'General Hospital' wins 3 acting honors at 50th annual Daytime Emmys

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “General Hospital” won three trophies for acting at the Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday night.

The late Sonya Eddy won for her 16-year role as no-nonsense head nurse Epiphany Johnson on the venerable ABC show. She died last December at age 55 from an infection after surgery.

Robert Gossett, who plays Marshall Ashford, claimed the supporting actor trophy. He also won last year in the guest performer category for the same role.

Eden McCoy won for outstanding younger performer as Josslyn Jacks on “General Hospital.” The 20-year-old actor debuted on the show in 2015. Her mother, Natasha McCoy, died of cancer in November.

“This is for and because of my mother,” she said. “It's not lost on me what an absolute privilege it is to be able to do something, not only I like to do but love to do for a living, and I love what I do. It's really easy to be grateful on nights like this, but I am grateful every day.”

“The Young and the Restless” was honored for outstanding writing team.

Kelly Clarkson earned her third consecutive trophy for daytime talk series. The singer, who didn't attend, moved her syndicated show from Los Angeles to New York this year.

“It's a pleasure to work with her. She makes it fun, she's a joy every day and that makes it a little easier,” executive producer Alex Duda said. “She wanted me to thank all of our viewers for sticking with us on this migration as we moved.”

“Entertainment Tonight” won its eighth trophy as outstanding entertainment news series. Kevin Frazier and Nichelle Turner, who hosted Friday night, came out of the audience to accept.

The 50th annual ceremony honoring talk shows and soap operas is the first major awards show to return since the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes ended. It was pushed back from its scheduled June date.

To celebrate the awards' golden anniversary, the previous winner of a category was paired with a long-ago winner as presenters. Attendees sat at tables spread out in a ballroom at the Westin Bonaventure hotel in downtown Los Angeles.