Susan Lucci Picks Up 17th Daytime Emmy Nomination
Will the 17th time be the charm?
Soap-opera diva Susan Lucci got herself in the hunt once again, picking up yet another Daytime Emmy nomination this week. She can add it to 16 others, none of which led to the top prize. It is a winless streak that has grown to legendary proportions, and, ironically, has surely brought her as much or more attention than have the antics of her “All My Children” character, Erica Kane.
The 24th Annual Daytime Emmys will be presented May 21 on ABC during a live telecast from New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
Lucci was nominated in the best-actress category, where she’ll face off against “Another World’s” Jensen Buchanan, “General Hospital’s” Genie Francis, and “Young & Restless”’ Jess Walton (the only past winner in the category).
Lucci’s “AMC” castmate David Canary, a four-time winner, was nominated for best actor alongside “GH’s” Anthony Geary (a one-time winner), “Guiding Light’s” Justin Deas (a five-time winner) and “Y&R’s” Peter Bergman (two-time winner) and Eric Braeden.
“Y&R” led all shows with a total of 20 nominations. “GH” followed closely behind with 18. Other major multiple-nominees included PBS’ “Sesame Street,” with 13; “Days of Our Lives,” 10; “AMC,” CBS’ “Beakman’s World” and the syndicated “Oprah Winfrey,” each with 9.
New Roseanne series in offing
What is Roseanne going to do after finishing a nine-year run playing Roseanne Conner on her ABC comedy series? She is going to go right on playing Roseanne Conner - but not, apparently, on ABC.
Executives close to negotiations between Carsey-Werner Productions, which produces “Roseanne,” and network programmers said Thursday that ABC had withdrawn from negotiations for a new show, which will not be named “Roseanne” and will amount to a spinoff.
But the new show is all but certain to be made and to find a home at a different network, “within a matter of days,” said one executive familiar with the negotiations.
The new series was proposed to ABC, which had an option on the spinoff. ABC, unwilling to pay the price asked for by the production company, has now allowed the option to lapse, executives said.
TV movie about cult suicide
ABC TV has signed a deal to develop a television movie based on the firsthand story of Richard Ford, a former member of the Heaven’s Gate cult, to be produced by two entertainment companies who employed him and other cult members to design Internet home pages.
Kushner-Locke Co. and Interact Entertainment announced the deal Thursday, after days of speculation about the whereabouts and plans of Ford, also known by the name Rio D’Angelo, who was the first to discover the bodies of the 39 cult members who committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., last week.