By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Ellen DeGeneres and cooking-lifestyle guru Rachael Ray shared the Daytime Emmy spotlight on Friday as they split the top two awards for entertainment talks shows.


In another high point of the evening, Jeanne Cooper, the grand dame of U.S. television's longtime No. 1 soap opera, was named best lead actress in a drama series for her 35-year role as Katherine Chancellor on "The Young and the Restless."

It was the first Emmy win after eight nominations for Cooper, 79, who is one of only two remaining "The Young and the Restless" cast members from the early days of the show.

Veteran "General Hospital" star Anthony Geary, who plays the popular Luke Spencer character, won his sixth trophy as best lead actor. Only one other daytime drama star, actress Erika Slezak of "One Life to Live," has won six Emmys as a lead performer.

"General Hospital" was named best daytime drama series for a record 10th year.

The victory for "Rachel Ray" in the race for best talk show marked an upset triumph over "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," which had won the prize in each of the last four years.

"It's extraordinary to be the new kid on the block," an exuberant Ray said backstage. "It was a shocker."

Ray, signed to her show by Oprah Winfrey's production company, made headlines last month when a Dunkin' Donuts ad she appeared in was yanked after a Fox News Channel commentator complained the scarf Ray wore resembled a Muslim kaffiyeh.

Although her program lost to Ray, DeGeneres pulled off a triumph for a fourth straight year as best host of an entertainment talk show.

In doing so, she prevailed again over the five-woman co-hosting ensemble of "The View," led by creator-producer Barbara Walters and newly installed moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who replaced Rosie O'Donnell on the ABC series last fall.

Another team of perennial joint nominees, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa of the morning show "Live with Regis and Kelly," extended their losing streak as well.

But Philbin was not sent home empty-handed. The veteran TV personality and former host of onetime game show hit "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," received a lifetime achievement award.

DeGeneres' win capped a roller-coaster year for the comedian in which she sparked a national uproar over an adopted puppy, ad-libbed her way through the writers strike and just last month announced plans to wed her long-time partner after a California court ruling allowing gay marriage.

"I never take this for granted," DeGeneres, 50, said taking the stage to accept the prize. "This has been a crazy year and ... we've done a lot of crying and a lot of laughing, and I cried all by myself and then people laughed."

It was an obvious reference to tears DeGeneres shed last October when she recounted on the air how an animal rescue group took back a puppy she had adopted because she had given the dog to a friend without the animal agency's permission.

The 35th annual edition of the ceremony was broadcast live on ABC from Hollywood's Kodak Theater, home of the Oscars.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

© Copyright 2008 Reuters.

Photo:
Ellen Degeneres poses with her award for Outstanding Talk Show Host at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at the Kodak theatre in Hollywood, California June 20, 2008. REUTERS/Phil McCarten