Emotional end for ‘As the World Turns’ on Emmys

Michael Park and Maura West of "As the World Turns" were named best actor and actress in a soap opera at the Daytime Emmy Awards on Sunday, an emotional send-off for a show that is going off the air in three months.

West brought her sobbing daughter onstage at the Las Vegas Hilton to celebrate the sweep in acting awards for the show, which was canceled by CBS. Its last episode will air in September.

"I can't think of a better way to say goodbye to a 13-year run on a 53-year-old show," said Park, who plays Jack Snyder on the series.

CBS' "The Bold & The Beautiful" won the Emmy for best soap opera for the second year in a row. "As the World Turns" wasn't nominated in that category.

Until the twin wins for Park and West, it was a muted goodbye for the soap opera on an awards show aired by the network that axed it. Jon and Kelley Menighan Hensley, a husband-and-wife team that acts on "As the World Turns," introduced a short reel of show highlights through the years.

Park noted the emotional scene when the show's team recently filmed its final episode last week. "I pray that you never have to endure what we endured on Wednesday," he said.

Another "As the World Turns" cast member, Julie Pinson, was named best supporting actress in a drama.

It was a big night for Discovery's "Cash Cab." The show filmed in the back of a New York City taxi was named best game show for the third time in a row, and host Ben Bailey won for the first time as best game show host.

"I want to share this with all my fellow cab drivers and standup comedians," Bailey said as he held his trophy. "Those are both very difficult jobs."

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" was named best entertainment talk show. Both DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey did not submit their names for best talk show host, an award won by Winfrey protege Dr. Mehmet Oz for the first year of "The Dr. Oz Show."

Son beat dad in the category of best informative talk show, won by "The Doctors." The show's executive producer is Jay McGraw, son of Dr. Phil McGraw, whose "Dr. Phil" was another nominee in the category.

"Looks like fun to win something around here," said Daytime Emmy host Regis Philbin, whose "Live with Regis & Kelly" has never been named best talk show.

Billy Miller of CBS' "The Young and the Restless" won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a daytime drama. Julie Berman of ABC's "General Hospital" won her second straight Emmy as outstanding younger actress in a soap, and Drew Tyler Bell of CBS' "The Bold & The Beautiful" was best younger actor.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gave a lifetime achievement award to Agnes Nixon, who created "All My Children" in 1970 and was an influential writer for "Guiding Light," "As the World Turns" and other daytime dramas.

Susan Lucci of "All My Children" called her the "queen of modern daytime drama."

"I would not even be here today if Agnes Nixon had not created Erica Kane," Lucci said of her character.

Nixon said she was "overwhelmed" and paid tribute to the audience that shared "our real world of make believe."

The academy also paid tribute to Dick Clark and his long-running musical countdown show "American Bandstand." Tony Orlando, Chubby Checker and Marie Osmond took the Las Vegas stage to sing hits played on "Bandstand" years ago.

"Without 'Bandstand,' without Dick, there would be no 'American Idol,'" said that show's exiting judge, Simon Cowell.

The awards show got off to a bumpy start with illusionist David Copperfield making host Philbin suddenly "appear" onstage. You could hear Philbin say: "How did you do it? I can't believe it," while his lips weren't moving on his onstage image.