This year's Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony is getting the real red carpet treatment: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced today that the event -- which is slated for Sunday, April 26 -- will return to television on Pop (the same network that airs same-day repeats of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful) and will be moving from the Beverly Hilton Hotel to a soundstage on the Warner Bros. lot.
Executive produced by Michael Levitt, one of the industry's most acclaimed awards show producers, with credits including the TV Land awards, The Producers Guild Awards, The Billboard Music Awards, and E! Live from the Red Carpet shows for the Golden Globes and Oscars, the event will be broadcast live on both coasts from Stage 16, the location of several iconic Hollywood films, including Jurassic Park, Casablanca, and Ghostbusters.
"We're turning the page back to the glamour days of daytime TV, said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS, to Variety. "This show will be produced on a soundstage where everybody in that room has worked at one time or another. It will be a throwback to old Hollywood."
Mauro added via an official press release: "Our new partnership with Pop network is an ideal platform to present out signature gala. With the Warner Bros Studio as our venue, where so many great films and television shows have been made, coupled together with Michael Levitt, our executive producer... this promises to be a very special telecast of the 42nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards."
Says Brad Schwartz, President of Pop, "As a network that celebrates talent, we are thrilled to bring the Daytime Emmy Awards back to television for the fans. Daytime audiences are some of the most amazing and passionate in all of television, and we are proud to honor the greatest works and achievements of daytime. Adding premium live events to our schedule is just another exciting way we are building Pop. We're going to have a lot fun with this."
In addition to the main event getting a much-needed upgrade, the Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards is also undergoing a venue change: it will take place at the Universal Hilton on Friday, April 24. Says NATAS Daytime Senior Vice President David Michaels, "We are thrilled about presenting our two premier shows in this new and exciting way, and adding the luxurious Universal Hilton as the setting for our Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards guarantees a very special celebration."
Currently, NATAS and Pop are closing in on a host for the main ceremony, which will be broadcast live on both coasts on Sunday, April 26 at 8PM ET/5PM PT exclusively on Pop.
What do you think of the changes headed to this year's Daytime Emmy Awards? Do you feel it will be enough to revive ratings and get the show back to its glamorous heyday? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
