Rugrats At The Emmys

Rugrats
At The Emmys

1. Do you know what Rugrats, Oprah Winfrey, Jeopardy!, General Hospital and The Price Is Right have in common? They all won daytime Emmys (Emmys awarded to shows seen from 2AM ET to 6PM ET). Specifically, Here's what "Rugrats" won:

1991-1992: Outstanding Animated Program (also the first Emmy for Nickelodeon)

1993-1994: Outstanding Animated Program

1994-1995: Outstanding Achievement In Animation

2. In 1995, the Passover episode was nominated for an Emmy, but did not win.

3. In 1997, the Mother's Day episode of Rugrats was nominated for a Prime-Time Emmy (Emmys awarded to shows seen from 6PM ET to 2AM ET) in the "Best Animated Program" category. Unfortunately, it lost to The Simpsons. Other nominees that lost were King Of The Hill, Dexter's Laboratory and Duckman. In 1998, Rugrats wasn't even nominated in any category.

4. In 1999, the series as a whole was nominated for "Outstanding Children's Program" in the Prime-Time Emmys, and once again, they lost. Rugrats was the only show in that category that was nominated as a series; the other nominees were only specials -- Nick News Special Edition: The Clinton Crisis (Nick), Rosie O'Donnell's Kids Are Punny (HBO), A Winnie The Pooh Thanksgiving (ABC), and that year's winner, The Truth About Drinking: The Teen Files (syndicated). Keep in mind that that category was an "area category", where more than one nominee in this category could've gone home with an Emmy, or in some cases, no one. This award was presented as part of the technical Emmys presentation on Saturday, 8/28/1999.

5. In 2000, the series as a whole was, once again, nominated for "Outstanding Children's Program" in the Prime-Time Emmys, and again, as usual, they lost. Goodnight Moon And Other Sleepytime Tales (HBO) and The Color Of Friendship (Disney Channel) were winners that year. The other losers were Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra In Concert (Disney Channel) and, most-fittingly, Here's To You Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years! (CBS). There were 2 winners because, as with last year, this category is an "area category". This award was presented as part of the "Creative Arts" Emmys presentation on Saturday, 8/26/2000.

6. In 2001, same story -- they lost again. The series as a whole was, once more, nominated for "Outstanding Children's Program" in the Prime-Time Emmys, presented as part of the "Creative Arts" Emmys presentation on Saturday, 9/8/2001. The other losers in this "area category" were King Gimp (HBO), Nick News (Nickelodeon), and Peter Pan, Starring Cathy Rigby (A&E). This year's winner -- The Teen Files: Surviving High School (UPN).

Usually, the Creative Arts Emmys are awarded a week before the main Prime-Time Emmys, which was originally scheduled for September 16; however, due to the terrorist events that happened on September 11, those awards have been put off until October 7. And then, US & Britain started their war against Bin Laden and the Taliban that day, leading to the 2001 Emmys being cancelled for good. Or not -- shortly after it was cancelled, organisers said that it was just postponed again for a later date -- it was finally held Sunday, November 4. The move puts the Emmys up against game 7 of the World Series (yes, it was necessary); it also caused "Best Animated Program" winner The Simpsons to delay its season premiere until November 11 (which would've been the case anyway, as the World Series had a Game 7).

7. In 2002, the All Growed Up pilot was nominated for the creative arts award for "Outstanding Children's Program". And once more, they lost. At the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on 9/14/2002, the winner was Nick News Special Edition: Faces Of Hope: The Kids Of Afghanistan.

The other losers were:

The Making of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (ABC)
Nick News With Linda Ellerbee (the series as a whole)
SpongeBob SquarePants (the series as a whole)

In an unusual move, almost all nominees were Nick programs, the single exception being the Charlie Brown special, which was seen on ABC.

8. In 2003, Rugrats won the Emmy for "Outstanding Children's Animated Program" in the Daytime Emmys, which was awarded on 5/16/2003. The other nominees were Dora The Explorer, Clifford, Dragon Tales and Arthur. All shows were nominated as a whole. This was Rugrats' first appearance in the Daytime Emmys, and first Emmy win, since 1995, made possible by the fact that Nick has aired all new episodes of Rugrats outside of prime-time during the 2002-2003 nomination period.

For more on the Emmy awards, click here.

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