Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.comIt's going to take an army—or at least a stronger contingent than they've got over at The View—to take down Ellen DeGeneres.
The master of witty self-deprecation won her fourth consecutive trophy for Outstanding Talk Show Host, once again besting Barbara Walters & Co. and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.
"I never take this for granted...Every single year, I know people joke about it…It's not what we do it for, but it feels so good," DeGeneres said while thanking her fans, crew, family and fiancée, Portia de Rossi.
"We all know this has been a crazy year. On my show, we've done a lot of crying and a lot of laughing, and I've cried all by myself and people laugh, and then I cry some more...I know you're counting me down, but it's the longest day of the year, I just read, so I can go on," she continued, referring to tonight's summer solstice.
"What a night," Philbin told the crowd after accepting his award from Jimmy Kimmel. "Tyra Banks told me to kiss her big beautiful and I found out I'm older than the Guiding Light."
"This is the kind of night that you are forced to consider your career and your life and why you're receiving this award—and I thought about it all month and I still can't think of any decent reason why I should receive that award," Philbin said, every so often putting his usual emphasis on random words. "But I'll take it, believe me."
In the backstabbing world of soap operas (we mean on camera, of course), ABC's General Hospital sewed up its record 10th win for Outstanding Drama Series, as well as a sixth Lead Actor statue for Anthony "Luke Spencer" Geary.
Jeanne Cooper of CBS' The Young and the Restless, which headed into the evening as the most nominated soap, with 17 nods, picked up her first win in nine tries for Outstanding Lead Actress.
"I only made up my mind to come on Monday," Cooper said backstage. "I'm glad I did."
TYATR's Kristoff St. John also won for Outstanding Supporting Actor, giving the series three wins overall.
One Life to Live was the most honored drama of the year, with six wins, including Emmys for its directing and writing teams, and Guiding Light was second, with four triumphant moments to its credit.
Despite being all gussied up in Top Model mode, a more serious Banks won the inaugural Emmy for Outstanding Informative Talk Show, a new category that allowed the former catwalker to avoid a showdown with Ellen and The View, both relegated to entertainment talk show status.
Instead, Banks' two-hanky chatfest beat out Dr. Phil and the dual PBS educational series A Place of Our Own and Los Ninos en su Casa.
"I want to thank Oprah Winfrey for her inspiration," Banks said. "She is the queen. She will always be the queen.
"They said that The Tyra Banks Show would last two weeks and we are enterting our fourth season this September," the outspoken media maven continued.
"I just have a message for everybody out there: When you have a dream, there are going to be so many people out there who tell you you cannot do it, that you are not good enough. And I want you to tell them to kiss your dimply, flat, juicy, bootylicious, skinny, jiggly, saggy, fat ass!"
Winfrey's last win for hosting came in 1995, her fifth consecutive win and sixth overall. She has benevolently been excusing herself and her show from their respective top categories since 1999.
"I'm not going to take my name out," DeGeneres assured reporters backstage. "Oprah has made so many bad choices. Look at her career."
Sherri Shepherd and Cameron Mathison hosted tonight's ceremony at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood where, for the first time, ABC arranged the audience Golden Globes-style at banquet tables. Footage of the well-fed and boozy good times is available for watching on SoapNet.com.
Here's the complete list of winners from the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.