"As the World Turns" was just canceled after 53 years on TV, but it received two major consolation prizes at the Daytime Emmys. The soap opera won the trophies for best actor Michael Park and lead actress Maura West when the awards were bestowed Sunday night at the Las Vegas Hilton.

"We had to say goodbye to over 60 members of our family on Wednesday," Park said tearfully, accepting the first Emmy of his career. "It was heartbreaking, and I pray you never have to endure what we endured on Wednesday.… I can't think of a better way to say goodbye to a 13-year run on a 53-year-old show than this right here. Thank you so much."

"The Bold and the Beautiful" won best drama series for a second year in a row after previously never claiming the top Emmy since its launch in 1987.

Below are other victors. More winners were announced last week at the Creative Arts Awards.See The Envelope's full list here.

BEST DRAMA SERIES
"The Bold and the Beautiful"

ACTRESS
Maura West, "As the World Turns"

ACTOR
Michael Park, "As the World Turns"

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Billy Miller, "The Young and the Restless"

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Julie Pinson, "As the World Turns"

YOUNGER ACTRESS
Julie Marie Berman, "General Hospital"

YOUNGER ACTOR
Drew Tyler Bell, "The Bold and the Beautiful"

After being dumped by the broadcast TV channels two years ago, the Daytime Emmy Awards were rescued by the CW network in 2009, but will return to CBS on Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT/PDT. The ceremony will be held in Las Vegas, emceed by Regis Philbin.

Who's going to win? We set up a special forum thread where our posters carefully studied the episodes submitted to judges by the nominees as examples of their best work. After duplicating the voting process, our experts made gutsy predictions in all top races. We spotlight some races here at Gold Derby: best drama series, lead actor, lead actress and talk show/entertainment. See more in our forums.

Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada agrees with our pundits that Crystal Chappell ("Guiding Light") will win best actress, but he disagrees with our gurus who say Michael Park ("As the World Turns") will triumph as best actor. Branco predicts the gold will go to three-time past champ Peter Bergman ("The Young and the Restless").

Branco picks "General Hospital" to prevail as best drama series for a record-setting eleventh time. ("The Young and the Restless" is in second place with seven victories.) So does one of our pundits, who is known as BC in our forums.

However, Matthew "Boidiva02" Cormier picks "The Bold and the Beautiful." See more of Branco's predix here.

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Photo credit: National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

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Two of our forum posters agree that Michael Park ("As the World Turns") will win best actor at the Daytime Emmys this weekend. Both Matthew "Boidiva02" Cormier and Peter "Italian Stallion" Stallone viewed the same DVDs submitted to judges and express their views in depth below. Also see our posters' predix for best drama series and lead actress. Check out our special forum with predix in all races.

BEST ACTOR: MATTHEW 'BOIDIVA02' CORMIER'S PREDIX
(Ranked by likelihood of winning)
1. Michael Park, "As the World Turns"
2. James Scott, "Days of Our Lives"
3. Doug Davidson, "Young and the Restless"
4. Peter Bergman, "Young and the Restless"
5. Jon Lindstorm, "As the World Turns"

MATTHEW'S COMMENTARY: The lead actor race this year is filled with industry veterans who are all well respected. Included among this esteemed group is multiple Emmy-winner Peter Bergman ("Young and the Restless"), multiple past nominee Michael Park ("As the World Turns"), previous nominees Doug Davidson ("Young and the Restless") and James Scott ("Days of Our Lives") and first-time nominee Jon Lindstorm ("As the World Turns").

Among this group, James Scott gives the most genuine and honest performance. Michael Park gives a great performance, but I feel myself connecting more to James Scott's reel.

Two nominees are not factors — Peter Bergman and Jon Lindstrom, who submitted less than thrilling tapes.  There are other factors working here, though, besides just the tapes. That "As the World Turns" is going off the air this September may bode well for Park, who has never won an Emmy in all his years of working on soaps. I think that this is a case where block voting will come into play. Because we have no nominees in this race from ABC, it will affect how the votes go. Assuming all of NBC's actors vote for James Scott, that leaves CBS' actors who will likely split their votes between Davidson and Park.

The winner this Sunday will be Susan Haskell ("One Life to Live"), according to our forum posters Matthew "Boidiva02" Cormier and Michael "Emmyloser" Jenkins. Read their expanded views here. Agreeing with them is Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada, who crows, "Haskell's visceral, jaw-dropping performance is the kind of acting the Academy typically prefers to honor."

But beware: Upsets happen all the time in this race and, as Branco points out, four-time past champ Susan Flannery ("The Bold and the Beautiful") is a formidable dark horse. However, Branco insists that Jeanne Cooper ("Young and the Restless") is really the most deserving nominee. "Cooper was truly the best actress of 2008. Period," he says. "Thanks to her dual role as Kay and Marge, 20-year-old flashbacks and a date with a bottle of whiskey, La Cooper should be taking home her third Emmy Award. (She won last year and she also earned a Lifetime Achievement Award.)"

Also nominated are Debbie Morgan ("All My Children") and Maura West ("As the World Turns"). West pulled off an upset victory just two years ago. What do you think of their chances now?

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Julie Berman or Rachel Melvin to win Daytime Emmy as best younger actress?

