Will Lucci Win?

Might the Daytime Diva Finally Take Home the Gold? Our Expert Tells If It's a Lock

by Tom O'Neil

It's gotta be a conspiracy.

How else to explain Susan Lucci's failure to win an Emmy after an unprecedented 18 nominations?

At first, I was convinced that all the people she's ever slapped, ruined, divorced or attempted to kill on All My Children must secretly scheme each year to get back at her.

Or, if not revenge, maybe jealousy is the motive. After all, Lucci earns the biggest paycheck in daytime--a reported $1 million a year. Surely, that has to ruffle a few feathers.

Not that Lucci hasn't ruffled back in the past. In fact, early on in her Emmy losing streak, she behaved as any good diva would and pounded a table in rage, burst into tears and stormed out of the ceremony. In recent years, though, she's discovered a sense of humor, even spoofing herself on Saturday Night Live.

"I just don't have an answer about why I haven't won," she admits. "I always wonder, What am I doing wrong?"

Enough! I finally harrumphed. As E!'s resident awards expert (that's me chiming in with Joan and Melissa Rivers at the Emmys, Oscars and Golden Globes) and the author of Variety's book The Emmys, I decided if I couldn't get to the bottom of it, nobody could.

So, I set about unraveling the mystery--and, when my sleuthing was done, I'd uncovered two truly shocking things: the real reasons Lucci keeps losing; and the fact that this year, her 19th go-round, she just might...actually win!

Where to Start Snooping? Emmys are decided by judging panels made up of actors who belong to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Each April, these panels huddle in hotel rooms in L.A. and N.Y. to watch videotapes of the nominees' best work from the previous season.

The judges' identity is secret, but--ha!--my Sherlockian skills overcame that little obstacle. All I needed to do was dig up one or two voters and, since they're unscrupulous media types, they not only squealed but were eager to finger others. Turns out everyone's dying to dish this bizarre soap enigma.

"Lucci's no victim," one judge insists. "It's her own fault that she keeps losing."

Another judge who's served on a half dozen Best Actress panels was incredulous: "You can't believe some of the foolish things Lucci's done in the past. She thinks big is best; she keeps handing in huge screaming and crying scenes."

A typical example, says this judge, was last year's submission--more than two-thirds of it was drowned in tears.

Lucci herself was near tears in 1997 when she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, her head hanging dejectedly, and offered one theory on why she hadn't won: "I'm not good enough."

Not true, most judges agree! In fact, since she gets so much screen time each year, there's no shortage of good footage , but she keeps making the same mistakes.

Lucci believes judges want to see her in grand diva form--a doomed Carmen weeping and mugging through an eternal death scene--but she's WRONG, and the strategy actually kills her chances.

Another problem: Nominees submit one videotape containing two sample episodes. (The scenes they're not in are edited out.) While most choose two consecutive episodes, Lucci often enters scenes from different points in the season, so there's no continuity to the storyline, making the viewing experience less than enjoyable for the judging panel.

"One year, back in 1994," says one former TV Academy official, "the tape she entered was horribly edited. It was so choppy the judges laughed as they watched it."

So, Bottom Line...What Are Lucci's Chances This Year? Believe it or not: excellent.

All of the judges interviewed for this article agree that Lucci finally handed in a first-rate tape. It contained back-to-back episodes--at last!--revealed surprising dramatic restraint in spots and a nicely balanced range of acting skills.

Of course, it's still soap-certified hambone, but as one Academy official says, "At least she's not standing outside her mother's tomb, flogging her chest and wailing like she did on a tape a few years ago. That was the worst!"

One of the few who can pull off that sort of melodrama is Guiding Light's Kim Zimmer, who has already beaten Lucci three times and gives one of her best sledgehammer performances this year. The good news for Lucci, though, is the Guiding Light plot is just so ridiculous--Reva squares off against her own clone--that some judges actually laughed during the screenings.

Nonetheless, actors who play twin roles traditionally do well at the Emmys--just ask Lucci costar David Canary, who plays Adam and Stuart Chandler on All My Children. He's nabbed four Best Actor trophies.

This year, there's no consensus among the judges on who'll win. Most believe it's a toss-up between Zimmer and Lucci with Young & the Restless veteran Jeanne Cooper a dark horse. Zimmer seems to be slightly out front, but many pundits contend her chances could be hurt by the absurdity of the storyline.

But two things are in Lucci's favor. First, of the five contenders, her tape was the longest, so judges had more of her to watch; and, second, since hers was viewed after Zimmer's, and judges watch all five tapes before they vote, it may have been fresher in their minds as they marked their ballots..