a row.