Photo credits:  ABC, CBS 

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After viewing the episodes submitted by nominees to Emmy judges, our two forum posters, Matthew "Boidiva02" Cormier and Kevin "Movieman6" Dillon, agree that the race for best younger actress is between Julie Berman ("General Hospital") and Rachel Melvin ("Days of Our Lives"), but they don't concur on which one's ahead. Read their differing views below and check out predix in these other Emmy races: best drama series, lead actor, supporting actor, supporting actress and younger actor. Read more in our forums.

BEST YOUNGER ACTRESS: BOIDIVA02'S PREDIX
(Ranked by likelihood of winning)
1. Julie Berman, "General Hosptial"
2. Rachel Melvin, "Days of Our Lives"
3. Kirsten Storms, "General Hospital"
4. Emily O’Brien, "The Young and the Restless"
5. Meredith Hagner, "As the World Turns"

BOIDIVA02'S COMMENTARY: Only two tapes in this race will matter.

The first is Berman's, which includes an appearance by Laura (played by a blond wig because ABC wouldn’t hire Genie Francis). Lulu is on the run after killing Logan and turns to Laura for support. It shows a real emotional maturity on Berman's part and the tape is heartbreaking.

Melvin's tape is also very good. Chelsea has donated part of her pancreas to help Bo and discusses with Hope the death of Zack (her stepbrother who died because she hit him) and Hope being unable to have children anymore.

After the funeral of her sister Georgie, Storms confronts her mother, Felicia, about being a deadbeat parent and never being there for her children. O'Brien's and Hagners' tapes are, in my mind, totally nonfactors in this race. 

BEST YOUNGER ACTRESS: MOVIEMAN6'S PREDIX
(Ranked by likelihood of winning)
1. Rachel Melvin, "Days of Our Lives"
2. Julie Berman, "General Hospital"
3. Meredith Hagner, "As the World Turns"
4. Emily O'Brien, "The Young and the Restless"
5. Kirsten Storms, "General Hospital"

MOVIEMAN6'S COMMENTARY: This is how I would vote. I think Melvin's tape is a rock star tape; she is great, remorseful and truly amazing and has grown in her acting. I think Berman's tape is second best. She is able to sell her fear of turning into her mother very well.

After examining the same sample episodes (also known as "reels" and "tapes") being evaluated by Daytime Emmy judges, our two gurus have drastically different views of who'll win best supporting actor

Our forums poster Michael "Emmyloser" Jenkins bets on Van Hansis ("As the World Turns"), but our forums moderator Matthew "Boidiva02" Cormier insists that Hansis has nothing in his reel that suggests he can win. Meantime, Boidiva02 picks Vincent Irizarry ("All My Children") for a "natural and effortless" performance, but Emmyloser pooh-poohs same and insists Irizzary has "no chance of winning this category."

Also check out our posters' predix in these races: best drama series, lead actor, lead actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, younger actor, younger actress, talk show (entertainment). talk show (informative), talk show host, game show, drama writing. See more Daytime Emmy predix in our forums.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: EMMYLOSER'S PREDIX
1. Van Hansis, "As the World Turns"
2. Bradford Anderson, "General Hospital"
3. Jeff Branson, "Guiding Light"
4. Vincent Irizarry, "All My Children"
5. Jacob Young, "All My Children"

EMMYLOSER'S COMMENTARY: Rightly, the Emmy should go to Van Hansis. His is the strongest and most complete reel, with a clear story that's well conveyed. Hansis makes us feel every emotion Luke feels and makes those emotions relatable. As an out and proud gay student, Luke has the most rooting value of all the characters, especially given the recent explosion of gay characters in daytime. Hansis is probably also perceived as overdue, which won't hurt him at all.

Bradford Anderson and Jeff Branson make strong candidates as well. Anderson may appeal to voters because his is the only light reel in the bunch and is quite funny at times, though it may be too short to make an impact. Branson's acting throughout his reel is excellent, even if extremely subtle, but the episode feels too much like we've just entered a conversation halfway through. Nonviewers aren't given enough context to understand the character's motivations or state of mind, so the work is difficult to fully appreciate.

Despite all the voter support "All My Children" seemed to get this year, Vincent Irizarry and Jacob Young should have no chance of winning this category. Irizarry's episode has a good arc, but he plays it flatly. There's nothing interesting in the performance. Young doesn't adequately convince us of what his character, JR, is saying. This is not a man who is losing the love of his life.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: BOIDIVA02'S PREDIX
1. Vincent Irizarry, "All My Children"
2. Jeff Branson, "Guiding Light"
3. Van Hansin, "As the World Turns"
4. Jacob Young, "All My Children"
5. Bradford Anderson, "General Hospital"

BOIDIVA02'S COMMENTARY: Vincent Irizarry is the veteran actor in this group, and I believe he will prevail because of this fact. The character he portrays, David, is distraught and suicidal after his daughter Babe's death and is about to kill himself when Krystal, Babe's mother, persuades him to spare his life. After she does so, they rehash old wounds and eventually make peace with his actions and the consequences therefore of his life.  His performance is one that shows an experienced actor overcoming writing that was somewhat abrupt.  His performance felt natural and effortless despite writing that called for too many emotions to overlap.

What to think of the Daytime Emmy nominations? Now that CBS airs half of the remaining eight soap operas on TV, its dominion over the genre was obvious when the noms were announced last week. Its soaps nabbed 51 bids compared to 27 for ABC shows and 10 for NBC series. Also striking was how old TV stalwarts like Martha Stewart's show have been upstaged by spicy new fare in the non-soap categories. Read my overview take on all of the noms, CLICK HERE .