CBS Leads in Daytime Emmy Nominations

With fewer and fewer soaps on the air, it’s probably not a surprise that CBS, the network with more soaps than any other (by virtue of having only two of them), leads in the number of daytime Emmy Award nominations.

Still, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, the number one soap in daytime, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, earned 23 nominations, more than any other show. Among them are nods for Outstanding Drama Series, one it shares with its sister soap, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. B&B earned 15 nominations.

The only two remaining network game shows, THE PRICE IS RIGHT and LET’S MAKE A DEAL, were both nominated in the Outstanding Game Show category. DEAL’s Wayne Brady also received a nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host. THE TALK was honored as a nominee for Outstanding Talk/Entertainment Program, while the syndicated THE DOCTORS received a nomination in the Outstanding Talk/Informative category.

CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING received a nomination for Outstanding Morning Program.

Actress Susan Flannery, who retired from the role of matriarch Stephanie Forrester on B&B, received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, where she’ll compete against former B&B co-star Heather Tom (Katie) and Y&R’s Michelle Stafford (Phyllis). On the male side, Y&R’s Peter Bergman (Jack), Doug Davidson (Paul) and Michael Muhney (Adam) are among the nominees.

Game show legends Monty Hall, who co-created and hosted the Let’s Make a Deal for most of its run on television; and Bob Stewart, creator of venerable shows like The Price is Right, PASSWORD and THE $25,000 PYRAMID, will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards. Hall, 91, appeared recently on the current version of his show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its premiere. Stewart passed away at age 91 last May.

The Daytime Emmy Awards will air in June on HLN.

CBS Soaps Move to 5+ During ACC Tourney

While Live 5 WCSC airs the ACC Basketball Tournament on Thursday and Friday, daytime programming including THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, THE TALK and LET’S MAKE A DEAL will move to our second channel, Live 5+.

Soap signs off, new show plans debut

AS THE WORLD TURNS broadcasts its 13,858th and final episode on Friday, closing the book on 54 years of broadcasting.

The soap’s replacement will be THE TALK, an hour-long talk show moderated by Julie Chen and five other moms: reality star Sharon Osbourne,  and actresses Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Sara Gilbert.

THE TALK won’t premiere until Monday, October 17th.

In the meantime, CBS will fill the remaining weeks with a mix of game shows and classic soap episodes.

Starting on Monday, September 20th, which is the day the new season begins, CBS will air double episodes of THE PRICE IS RIGHT at its usual time of 11:00am and in ‘ATWT’s’ slot at 2:00pm.  Those bonus episodes of ‘Price’ will run through Friday October 1st.

Then, from Monday, October 4th through Friday, October 8th, you’ll see two hours of LET’S MAKE A DEAL, from 2:00pm-4:00pm.

And the week leading up to THE TALK’s premiere will feature classic episodes of THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.  (No word on which episodes will be shown.)

Daytime Emmy Nominations Announced

This year’s nominees for the Daytime Emmy Awards were announced this morning, and CBS’s THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS received 16 of them, ranking second in the number of nominations of any show.  Only ABC’s General Hospital garnered more, with 18 nominations.

Both Y&R and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL are nominated for Best Drama Series. GUIDING LIGHT‘s Crystal Chappell (Olivia Spencer), Y&R’s Michelle Stafford (Phyllis Newman), and AS THE WORLD TURNS‘ Maura West (Carly Tenney) are nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Y&R’s Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott) and Doug Davidson (Paul Williams), and ATWT’s Jon Lindstrom (Craig Montgomery) and Michael Park (Jack Snyder) are up for Outstanding Lead Actor.

GL’s Beth Chamberlin (Beth Spaulding) and ATWT’s Julie Pinson (Janet Snyder) are nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Y&R’s Billy Miller (Billy Abbott) is up for Outstanding Supporing Actor in a Drama Series.

