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NATAS Launches ‘The Emmys’ App; President and CEO, Adam Sharp Previews New Content and Viewing Platform

Photo: NATAS

There is a new app for daytime fans to enjoy! On Thursday,The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced the launch of a dedicated online viewing platform for the Emmy Awards ceremonies it produces.

Powered by Vimeo’s leading over-the-top (OTT) technology, the platform will make the National Academy’s Emmy programming available on nearly every major web browser, mobile device, and “set top” streaming device.

Photo: NATAS

The new platform will also feature exclusive “Behind the Emmy” interviews, memorable moments from past Emmy ceremonies, historical archives, and events from the National Academy’s 19 regional chapters.

Kathleen Barrett, SVP, Enterprise, Vimeo shared on this venture with NATAS: “More than ever before, virtual experiences have become a powerful component of our daily lives. We’re proud to partner with NATAS and to offer Vimeo’s best-in-class streaming technology, seamless user experience, and uncompromising support to the Emmys’ many fans. Now global audiences can unlock the awards content they know and love without missing a beat.”

All programming will be viewable on the web at watch.theemmys.tv Apps are available for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android phones and tablets, Android TV, Fire TV, and Roku by searching for “The Emmys” in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Roku Channel Store, or Amazon FireTV Appstore. Users may download content for offline viewing on iOS and Android and sync watchlists across multiple device

The following upcoming ceremonies will be available on the app and viewing platform: The 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards -Digital Dramas Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT, The 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards – Children’s, Lifestyle, & Animation Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT, The 41st Annual Sports Emmy Awards Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT, and The 41st Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards – September 2020.

Michael Fairman TV chatted with NATAS President and CEO, Adam Sharp to glean more insight and get more details on this exciting step-forward to house Daytime Emmys of the past, present and future and more.   Here’s what he shared below on the organization’s latest endeavor.

Photo: NATAS

You simply called the name of the app, “The Emmys” which will make it easy for users to search, find and download, etc.  What can you say about the features contained within it and on it?

ADAM:  You will be able to watch from any platform, and actually, by creating a profile, sync from across those platforms.  For instance, you can start watching something on your phone and finish watching it on your Apple TV.  You can start building a playlist as we start putting more content in it.  On launch, the focus is going to be on these upcoming live shows, but we are going to be building out a back catalogue – all of last year’s shows are going to be in there.  We hope to build that out to be a complete archive of our ceremonies.  We will have clips and highlights from past shows; we will be building out “Digital Originals,” that Behind the Emmy franchise if you will, and building out interviews.  Eventually, you will be able to watch all 19 regional and local Emmy ceremonies from around the country on the app as well.

It’s such a great idea to finally have a centralized place where people can watch past Emmy moments and ceremonies, instead of having to go fetching around You Tube to watch, for instance, A Martinez’ 1990 win for Lead Actor for Santa Barbara

ADAM:  That’s where, I think, we really have an opportunity when doing interviews with past winners on their Emmy-winning moments and more in our Behind the Emmy segments.   You know, even The Bold and the Beautiful at 33 is the young one on the block in soaps, that so many of the performers today have memories of a character or a performer who their parents loved, who their mother loved, that they watched on that when they came home from school, who inspired them to go into this field of television.  So, to talk about that inspiration and then to be able to recognize that is a great opportunity for us. Certainly as you saw in the 47th annual Daytime Emmys telecast we had the countdown of top moments from the past, and you got a feel for some of that rich history that we are able to celebrate.

 Is “The Emmys” app available everywhere or just domestically?  Could somebody who is out of the US access it?

ADAM:  It is available everywhere.  Now, certainly when it comes to rights and clearances, our focus is globally, but if there are compromises to be made, the platform does allow us to restrict things to the US, or elsewhere, on a as-needed basis.

How did the idea come up of “Let’s do an Emmy app”? It is forward and current thinking in terms of the world we live in today with social media, phones, and tablets; where many ingest most of their information and content these days.

