Daytime Emmys, after shifting coasts, throwing nighttime party

Friday, April 28th 2006, 3:04 pm

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The young and the restless of daytime television planned to toss their biggest party of the year Friday night _ in new West Coast digs and with an extra hour of prime time.

For the first time in its 33-year history, the annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was moved from New York, the one-time soap opera capital of the world, to the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The scheduled ABC telecast also was expanded to three hours.

ABC was expected to use the occasion to announce that Rosie O'Donnell, former Emmy-winning daytime talk host, will be replacing Meredith Vieira on ``The View.'' Vieira will become ``Today'' show co-host in September when Katie Couric moves to the ``CBS Evening News.''

Vieira was a double nominee this year: as game-show host for ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,'' and talk-show host as part of ``The View'' ensemble.

CBS' ``The Young and the Restless'' topped the nominations list with 18, but none in the lead-acting categories.

The venerable soap competed with eight-time winner ``General Hospital,'' ``Guiding Light'' and ``As the World Turns'' for drama-series honors.

Ellen DeGeneres, whose daytime show earned 11 nominations, was in a position to possibly repeat last year's sweep of the host and talk show trophies.

``The Young and the Restless'' dominated the younger actor and actress categories, with two nominations in each. Jennifer Landon of ``As the World Turns'' was one of the nominees in the under-25 category: She's the daughter of the late Michael Landon of ``Bonanza'' and ``Little House on the Prairie'' fame, who never received an Emmy nod.

CBS led all networks with 59 nominations, more than ABC and NBC combined.

The lead-actor category included castmates pitted against each other: Anthony Geary and Maurice Benard of ``General Hospital,'' and ``Guiding Light'' co-stars Robert Newman and Ron Raines. The fifth nominee was Thorsten Kaye of ``All My Children.''

``Guiding Light'' co-stars Beth Ehlers and Kim Zimmer were competing in the lead-actress category. The other nominees were Susan Flannery of ``The Bold and the Beautiful,'' Bobbie Eakes of ``All My Children,'' and ``General Hospital's'' Kelly Monaco, who was tapped to co-host the Daytime Emmys with Tom Bergeron.