Moments after the Daytime Emmy nominations were announced, I powwowed on the set of "The View" with Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada and Hello! Canada, who is one of the savviest Emmy gurus in the biz.

Sorry that I haven't blogged more, and earlier, today, but I spent much of it in media hell. First, there was the ridiculous delay downstairs at "The View's" studio in New York, forcing journalists to hang out in the lobby for more than half of an hour while Susan Lucci and cohorts used the press room upstairs to entertain pals, thus keeping everyone else out.

Finally, they skedaddled about 10 minutes before the start of "The View." We scrambled upstairs, settled down and watched the show, but something was missing: the list of nominations! And there was no press rep anywhere to be found whom we could yell at to fetch it. Usually, at nomination news conferences, the lists are distributed around the room to journalists as soon as the first categories are read at a podium. Even after the "The View" was over, none of us could find the list. Not even online.

A press rep finally did enter the room, but she had nothing for us but a stern order to pick up our computers and cameras and follow her. Dutifully, we obliged. She led us up an ominous, narrow staircase and then trapped us inside. Yes. See photo below. A loooooooong time passed, at least 10 minutes, before we were finally sprung free. Meantime, we were cramped so tightly in that stairwell that, if anyone had tumbled, it would've set off a deadly avalanche of journos.

Finally, later on, we emerged from captivity and were permitted to step out onto the set of "The View," which was now mostly barren of celebs. Yeah, a few stray soap stars stayed behind to talk to us after the majority fled once their duties ended as category announcers. Even though the hosts of "The View" were, technically, our hosts today and were nominated by Emmy voters as best TV hosts, they proved to be the worst. None of them except for Sherri Shepherd stuck around to say howdy. At least I didn't see them. Now that I think about it, we were probably locked in that stairwell earlier to give them time to escape before we wild beasts were uncaged.

One good thing: Once I was sprung free upstairs, I found a press rep who kindly gave me a list of nominations at long last! But at that point it was more than 45 minutes after they'd been announced and I did not have access to my computer and couldn't blog.

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Sizing up the reax in our forums (CLICK HERE), many of our posters found these acting noms (below) the most unmerited. Curiously, these noms are all from the same show — "The Young and the Restless" — a fact that many of our posters blame on bloc voting.

Perhaps there is some truth to that. "Y&R" is not only the ratings king among daytime dramas, but it's telecast by CBS, which has half of the eight soaps on TV (also "The Guiding Light," "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "As the World Turns") — after dismissing the now-defunct "Passions," formerly on NBC. "Y&R" led today with 17 nominations; "The Guiding Light" came in second place with 13. "B&B" had 9, "ATWT" 12. Therefore, CBS soaps had a total of 51 Emmy bids. ABC soaps ("All My Children," "One Life to Live," "General Hospital") had 27. NBC's only soap "Days of Our Lives" had 6, plus 4 for "Passions."

Given CBS' huge edge, it's logical to assume that a good half of Emmy voters who work on soaps may be affiliated with that network's programs. So you can understand why many Emmy-watchers suspect foul play. There have been rumors of bloc voting for eons, but they've never been proven.

LEAD ACTRESS
Jeanne Cooper, "The Young and the Restless"

LEAD ACTOR
Christian LeBlanc, "The Young and the Restless"

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These actors did terrif work this year and deserved nominations. Sure, there are seven names below in the best-actress race, but, hey, didn't that category have eight nominees three years ago? Besides, they're all more deserving than Jeanne Cooper, who's long overdue for an Emmy win, granted, but she's really a supporting star this year now nominated in the wrong category.

Chief among the Emmy missing:

BEST ACTRESS
Martha Byrne, "As the World Turns"
Bobbie Eakes, "All My Children"
Susan Flannery, "The Bold and the Beautiful"
Deidre Hall, "Days of Our Lives"
Katherine Kelly Lang, "The Bold and the Beautiful"
Melody Thomas Scott, "The Young and the Restless"
Alison Sweeney, "Days of Our Lives"

BEST ACTOR
Ricky Paull Goldin, "The Guiding Light"
Michael Park, "As the World Turns"
Robert S. Woods, "One Life to Live"

"Where's Martha?" everybody gasped when looking over a list of Daytime Emmy nominations. Stewart or her show were nowhere on the list, not even in the lowly crafts categories!

The TV guru has dominated the lifestyle and service categories for eons — often winning the races for both program and host — and Emmy stood faithfully by Stewart even during her prison scandal.

Just months after she was released from jail in 2005 her program won the Emmy for best service show. That award was bestowed off air at the crafts ceremony. The other prize — for host — was bestowed on the prime-time TV Emmycast that year. Remember the big hoopla surrounding that? Everybody wondered: Oh, what would happen if Martha won, as she was widely expected to do? What would she say?

But, alas, she got devoured by Bobby Flay and Michael Chiarello of the Food Network.

I just checked with the TV academy. Turns out Stewart did not submit her program for nomination! That's never happened before! Why now? I've left a phone message for the PR rep of Martha's TV show, but have not heard back.

(Photo: NATAS)

Where's Reege and Kelly's show? Notice that they just got nommed for best talk-show host, but their show was snubbed in the main talk category. Last year they put their program in competition for the new Emmy bestowed to best morning show, but got skunked when the only two other nominees, "Today" and "Good Morning America," tied for the win. This year they switched back to talk show races and got bumped out totally! Well, at least they're giving Reege an extra honorary award on Emmy night!  

We've got the rundown -- CLICK HERE!

Wow. Biggest surprise so far among the Daytime Emmy nominations: three bids for "Days of Our Lives" stars! The soap that almost never gets acting bids scored recognition for Jodi Evans, Rachel Melvin, Darin Brooks in the supporting and younger-acting races. The likely reason: industry sympathy for a TV soap on the bubble of possibly being canceled.

UPDATE: Make that four bids for "Days" now that the lead races have been revealed, too! Thaao Penghlis just joined the best-actor lineup!

"Hallelujah!" cried journos back in the press room when "One Life to Live" was nommed for best drama series. It's widely perceived to be the best soap on the tube this year. But also beloved right now is "The Bold and the Beautiful," which got snubbed.

Curious oddity in the lead acting races. The lead actor race is full of the reigning older dudes like David Canary, Peter Bergman and Anthony Geary. But the older dames are missing from the leading lady race — except for Jeanne Cooper, who is long overdue to win after more than three decades starring on TV's top-rated soap, "The Young and the Restless."

Four of the five gals up for best lead actress last year just returned. One exception: Nicole Forester bumped "Guiding Light" costar Kim Zimmer, who didn't make the pre-nom list. Her omission makes sense, though. In 2006, Zimmer promised to withdraw from the best actress race if she won for a fourth time. She did, but returned the next year, made the pre-nom list and was nominated again. This year she was absent from the pre-nom roster.

Correction: An earlier version of this blog item incorrectly stated that Zimmer was on this year's pre-noms list.

So you think that it's soooooo glam being at these kudos events? Here are some views of the press room of "The View" while we wait for the announcement of nominations.