Outsanding Younger Actor or Actress Nominations went to Y&R’s Christel Khalil (Lily Winters), ATWT’s Marnie Schulenburg (Alison Stewart), B&B’s Drew Tyler Bell (Thomas Forrester) and GL’s Zack Conroy (James Spaulding). Conroy, by the way, can now be seen on THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL in the role of Oliver.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL‘s Wayne Brady is nominated as Outstanding Game Show Host for his work in the freshman series that replaced GUIDING LIGHT.

THE DOCTORS received a nomination for Outstanding Talk Show/Informative Program. THE PRICE IS RIGHT received a nomination for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show.

As for THE WENDY WILLIAMS SHOW, fans know that Wendy makes no bones about her collection of wigs.  They must have impressed Emmy judges, since her hairstylists were nominated for hair design!

You can view the full list of nominees at the official website of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which awards the Emmys. This year’s Daytime Emmy Awards will be broadcast on June 27th on Live 5 WCSC.

Brady Welcomes Special Guest to Deal

He was television’s original big trader, the man who turned deal-making into daytime art. Now, Monty Hall is returning to the show that put him on the map: LET’S MAKE A DEAL.

Hall will appear on the show each day this week to host one special game with a contestant.

With producing partner Stefan Hatos, Hall brought LET’S MAKE A DEAL to television in 1963. It stayed on the air until 1977, spending part of that time on NBC, ABC and in syndication. An updated syndicated version aired from 1984 to 1986. In 1990, Hall returned for another cycle of the show. Another remake appeared in 2003, hosted by ACCESS HOLLYWOOD‘s Billy Bush, and Hall appeared as a guest on that edition.

So if you count up the decades the show was on the air — the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and now into the 10s — this week’s appearances mark the sixth decade the 88-year-old TV icon will have hosted the program.

Not many of us can say we’ve done the same job in six decades. Those special episodes of LET’S MAKE A DEAL air this week at 3:00pm on LIVE 5 WCSC.

The Prelude to the ‘Madness’

So we’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news.

The good news is that basketball fans have a lot more reasons to watch LIVE 5 WCSC this week! We’ll be carrying the opening round and quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament this Thursday and Friday.

The bad news, for soap fans, is that this means your soaps won’t air. But wait: even this “bad news” isn’t as bad as you might think!

Another Cancellation Rocks Daytime

CBS has announced that another staple of daytime television will leave the air. AS THE WORLD TURNS will air its final broadcast in September, 2010.

At the time of that final show, the soap will have been on the air for 54 years.

Since its premiere on April 2, 1956, the show has broadcast more than 13,000 episodes and has featured now-big name actors like Marisa Tomei, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey and James Earl Jones. From the very first episode, actress Helen Wagner has portrayed the matriarch of the Hughes family. It was a scene with Wagner that was interrupted by Walter Cronkite on November 22, 1963 with a bulletin that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas.

“The almanacs will show AS THE WORLD TURNS as a pioneer of the format, a hallmark for quality with its numerous Emmy’s, the launching pad for many television and film stars and a daytime ratings powerhouse for parts of three decades. But, the true legacy of AS THE WORLD TURNS will be the fictional characters and stories of a small Midwest town that resonated every day with millions of viewers over multiple generations, becoming a treasured daytime institution in the process,” CBS Senior Vice President for Daytime Programming Barbara Bloom said in a statement.

The decision at least allows the writers a lot of time to wrap up storylines (or build cliffhangers that won’t get wrapped up, depending on their plans) for the Hughes, Montgomery, Ryan, Snyder, Stewart and Walsh families, and all characters in between.

There’s no word, yet, on what will replace AS THE WORLD TURNS on the CBS schedule, but speculation is that another game show format may be pulled into service. Earlier this year, GUIDING LIGHT, which had been on the air in radio and television for a total of 72 years, came to a close and was replaced with a cheaper-to-produce game show, LET’S MAKE A DEAL.

Several game show formats were considered before the network decided on LET’S MAKE A DEAL; it’s possible one of the others may appear in the AS THE WORLD TURNS timeslot.

When AS THE WORLD TURNS leaves the air, CBS will have only two soaps left on the air: THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, which has been the number one soap in daytime for years, and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, which is the most-watched soap in the world.

