Dick Van Dyke’s record as the oldest person to win a Daytime Emmy Award didn’t last long. At this year’s awards ceremony, legendary British broadcaster, author and naturalist Sir David Attenborough made history by winning the 2024 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Personality – Extraordinary for Netflix’s The Secret of the Orangutans at the age of 99 (he turns 100 next May).
That makes her a hair older than Van Dyke, who last year set a record at 98 years old after winning a Daytime Emmy guest appearance on Peacock’s “Days of Our Lives.”
Mr. Attenborough’s win was one of three for Netflix’s “The Secret of the Orangutan,” which also won the team directing the single-camera daytime nonfiction show.
Attenborough defeated Brad Vesterink in “Living with Leopard” (Netflix). Andy Sweeney Blanco, Courtney Dover, Rob North, Kirin Stone, “The Fixers” (BYUtv). Anthony Mackie, “Anthony Mackie’s Shark Beach: Gulf Coast” (National Geographic). and Martha Stewart’s “Martha Gardens” (Roku).
Attenborough is known as one of the world’s most famous natural science broadcasters, starting with 1954’s Zoo Quest. His recent successes as a narrator include “Planet Earth” and its sequels, “Blue Planet” and its sequels, “Green Planet,” “Wild Isles,” “Dinosaurs: The Last Days with David Attenborough,” “Life in Color,” and “Frozen Planet.”
The logline for “The Orangutan’s Secret” is as follows: “Orangutans are not just one of our closest relatives, they are perhaps more familiar to us than other great apes. Narrated by David Attenborough, the film follows a remarkable group of orangutans in the pristine jungles of Sumatra. At the center of this story is eight-year-old Eden, who is about to enter the most difficult moment of her life.”
The 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards were held on Friday, October 17th at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
