Entertainment

The races to watch on this Sunday’s Daytime Emmys

THREE’S COMPANY: Judy Sheindlin, Heather Tom and Julie Chen are all hoping to take home a Daytime Emmy. (
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Ok, so they aren’t what they used to be.

Once upon a time — in a TV galaxy far, far away — the Daytime Emmys were considered important enough to warrant a prime-time slot on the major broadcast networks (rotating between ABC, CBS and NBC).

“There was a time when the Daytime Emmys got about 20 million viewers and actually beat the Prime Time Emmys for two or three years — during the peak of the Susan Lucci frenzy,” says goldderby.com editor/awards expert Tom O’Neill, referring to the former “All My Children” star’s quest to win the coveted statuette (which ended with her win, in 1999, after 18 tries).

But in the now-fragmented, multichannel TV universe — which contends with social media and the Web — the Daytime Emmys, celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, are a TV flicker of their former self.

The telecast has been relegated to cable — specifically to HLN which, for the second consecutive year, will air the Daytime Emmys live this Sunday (8 p.m.) from the Beverly Hilton in LA, with hosts Robin Meade, Sam Champion and AJ Hammer.

“The [ratings] decline started with the OJ Simpson trial, which was a real soap in daytime TV, and the numbers fell precipitously after that,” says O’Neill. “But the telecast seems to have found a good home on HLN.”

And it’s still considered a prestigious event, at least for the TV industry, which puts a lot of emphasis on the coveted gold statuette — with networks and syndicators pumping millions of dollars into Daytime Emmy ad campaigns for their nominees.

Both O’Neil, and TV Guide Magazine daytime TV columnist Michael Logan, point to several interesting races to watch for on Sunday night — including “Judge Judy” Sheindlin who, despite lording over a mega-rated court show, has never won a Daytime Emmy.

“She may dominate in terms of viewership, salary and pop-culture presence, but voters have denied her the Daytime Emmy,” says O’Neil. “What makes her so fearlessly evil on TV seems to get her punished at the Emmys. But her competitors this year are very weak, so she has a good shot at winning.

“And ‘Live with Kelly & Michael’ is another story to watch,” he says. “ ‘Live’ had a real tough time getting recognized, and finally won in Regis Philbin’s final season. And now with Michael Strahan, the question is, can Kelly [Ripa] get industry validation for the show’s reinvention? And they’re up against Julie Chen and ‘The Talk’ — which is also looking for validation as a legitimate rival of ‘The View.’ ”

While Logan points out that all five soaps that aired on broadcast TV in 2012 were nominated this year — including “One Life to Live,” which has since moved from ABC to online (Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes) — he still sees some compelling storylines unfolding.

“I think the one person everyone is hoping will win, and I think she will, is Katherine Kelly Lang, who’s been spectacularly popular for the entire run of ‘Bold and the Beautiful ’ and only this year got nominated,” he says.

“It could be a big night for B&B, and it could win all three major categories,” he says. “Heather Tom’s got a great shot at lead actress and had a fantastic clip reel, where her character was going through post-partum depression, meaty stuff, and this could be a three-peat for her.

“And the morning race will be fun to watch,” he says.

“Last year it was just ‘Today’ and ‘Good Morning America,’ when the whole ratings race between them was heating up.

“Now you’ve got ‘CBS Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood’ competing and it’s a whole other ballgame with the way they present a morning show.

“It’s newsier and more substantial than the other two.”