The ladies of "The View" were so sure the Daytime Emmy for best hosting would go to someone else that they did not bother journeying westward for last night's awards. Were Barbara Walters ,Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd even watching the CW telecast when their names were announced?

Daytime Emmy history certainly backed up their decision to be no-shows. Since Dinah Shore won the first hosting Daytime Emmy in 1974 for her talker "Dinah's Place," no multiple-host nominees have ever prevailed. Indeed the only time perennial runner-up Regis Philbin won this award was in 2001 when he was in between co-hosts. He could never win with Kathie Lee Gifford and he has yet to repeat with Kelly Ripa by his side.

While the revolving cast members of "The View" were nominated as outstanding talk show hosts in each of the first 11 seasons, they never won the award. The ladies of "The View" blamed their losing streak on the possibility that voters always found at least one of them to dislike at various times. Yet they always went to the Daytime Emmy awardcasts and accepted their seemingly inevitable loss with style and grace. What irony to finally win when the Daytime Emmys were held without the usual fanfare. 

Creator and occasional co-host Barbara Walters wasn't there to deliver the speech she has had in her purse since 1998. That first year, the original co-hosts — Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos, Behar, and Walters — lost in a three-way race to both Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell.

"The View" just finished its 12th season, drawing over 4.2 million viewers a day and scoring well in key demographics. Critics raved about the lively discussions that dominated the front half of the hour-long talker. That made this year's snub for best talk show even more surprising. The show won just one of its 11 consecutive daytime Emmy bids, when it tied with "The Wayne Brady Show" in 2003.

Certainly there is an ease among this current panel that was missing for much of the show's first decade. For the first nine years, Star Jones was one of the co-hosts and her popularity plunged in direct relation to her ever-shrinking waistline. Once Jones was jettisoned in 2006, hopes were high that bringing on board Rosie O'Donnell as the new moderator would change the show's Emmy fortunes.

After all, O'Donnell had enjoyed a long love affair with the Daytime Emmy Awardsfor her own talker. She had won six consecutive hosting Daytime Emmys beating, among others, "The View" panel. Alas, while her run-ins with conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck made for gripping TV, they did not sit well with Daytime Emmy voters who preferred the softer edges of Ellen DeGeneres.