ABC - GUIDING LIGHT A LAST HURRAH

GUIDING LIGHT A LAST HURRAH

Guiding Light is fading out brightly. Actor Jeff Branson tied for best supporting actor in the Daytime Emmy Awards Saturday. Backstage, he called the award "bittersweet," as he observed that the CBS show will be leaving the air after this season after 72 years on radio and TV. Branson tied with Vincent Irizarry, who appears on ABC's All My Children, who himself got his start as a soap-opera actor on Guiding Light. "I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of television history," Irizarry told reporters back stage. "What other medium is producing product that lasts 72 years? It has entertained not only generations, but employed generations of people." ( All My Children will celebrate its 40th anniversary in January.) In a Guiding Light tribute, more than 30 actors who have appeared on the show took the stage and received a standing ovation. The tribute was introduced by Betty White, who herself has been a TV fixture for nearly 60 years. The top soap-opera Emmy went to CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful. . Christian LeBlanc o f The Young and the Restless and Susan Haskell of ABC's One Life to Live took the two primary acting awards. Among other awards, Meredith Vieira was named top game-show host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The talk-show host awards went to the panel members of The View , and a Lifetime Achievement award went to the cast of Sesame Street.

31/08/2009