ADAM:  It was very much a priority since I came to NATAS.  In many ways, it was a response to the fan disappointment in that the Daytime Emmys had not having been on television for many years, and while we did have it streaming online the last several years, and while there are ways to get that live Twitter video, or that Facebook video, or the YouTube video on your TV, it was certainly not as easy as it will be now by just launching the app, and it’s there for you.   We are the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, our honors should be able to be viewed on that TV screen in the corner of your living room even though television has changed over the years, and we are now consuming it on our phones and other devices. It all started there in the living room, and that’s where we belong.  Even as this was coming together last year, the question was always, asked “When are you coming back on television?” and the answer was always a very coy, “Hundred percent confident that you will be able to watch the 2020 Daytime Emmys on the TV in your home.”  And nobody every called me on it! (Laughs)  When I gave the answer, I didn’t know what path was going to get us there.  By the fall, we were literally going back and forth on one hand with CBS and the other hand with Vimeo, which was our partner in building out the OTT platform.  It was a fortunate result that we wound up achieving both, but I think that speaks to the regrowth of Daytime, but also the fact that television is no longer a single thing.  When you look at the growth of the Daytime Emmy competition in particular, this year was the biggest competition in terms of the number of entries, beating last year’s record by almost double digits, and a lot of that growth was from streaming content.  There is a reason why Netflix and Amazon are right there in the top 3 most nominated networks; there is a reason why Apple TV and Hulu are already making waves in the community.  So, to have this model now where fans of the traditional broadcast soaps, who are used to watching it on their broadcast networks, or the networks’ own OTT experience, like CBS All Access, I think will be great for them.  The Emmys have been around for over 70 years.  We survived black and white, we’ve survived HD, and we’ve survived lots of things because as the definition of television changed, we changed with it.

So, what do you think about the new app and viewing platform for the Daytime Emmys?  Excited to see the kind of content that NATAS intends to populate it with including past shows, moments, interviews, and the current Emmy ceremonies? Comment below.

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hmmm well… in the play store I found it under “Television Academy Viewing Platform”

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George Cheeks, CBS President & CEO, on Timeline to Launch New Daytime Drama, ‘The Gates’: “We’re So Focused on Getting it Right”

March 2024 will be remembered in the TV and soap world when the news broke that CBS is prepping a brand new daytime drama. Many had thought a major network would never bring a new daytime soap into the world, given that the last time it was attempted was 25 years ago when the now defunct Passions bowed on NBC.

However, The Gates is definitely in development and moving forward with some major players associated with it including: Michele Val Jean as The Gates writer, showrunner and one of its executive producers, and Sheila Ducksworth from NAACP Venture

Now, for the first time since its announcement, George Cheeks, the president and CEO of CBS and chief content officer for news and sports at Paramount+, spoke on the project that will feature a Black family as its central focus who live in a wealthy gated community.

Photo: NAACP

Speaking with Vulture, and when asked if The Gates is really something that truly has a chance of getting on the air, Cheeks clarified, “It’s super real. And just to give you a little bit of the backstory,  when we hired Sheila Ducksworth to run the NAACP Venture, she and I had multiple meetings talking about what different genres she was going to lean into, and we talked a lot about daytime.”

Cheeks added, “One of the things that the data made very clear to both of us is that daytime soap operas over index with Black women, and yet when you look at soap operas, it’s usually sort of a white-led family with supporting characters that reflect more of our society. So we just thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to flip that and make the core anchor family a Black family, and then make the other characters reflect more the broader scope of society?”

Photo: JPI

The CEO gave props to Michele Val Jean,  and how Ducksworth came to the table with the former B&B and GH writer. “She found this great writer, Michele Val Jean, who’s been in the soap opera space for 30 years. She came up with a pitch, and we loved it,” shares Cheeks. “We brought Procter & Gamble into it as well, because if there were going to be (product) integrations, we could do it more holistically and organically. All of that is to say, we did a lot of work on the front end to put this together. So while yes, it’s development, it’s accelerated development.”

