By Beth Harris
LOS ANGELES (AP) --"The Young and the Restless" won best drama at the first virtual Daytime Emmys along with three acting trophies on Friday night, with some winners speaking out about racial injustice.
Ellen DeGeneres accepted the trophy for best entertainment talk show for her self-titled program.
"I intend to use the next two years of my show as a platform for change, to amplify voices of Black people and people of color and to educate my audience," she said from home. "More than ever, I feel like this is a responsibility to effect change."
CBS' "The Young and the Restless," whose co-creator Lee Philip Bell died in February at age 91, earned four other trophies in technical categories.
Jason Thompson, who plays Billy Abbott on "The Young and the Restless," won his first Daytime Emmy for lead actor in a drama series. He becomes the third actor who has played the part to win. David Tom did so in 2000, and Billy Miller won in 2010, 2013 and 2014. Thompson had been nominated five previous times for his stint on "General Hospital," but didn't win.
Bryton James of "Y&R" earned supporting actor honors, while Eva LaRue won for guest performer on the show.
"The world is fighting against racial injustice and it's our responsibility as the human race to educate ourselves and take action, because until we all can acknowledge and empathize with the problem there will always be a problem," James said from his sofa.
Alex Trebek won best game show host for the second straight year and "Jeopardy!" claimed game show honors.
At 79, Trebek continues to preside over the popular quiz show while battling pancreatic cancer. In March, he announced he had survived one year of treatment. Taping of the show has since been suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, which has affected talk shows and daytime dramas.
"I'll be honest with you, this one is a shock, very surprising to me," Trebek said. "Speaking as one who has now been nominated 32 times and won seven times, I think I can say with some degree of authority that winning is nicer."
Heather Tom of "The Bold and the Beautiful" earned lead dramatic actress honors for her longtime role of Katie Logan. Tamara Braun of "General Hospital" won as supporting actress.
Singer Kelly Clarkson won best entertainment talk show host for the first season of her eponymous show.
"Watch out @johnlegend I'm comin' for that EGOT status," Clarkson tweeted, referring to her fellow singer's victories at the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tony awards.
The team from "General Hospital" won directing honors, while best writing went to the team from "The Bold and the Beautiful."
Other winners included ABC's "The View" for informative talk show and NBC's "Today" for morning show.
Olivia Rose Keegan of "Days of Our Lives" won for younger actor or actress in a drama series.
The women of "The Talk" — Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, Eve, Carrie Ann Inaba and Marie Osmond — presided over the two-hour telecast on CBS. The 47th annual awards were back on a broadcast network for the first time since 2011 after being relegated to cable or streaming in recent years.
Nominees, presenters and hosts checked in remotely instead of gathering at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where the show was to be held June 12.
ABC will air 6 additional “Monday Night Football” games starting this week with Bills-Jets
ABC will simulcast six more ESPN "Monday Night Football" games, including Monday's AFC East matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The addition of the six games means ABC will air 17 this season โ 14 simulcasts with ESPN (including two playoff games) and three games exclusively on ABC.
The decision to simulcast more games was a joint decision between the NFL and Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN.
The other added games are Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Oct. 21), Tampa Bay at Kansas City (Nov. 4), Houston at Dallas (Nov. 18), Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers (Nov. 25) and New Orleans at Green Bay (Dec. 23).
The only two Mondays the rest of the regular season where ABC will not have a game are Nov. 11 and Dec. 2.
ABC had games all 18 weeks last season due to an agreement with the NFL since there was no new original fall programming due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. With more games on network television, "Monday Night Football" averaged 17.36 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 29% increase over 2022.
It was the best audience numbers for the league's seminal prime-time package since 2000. The Super Bowl 57 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City averaged 29.03 million.
Coming into the season, ABC had eight scheduled simulcasts, including two Saturday Week 18 games and two playoff games, and three exclusive MNF games when there were doubleheaders.
It also continues Disney's move toward putting more sports programming back on ABC. Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles in 2027 will be on the network and the College Football Playoff championship game will also move to ABC the same year.
More games on ABC will also boost the ratings. Kansas City's 26-13 victory... Read More