History was made at the Daytime Emmys last night... twice. The Bold and the Beautiful won as the top Daytime Drama and the hosts of The View finally were winners. Good for B&B, the last of the half-hour soaps, coming off a terrific year. And it was great for the ladies of The View, who were probably starting to feel like getting the gold was an impossible dream. Unfortunately, they weren't there -- not one of them -- to accept.

However, amid the joyful wins and a jolly 40th anniversary salute to Sesame Street, there was a sad quality to the Daytime Emmys. Perhaps it was the over-arching reality that daytime TV is struggling, a point made clear when Betty White hosted a farewell to Guiding Light. No offense to the delightful Ms. White, but the salute was lackluster and hardly worthy of a show that has been broadcasting for 72 years! The cast appeared to receive a final ovation, but nobody spoke for the show.

Ugly Betty's Vanessa Williams hosted the show. She's a terrific singer and actress, but what the show needed was a clever emcee. Vanessa just tried too hard, and she wasn't helped by the feeling of forced frivolity, like when the costumes from the soaps were on display from each nominated show as two actors tried to dance in said frocks. I felt for those stars.

Overall, the winners were interesting, especially some new faces like Julie Berman from General Hospital and Darin Brooks from Days of Our Lives. One Life to Live's Susan Haskell was a good choice as Lead Actress. The tie in Supporting Actor was a stunner. While Jeff Branson from Guiding Light was the inside favorite, it was refreshing that he tied with All My Children's Vincent Irizarry, who has never won despite great work over the years on four soaps. Days Of Our Lives' Tamara Braun winning as Supporting Actress was a surprise, too, if only because she never managed to win when she was a lead and a regular on GH (she was Carly, remember?). Y&R's Christian Le Blanc was a repeat victor as Lead Actor, deservedly so.

Another high point of the show was the Feed the Children portion of the broadcast, which included GH's Anthony Geary, Kelly Monaco and AMC's Susan Lucci emotionally talking about the Daytime Gives Back program which dealt with starvation in Africa. It was very moving and the tears shed by the stars were the real thing.

As for the non-soap stuff, The Rachael Ray Show topping The Ellen DeGeneres Show was a jolt, and if you ask me, a joke. I loved that Cash Cab won for Best Game Show. Have you seen it? It's a hoot. And Bravo to Ina Garten for winning an Emmy for Barefoot Contessa, one of the best Food Network shows.