Kelly Clarkson and her hit daytime talk show kept up their winning streaks at the 2023 Daytime Emmy Awards, which was finally broadcast live on CBS on Friday, Dec. 15. The show aired six months after the originally announced airdate, June 16, a delay caused by strikes by Hollywood writers and actors. (The nominations were announced way back on April 26.)
Clarkson won daytime talk series host despite the fact that hosts of “informative” and “entertainment” shows were made to compete this year. There had separate winners for the two genres in recent years. Clarkson won outstanding entertainment talk show host the last three years.
Likewise, The Kelly Clarkson Show won outstanding daytime talk series, even though “informative” and “entertainment” series competed there too. Clarkson’s show won outstanding talk show, entertainment the last two years. This year the show bested returning nominees The Drew Barrymore Show, Live With Kelly and Ryan and Today With Hoda and Jenna as well as first-time nominee The Jennifer Hudson Show.
Clarkson has now won seven Daytime Emmys over her series’ first four seasons. This compares to three Grammy Awards over a much longer period of time – 21 years. Clarkson is nominated for another Grammy at the Feb. 4 ceremony – best pop vocal album for Chemistry. She and Adele are currently tied for the most wins in that category – two each.
Clarkson wasn’t present to accept her awards for the second year in a row. Should she show up to support the industry (and the awards show) that has been so good to her? Probably.
Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner hosted the 50th Annual Daytime Emmys, held at the Westin Bonaventure Los Angeles. They also accepted that program’s award for entertainment news series.
Jennifer Nettles sang “Life Is Sweet” over the In Memoriam segment, which included such daytime TV legends as Barbara Walters and Bob Barker, as well as Olivia Newton-John (who wrote songs for As the World Turns), Three’s Company star Suzanne Somers, and Stephen “tWitch” Boss, best known for his role as a dancer, air personality and producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Daytime TV icon Susan Lucci received lifetime achievement honors at the ceremony. Lucci famously lost the Daytime Emmy 18 times for playing Erica Kane on All My Children before finally winning on her 19th try. Carol Burnett, Andy Cohen and Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos were among those who paid tribute to Lucci via video clips.
Longtime TV, radio and red-carpet host and producer Tanya Hart and veteran music/variety producer Al Schwartz were among those being ushered into the Academy’s Gold Circle, honoring people with 50 years of accomplishment. Hart is best-known for her work on American Urban Radio Networks, BET and E! Entertainment. Schwartz is best known for his long association with Dick Clark on such shows as the American Music Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. This is the first time these awards have presented at the national level. These awards were presented by tabloid talk show veteran Maury Povich, who is slated to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Creative Arts Daytime Emmys on Saturday Dec. 16.
The Daytime Emmys also paid tribute to Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray, two long-running talk shows that ended their runs this season.
The Daytime Emmy Awards have recognized achievement in television programming and crafts since 1974. In 2021, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) and the Television Academy jointly announced plans to realign the Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards to be organized by content genre, as opposed to program airtime.
The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards was produced by NATAS and Associated Television International (ATI). Adam Sharp and Lisa Armstrong were executive producers from NATAS, while David McKenzie was executive producer from ATI.
In a highly unusual scheduling move, The Daytime Creative Arts and Lifestyle Emmy ceremony will stream live on Saturday Dec. 16, the day after the main telecast, at Watch.TheEmmys.TV and via The Emmys apps for iOS, tvOS, Android, FireTV and Roku. That show will also be held at the Westin Bonaventure. Will that show seem anti-climactic coming after the main event? Probably.
Here are the winners in selected 2023 Daytime Emmy categories.
Daytime Talk Series
The Drew Barrymore Show, Syndicated
The Jennifer Hudson Show, Syndicated
WINNER: The Kelly Clarkson Show, Syndicated
Live with Kelly and Ryan, Syndicated
Today with Hoda and Jenna, NBC
Daytime Talk Series Host
Drew Barrymore, The Drew Barrymore Show, Syndicated
WINNER: Kelly Clarkson, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Syndicated
Tamron Hall, Tamron Hall, Syndicated
Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, Live with Kelly and Ryan, Syndicated
Sherri Shepherd, Sherri!, Syndicated
Entertainment News Series
Access Hollywood, Syndicated
E! News, E! Entertainment
WINNER: Entertainment Tonight, Syndicated
Extra, Syndicated
Inside Edition, Syndicated