The 31st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards are now in the history book. The red carpet has been rolled back up for another year and jubilant Emmy recipients are now trying to figure out where they'll display their Emmy statues.

It was a return to the basics at this year's Daytime Emmy Awards. Unlike last year's sprawling three hour 30th Anniversary Emmy extravaganza, this year's ceremony was pared down to its usual two-hour timeframe. And in further reverence to daytime's roots, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award to several daytime legends.

But what would an awards ceremony be without a little controversy? This year, before the first award was even handed out, at least one journalist had called for a boycott of the Emmy ceremony. The soap bubbles started to fly when NATAS decided earlier this year that the media would not be permitted to view each nominee's entry reels. There was an outcry from some members of the media, stating that NATAS was punishing the media for catching some mistakes made by NATAS in previous years.

"NATAS is wreaking revenge against the media for uncovering embarrassing past sins and it wants to make sure no further goofs can be uncovered," says awards guru Tom O'Neil, who threatened to boycott the awards. "This media ban is a shocking betrayal of media ethics and a serious violation of the reason NATAS exists."

Adds TV Guide's Delaina Dixon, "Soap journalists spend years understanding and analyzing this genre. To bar us from commenting on its most celebrated competition [...] does a disservice to those who should be recognized, as well as the viewers who invest daily in their work."

Hubbub aside, this was still Daytime's biggest night -- a night for glitz, glamour and, of course, a five-pound, fifteen inch statuette named Emmy. This was a night to celebrate and add to the Emmy family, for there was the potential for a first-time Emmy winner in nearly every category. In the end, however, it was more like an Emmy family reunion as just one performer was crowned a first-time winner.

PART TWO: SUPPORTING ACTOR AND ACTRESS