Then again, a lot can happen in nine months. So stay tuned.

Thanksgiving Programming Changes

It’s time to talk turkey: as in Thanksgiving. Because of special programming, some of your favorite shows won’t be shown on Thursday or Friday. Here’s a look at what to expect:

THANKSGIVING DAY
Starting at 9:00am, LIVE 5 WCSC will carry THE THANKSGIVING PARADE ON CBS. Then, there’s LIVE 5 NEWS AT NOON, followed by THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in their normal time periods.

We’ll then air two episodes of LET’S MAKE A DEAL starring Wayne Brady at 1:30pm and 2:30pm before our special Thanksgiving Day NFL game. (Fans of THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and AS THE WORLD TURNS don’t have to worry about missing anything: those shows did not produce episodes for Thursday or Friday, so they’ll pick up right where they left off.)

At 3:30pm, a special NFL TODAY gets you ready for Oakland @ Dallas. The game is scheduled to run until 7:30pm.

TWO AND A HALF MEN will air in its normal slot, though it may be pre-empted or delayed if the game runs long.

The prime time lineup is normal this Thanksgiving night:

• 8:00pm – SURVIVOR: SAMOA
• 9:00pm – CSI:
• 10:00pm – THE MENTALIST
• 11:00pm – LIVE 5 NEWS AT 11

FRIDAY, NOV. 27
LIVE 5 WCSC will air its normal morning lineup through THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.

At 1:30pm, catch a one-hour CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR on the best of college football. At 2:30pm, it’s Alabama at Auburn, which takes us to LIVE 5 NEWS AT 6.

Our regular Friday night prime time lineup is normal:

• 8:00pm – GHOST WHISPERER
• 9:00pm – MEDIUM
• 10:00pm – NUMB3RS
• 11:00pm – LIVE 5 NEWS AT 11

All of us at LIVE 5 WCSC hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Getting Ready to Deal

LET’S MAKE A DEAL, a new take on the classic game show where audience members dress in outlandish costumes to win cash and prizes by making deals with the host, begins production today at the Tropicana Las Vegas. The new, one-hour series will premiere next month, with Emmy Award-winner Wayne Brady as host.

Free tickets for the show are available here at cbs.com where you’ll also find details about   with details about tape dates also available at the site.

The original LET’S MAKE A DEAL was a television game show staple during the 1960s and 70s when it was hosted by Monty Hall from 1963-1977. While later versions aired in syndication and primetime, the game show is best remembered for the years hosted by Hall, who will serve as a creative consultant on this latest version.

The proud home of LET’S MAKE A DEAL, Tropicana Las Vegas has been a Las Vegas landmark since its inception in 1957. The historic property is currently transforming itself into a vibrant South Beach, Miami-themed escape.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL will air at 3:00pm weekdays on LIVE 5 WCSC, beginning October 5th.

Last Light Tapes Today

The final episode of CBS’s GUIDING LIGHT wraps up taping today, closing the book on the longest-running show in broadcast history.

GUIDING LIGHT premiered in radio in 1937, and transitioned to CBS television in 1952. In all, it spans 72 years, and almost as many Emmy Awards between the show and its actors over seven decades.

The final episode airs on Friday, September 18th. Two weeks later, on Monday, October 5th, a revival of LET’S MAKE A DEAL will take over the timeslot.

For actors like Kim Zimmer, who has portrayed Reva Shayne for nearly 30 years, walking away from the show is very difficult. “I’ve gotten to be close to some of daytimes most gorgeous men!” But all joking aside, for many of the folks behind the scenes at the show, it’s the loyal viewers they feel the worst for.

Those of us who work in TV, even if we haven’t been loyal viewers of GUIDING LIGHT or soap operas in general, still have to tip our hat to a show that managed such an incredible run generation after generation. It’s not likely that any drama — daytime or nighttime — will ever come close to GUIDING LIGHT’S tenure.

GUIDING LIGHT airs weekdays at 3:00pm on LIVE 5 WCSC, followed by LIVE 5 NEWS FIRST AT FOUR.