Another year, another win, another record. That seems to be the case more often than not for ABC's long-running soap opera General Hospital.
When the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences first announced that they would be realigning the Daytime Emmy Awards to focus more on genre rather than time slot, a lot of soap opera fans wondered how the changes would affect the Outstanding Daytime Drama category. Would soaps compete with other drama series, such as those on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime?!
Interestingly, the changes affected the behind-the-scenes categories in that way, with soaps sharing categories like lighting and set design with all daytime programs, including those on the major streaming platforms. Fortunately, it didn't affect the Daytime Drama category in that way -- but the category did not escape changes altogether.
A new rule that states any "multi-camera, weekday daily serial, spin-off, or reboot" is eligible to compete meant that Days of our Lives' Peacock spinoff Beyond Salem was able to compete at the Daytime Emmys alongside its NBC parent and the three other network soaps. The addition of Beyond Salem in the Outstanding Daytime Drama Series category marked the first time since 2014 that there were five nominees in the top category. (Previous soapy Emmy winners such as the streaming series The Bay and Anacostia were moved to the Primetime Emmy competition.)
General Hospital ended up winning the biggest award of the night for a record 15th time. The ABC soap, which aired its 15,000th episode earlier in the week, won its very first Drama Series award back in 1981.
"Certainly, there are more important things in the world, especially right now, but for the next few seconds you made us feel very proud," executive producer Frank Valentini said in accepting the award. "Our cast is amazing [and] our crew is incredibly hardworking and talented."
Noticeably nervous, Valentini quipped, "I'm sorry. I'm really nervous. No one has seen my face in three years. I hope it looks okay."
Valentini did not speak to the press room pool of reporters.
