Neighbours debuted at the Daytime Emmy Awards in Hollywood on Friday night, with stars of the show making a huge impact on the big carpet and flying the flag for Australia on stage.
The show was up for two awards on the night, with Guy Pearce nominated as ‘Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series’ for his role as Mike Young in the show’s revival.
Additionally, the show got the biggest honour, being nominated for ‘Most Outstanding Daytime Drama’.
Sadly, on the night, Neighbours didn’t manage to bag either award, with legendary Dick Van Dyke taking the Guest Performance award for his appearance on ‘Days of our Lives’. The Outstanding Drama award went to US-Soap stalwart, General Hospital, the 16th time the show has won.
With only 3 months of episodes in 2023 eligible for inclusion in this year’s awards, for a show cancelled less than two years ago and a show produced outside of the USA, the nominations themselves are a huge achievement.
Members of the cast and creative team were on hand at the award to fly the flag for Erinsborough. Executive Producer Jason Herbison and Series Producer Andrew Thompson were on hand along with cast members Annie Jones, Stefan Dennis, Georgie Stone and Gemma Bird Matheson, who will be reprising her role of Kiri Durant in coming weeks.
Jones and Dennis were also invited on stage to present the ‘Outstanding Daytime Personality’ award.
Watching the broadcast, it felt almost surreal to hear the voiceover:
“From the Daytime Drama-nominated series, Neighbours, here are Annie Jones and Stefan Dennis”.
Surely when the pair originally joined the show in the mid-80s they could never imagine that they would be stepping out in Hollywood almost 40 years later to represent the show?
Dennis was wearing a black-on-black tuxedo and Jones was in a stunning dark blue gown, taking centre stage, both looking flawless and unphased by where they were.
The pair went into a scripted introduction playing on American stereotypes of Australia including ‘Throwing shrimps on a barbie’ and knocking back a cocktail or two. We aren’t too sure about Annie Jones but we know that Jane Harris loves an occasional drink!
Despite not taking home an award this year, the nomination is a huge accolade and is an unbelievable achievement, almost two years to the day after the show filmed what they thought would be their final ever scenes.
With some amazing performances already so far in 2024 such as David’s death and Krista losing her baby – and with the promise of more explosive storylines, more returnees, more new guest stars including US Soap and Reality star Chrishell Stause – we are certain that we will see Neighbours back at the award in 2025.