The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming.

The first daytime-themed Emmy Awards were given out at the primetime ceremony in 1972, when The Doctors and General Hospital were nominated for Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Drama. That year, The Doctors won the first Best Show Daytime Emmy. In addition, the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual in a Daytime Drama was given to Mary Fickett from All My Children. A previous category "Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Programming" was added once in 1968 with individuals like Days of Our Lives star MacDonald Carey nominated. Due to voting rules of the time judges could opt to either award one or no Emmy and in the end they decided that no one nominated was deserving of the golden statuette. This snub outraged then Another World writer Agnes Nixon, causing her to write in the New York Times - "...after viewing the recent fiasco of the Emmy awards, it may well be considered a mark of distinction to have been ignored by this group."

Longtime General Hospital star John Beradino became a leading voice to have daytime talent honored with special recognition for their work. The first separate awards show made just for daytime programming was broadcast in 1974 from the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center in New York. The hosts that year were Barbara Walters and Peter Marshall. The gala is now usually held at nearby Radio City Music Hall, with occasional broadcasts from Madison Square Garden. The 2006 Emmys are being held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles (the first time they have ever been held outside of New York), where the Academy Awards are presented.*

Originally, the show was aired during the daytime hours, but in 1991 the awards were moved to a nighttime broadcast. In recent years, the Daytime Emmy Awards have seen its ratings decline, prompting the move from three hours of televised content to two. Still, the award broadcast is guaranteed to draw in a fairly high percentage of viewers, and many special events have aired before the live telecast in an attempt to grab households tuning in for the awards. ABC/Disney's SoapNet cable channel usually airs special programming revolving around the Daytime Emmys in the month before the show, along with a red carpet special before the awards ceremony, and a post-show. When NBC hosted the awards shows, they would routinely air special one-off episodes of their soap operas, such as Another World: Summer Desire. The 2006 awards aired for three hours, from 8-11 p.m. ET.

For most of the last decade the show has been produced by one of its own Lifetime Achievement honorees — Dick Clark.

Due to the relatively small size of the world of Daytime Television (particularly television soap operas) it has become quite common for the same people to be nominated year after year, the most infamous being All My Children star Susan Lucci, whose name became synonymous with being nominated for an award and never winning.

Since 2002 the awards telecast has regularly featured a Special Fan Award in categories like Favorite Couple or Favorite Villain. These awards are voted for by soap fans online at CBS.