• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 4, 2024

Networks, cable channels and streamers all get to dine at the Daytime Emmys table, but they are mostly subdued when it comes to promoting their Daytime Emmy nominations. 

“Tutti a tavola a mangiare!” (“Everyone to the table to eat!”) is Chef Lidia Bastianich’s Italian catchphrase on her many TV shows, which have earned her a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s “51^st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and airing June 7 on CBS.

But unlike the prime-time Emmy awards, no network or streaming service except CBS issued a press release to announce their nomination totals after this year’s nominees were announced April 19.

CBS’s press release that day said it received more nominations than any other broadcast network -- 33.

The nominations included 12 nominations apiece for the soaps “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” three nominations for “The Drew Barrymore Show,” and two for “The Talk,” which is due to end its run in December after 15 years.

The phrasing of a headline on the press release -- “CBS Television Network Nominated More Than Any Other Broadcast Network” -- indicates that CBS beat out NBC, ABC, Fox and (possibly) PBS.

But the wording also suggests that others, such as basic cable networks or streaming services like Netflix, may have earned more.

But none of those others issued any announcements about their nomination totals, so the TV Blog is at a loss to compare them.

Before anyone accuses the TV Blog of dereliction of duty for not combing through the official nominees’ list and counting the most-nominated networks and shows, please understand: the nomination PDF runs 67 pages encompassing 40 categories, each one with multiple nominees. Sorry, not gonna count all that.

One reason is, I’m spoiled. I don’t recall ever having to make my own counts of these nomination lists because the number of nominations by network and show were traditionally provided along with the list of nominations.

I get them every year when the Prime-Time Emmy nominations are announced in July.

And even if they weren’t provided by the TV Academy, the TV majors would fill the void anyway.

Their own press releases ballyhooing their nomination totals usually begin to fill my inbox within hours of the nominations.

But not when it comes to the Daytime Emmys. The TV Blog received no such press missives about the Daytime Emmy nominations from anyone, but CBS.

Yesterday, I searched the press websites of NBC Universal, ABC, Fox, PBS, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, and found no such press material.

As someone who has never been nominated for an Emmy, I cannot understand the silence. Believe me, if I were ever nominated for an Emmy, everybody would know it, even if I had to put out my own press release.

Friday’s Daytime Emmy telecast airs live from the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

The co-hosts of the show are Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner, both from “Entertainment Tonight.”