The 52nd edition of the Daytime Emmys took place on Friday October 17 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California hosted by actor and television host Mario Lopez. The award show saw General Hospital walk away with the most number of awards while Drew Barrymore won the daytime talk series host award over fan-favourite Kelly Clarkson, causing an upset.
However, it also witnessed history as British biologist, natural historian and host Sir David Attenborough walked away with an Emmy for ‘daytime personality’ breaking actor Dick Van Dyke’s record as the oldest Daytime Emmy winner at 99. Before Sir David, Van Dyke became the oldest winner in the award show’s history at 98 for his role as a guest performer on ‘Days of Our Lives’ last year.
Sir David Attenborough’s win
While he was not on hand to accept the award, Sir David won it for Netflix’s ‘Secret Lives of Orangutans’ which he narrated. The Netflix documentary also won honours such as directing team for a single camera daytime non-fiction program. He won over nominees such as Brad Bestelink, Martha Stewart, Anthony Mackie and others. Sir David is perhaps one of the world’s best known natural sciences broadcasters and certainly the most famous.
He began his career in 1954 with “Zoo Quest” and went on to narrate and broadcast some of the most iconic natural science and history shows in television history such as, BBC’s “The Life Collection”, “Natural World”, “Wildlife on One”, “The Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth” series. He is the only person to have won BAFTA awards in black and white, colour, 3D and 4K resolution.
Sir David, though initially focused on the wonders of the natural world, eventually became a fierce advocate for environmental causes, supporting conservation of the ecosystem, restoring planetary diversity, switching to renewable energy and mitigating climate change. He is widely considered a “national treasure” in the UK but personally doesn’t accept the term.
The Secret Lives of Orangutans
Netflix’s ‘The Secret Lives of Orangutans’ follows a family of Orangutans in the wilderness of Sumatra in Indonesia. It primarily focuses on the life of eight-year-old Orangutan Eden. According to the Netflix logline for the documentary, “Orangutans are not just one of our closest relatives, they’re perhaps more relatable to us than any other great ape. Narrated by David Attenborough, this film follows a remarkable group of orangutans in the pristine jungles of Sumatra. At the centre of this story is 8 year old Eden, who’s about to embark on the most challenging moment of her life.”
Remarkably despite being almost a century old Sir David’s passion for documenting and narrating about nature continued as, after this award-winning project, he had already taken on others like Asia and Parenthood in 2024 and 2025 respectively and has another one lined up for the near future. With a zeal for this planet like few others, individuals like Sir David Attenborough set an example for what loving the planet truly looks like.