UPDATED 7/6/24 – Additional members of the cast and production team have been confirmed to be in attendance at the event – see below for more information.
Some of Neighbours’ most familiar faces have arrived in Hollywood ahead of tomorrow’s Daytime Emmy Awards, where the show is nominated for two awards.
The Emmy Awards, which are considered to be the equivalent to the Academy Awards for television production, are being awarded on Friday night in a glitzy ceremony at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.
The awards up for grabs are “Outstanding Daytime Drama Series” and Guy Pearce has been nominated for “Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series” for his role as Mike Young. This is the first year that Neighbours has been eligible for the awards, as it is now a co-production of US-based Amazon and the episodes debut in the USA on the same day as in other countries.
Some of the team from Erinsborough have flown to Los Angeles to represent the show, including Executive Producer Jason Herbison, Series Producer Andrew Thompson and Georgie Stone, who plays Mackenzie Hargreaves on the show. Gemma Bird Matheson who will shortly be returning to the show as Kiri Durant is also currently in Los Angeles and will be joining her colleagues to wave the Aussie flag.
Additionally, Stefan Dennis and Annie Jones will be in attendance and presenting some of the awards on the night. Their characters, Jane Harris and Paul Robinson are the two longest-serving characters in the show, debuting in 1985 and 1986 respectively. (Although both actors have taken time out away from the show since first appearing).
The ceremony is huge exposure in the USA for Neighbours, where episodes air on Amazon Freevee. Since the award nominations, more US fans have been tuning in to try and learn about the goings-on in Erinsborough and interacting with existing fans on social media.
The show’s Executive Producer, Jason Herbison, recently discussed the nominations and increased interest in the show in the USA during an interview with Digital Spy:
“Our recent US Emmy nomination was the delicious icing on the cake and it’s wonderful to see some new viewers popping up Stateside. I also love that some of our long running viewers are engaging with the new viewers and helping them to fill in the gaps.”
In a move thought to be directed at attracting more fans in North America, Neighbours recently announced that “Selling Sunset” star, Chrishell Stause, will be appearing in a guest role on the show at the end of the year. Whilst being best known for her Real-Estate skills on the reality show, Stause has a background in soaps, having appeared in US Daytime series “All My Children” and “Days of our Lives”.
Stause begins filming next month and her character, Yasmin ‘Yas’ Shields, is described as a ‘glamourous and successful businesswoman in pursuit of an exciting new opportunity’. In addition to her new role on Neighbours, Stause has also been revealed as a contestant on Season 3 of the US version of the reality series “The Traitors”, which films this month in Scotland and will likely air around the same time as her Neighbours debut.
The Daytime Emmy Awards are not available to watch live in the UK, but air in the USA from 8pm (7pm central) on CBS, which is 1am Saturday, UK time.
Of course, we will be here on Saturday morning with updates from the ceremony.