The 43rd Annual Creative Arts and Entertainment Daytime Emmy Awards were presented on Friday, April 29, at a gala held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in downtown Los Angeles.
"Tonight's gala is a tribute to the hundreds of nominees that work tirelessly behind the scenes to make Daytime television sparkle with the most sophisticated combination of genres and personalities on the planet," said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS. "With over 1,400 in attendance, and our Lifetime Achievement honoree going to the vocal-magician, Frank Welker, it is a great evening for Daytime television!"
The Creative Arts portion of the Daytime Emmys honors excellence in mostly non-acting categories -- the behind-the-scenes technology that makes it possible for there to be episodes of the soaps: Outstanding Technical Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Make-up, Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design, and more. Awards are also handed out to non-soap programming, including categories likes Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series.
This year the Lifetime Achievement Award honor in the Creative Arts field was awarded to Frank Welker, a voice artist whose work includes voicing the iconic characters of Scooby-Doo and Curious George.
With five wins, The Young and the Restless took home the most awards in the drama series categories. The show was awarded for its makeup, hairstyling, art/set decoration, lighting direction, and stunt coordination.
ABC's General Hospital tallied four wins, with nearly all of the wins associated with the show's anniversary episode that told the backstory of Luke Spencer.
"I think it's especially gratifying this year because the episode, we were just so heartfelt about it," GH editor Christine Magarian Ucar explained. "It was the anniversary episode, and it meant so much to all of us. Tony Geary (ex-Luke Spencer) retiring this year, and truly, in the 22 years I've been at General Hospital, it's probably my favorite episode that we've ever done. And we had characters also playing other characters, like Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos) played Tony Geary's mother, and it was a totally different side of her, and we did in black and white. There were so many different things. You know, we do so many shows a year, and a lot of times, they all blend together. But as soon as we read this one, written by Elizabeth Corte, we knew it was special, we knew we had to do something [different], put more effort in and make it great. And it paid off."
After two years of being the most awarded soap at the Creative Arts ceremony, this year CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful picked up just two awards on the night: one for sound mixing and another for the original song "Lost In Time."
Days of our Lives won the award for musical direction and composition.
In a change from last year when the category was introduced, the Outstanding Guest Performer category has been moved from the Creative Arts ceremony to the main Emmy ceremony.
The star-studded cast of The Bay took home this year's Outstanding Digital Series win for a second year in a row. In an effort to show the growing creative talent in the online world, this year the Emmys created separate categories for Actress and Actor in a Digital Series. Days of our Lives star Mary Beth Evans -- who is also nominated for a Lead Actress in a Drama Series award -- took home the prize for Outstanding Actress in a Digital Series for The Bay.
Evans admitted to being surprised to hear her name called.
"I was standing backstage with my other girls, and I thought for sure they would win. I was standing there like, 'Lilly [Melgar, Janice Ramos], okay, put your lipstick on, here we go!' And really, I'm very surprised," Evans admitted.
Despite her years in daytime, Evans at times seemed almost uneasy as she stood with her golden hardware to address the media.
"I feel like I'm in one of those After Sports things, like Kobe [Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers] talking after the win," she said.
There were a series of categories this year in which both drama series and other daytime programming were nominated. Non-soap programming won in each of those instances.
The Daytime Emmy Awards are presented to daytime television programs that are broadcast nationally between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 p.m. The eligibility period for this year's Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards was January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015.
To view photos from this year's Creative Arts ceremony, be sure to visit Soap Central's Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook social media feeds.
Following are the Creative Arts categories in which soap operas were nominated. Winners are noted in boldface type.
NOMINATIONS AT A GLANCE
General Hospital
4 wins, 10 nominations: 10 technical
The Bold and the Beautiful
2 wins, 13 nominations: 13 technical
Days of our Lives
1 win, 8 nominations: 8 technical
CBS: 7 wins, 26 nominations
ABC: 4 wins, 10 nominations
NBC: 1 win, 8 nominations