When prodded on the timeline of when The Gates could come to full fruition, Gates related, “The actual timeline and when we’re going to do it is still uncertain, because we want to get this right. I mean, there hasn’t been a new soap opera launch since I can’t even begin to tell you when. But we have great success with Bold and the Beautiful and Young and the Restless, and so we think we’re the right folks to be launching a new soap. I wish I could tell you more about exact timing, but we’re so focused on getting it right, and that will dictate when we’re ready to launch it.”

The CBS exec also shared that whether The Gates will wind up an hour soap or half-hour is not yet determined, but that it is being developed as an hour show.

So, after reading what George Cheeks, the CBS President & CEO had to say about ‘The Gates’, are you even more excited for what looks to the first new network soap in 25 years? Comment below.

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Breaking News

Robyn Bernard, ‘General Hospital’s’ Terry Brock, Dead at 64

Former General Hospital star, Robyn Bernard, who played aspiring singer Terry Brock has died. She was 64-years-old.

Bernard’s body was found Tuesday in San Jacinto, California. A Riverside County Coroner told TMZ they identified the actress’ body using her fingerprints after deputies responded to a death investigation call on Tuesday March 12th.

Sources told the outlet that Bernard’s body was found in the wee hours of the morning. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Photo: ABC

Bernard joined General Hospital back in 1984 as Terry Brock, the daughter of the abusive D.L. Brock (played by David Groh). Robyn remained on the ABC soap opera for six years before making her exit in 1990. At one point, Terry’s stepmother would become Bobbie Spencer (the late Jackie Zeman) when the nurse married her father.

Terry was involved in the Laurelton Murders storyline and after first setting her sights on Frisco Jones, wound up with killer Kevin O’Connor. Later, Terry was blamed for several murders and in the end killed Kevin in self-defense. In addition, Terry had a relationship with Dusty Walker played by none other than Shaun Cassidy.  She eventually left Port Charles after landing her own recording contract.

Photo: ABC

The last time GH Fans may have seen Bernard was in 2014, when she appeared at the GH Fan Club Weekend Past Cast event. Robyn is pictured below with the late Susan Brown (ex-Gail) at the fan gathering. She has been out of the limelight for several years.

Photo: JPI

In addition to her role on GH, Bernard was featured throughout her TV career on primetime’s Simon & Simon, Tour of Duty and The Facts of Life.

Share your remembrances and condolences for GH alum Robyn Bernard and her loved ones via the comment section below.

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Breaking News

51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Announce Broadcast Date on CBS

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) revealed on Tuesday, that the 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on Friday night, June 7th (8 – 10 PM, ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+*.

This year will mark the 18th time CBS has broadcast the Daytime Emmy Awards, which is more than any other network.

The 2024 Daytime Emmys will take place at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles. Back in December of 2023, the delayed 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards were also held at that venue. The June 7th date for the upcoming ceremony will be the first time in several years that the event is scheduled a few weeks earlier than normal; excluding last year’s revised date to the actors and writers strikes.

Photo: NATAS

Lifetime Achievement honoree, nominations, host, and additional information will be announced in the coming weeks.

In a statement, Adam Sharp, President and CEO of NATAS noted, “We eagerly anticipate our return in June as we once again partner with CBS to recognize the exceptional and talented individuals who make daytime television great. We’re thrilled to kick off our second half-century of the Daytime Emmys.”

The Daytime Emmy Awards have recognized outstanding achievement in television programming and crafts since 1974, honoring work in a variety of categories, including daytime dramas, talk shows, instructional programming, hosting, culinary, and legal/courtroom programs. In 2021, 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.

Photo: JPI

The 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will once again be produced by NATAS and Associated Television International (ATI), which produced Daytime Emmy Award ceremonies on The CW in 2009 and on CBS in 2010, 2011, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Adam Sharp and Lisa Armstrong are executive producers from NATAS, while David McKenzie is executive producer from ATI.

So, glad to know that the 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards honoring performance and shows in the 2023 calendar year, will be held in early June this year, and once again broadcast on CBS? Comment below.

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