Key Points
Susan Lucci is opening up about the moment she finally broke her losing streak with her 19th Best Actress nomination at the Daytime Emmys.
Recalling losing year after year for her performance as Erica Kane on All My Children, Lucci told PEOPLE, “I would go numb every time.”
Elaborating on her 1999 win in her new memoir La Lucci, the soap star jokes that while her husband and children’s support were always “more valuable than that elusive Emmy,” finally winning “felt pretty darn good.”
Susan Lucci is one of the brightest shining stars in the soap opera cosmos. But her flame was dimmed for far too long by one ignoble record: having the longest streak in Daytime Emmys history of nominations without a win.
Nearly three decades since the All My Children star finally took home her first and still only Emmy award, she’s revisiting the infamous night at the 1999 Daytime Emmys when her name was announced.
“I am frequently asked how I felt not to win the Emmy all those years,” Lucci writes in her new memoir, La Lucci, out Tuesday via Blackstone Publishing. “That’s easy! Not great.”
Lucci notes that “after my ninth year of not hearing my name called for Best Actress, I pretty much stopped hearing the name that was called when the envelope was opened. For a split second, my hearing went numb. I listened, but I didn’t hear. I was always happy for my colleagues, who were also doing wonderful work, but I think it was more of a self-protective reaction so I wouldn’t feel bad or get my hopes up too much.”
Susan Lucci as Erica Kane on ‘All My Children’ in 2004
ABC/STEVE FENN
But then her name was called. Standing on stage at the the Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City, a broad smile cracked across The Young and the Restless star Shemar Moore’s face when he called out, “The streak is over, Susan Lucci!”
A visibly emotional Lucci struggled to her feet, hugged her then-husband of 30 years Helmut Huber, and ascended the steps to claim the elusive prize.
“I truly never believed that this would happen,” she said, clutching the trophy, as the audience boisterously cheered for her.
In a Tuesday interview with PEOPLE, Lucci reflected that when Moore announced the “streak was over,” she thought that “he was going to be reporting on the playoff game results, basketball, hockey. And I thought, ‘Isn’t that nice? He’s keeping everybody updated.'”
Lucci continued, “I wasn’t 100 percent sure that I heard my name. First of all, Rosie O’Donnell grabbed my evening bag from me. My husband picked me up by the elbow, and I whispered in his ear, ‘Are you sure?’ I used to go numb at that point. After the ninth time that I didn’t win. Mind you, I won on the 19th time, so this was 10 more years later. I would go numb every time.”
During a clip from the CBS broadcast, O’Donnell — who was an All My Children superfan and won two Daytime Emmys that that year for Best Talk Show Host and Best Talk Show — can be seen welling with tears along with Lucci’s many colleagues as the star thanked her husband, children, and fans for their dedication and support.
With or without official recognition, Lucci was a beloved staple of daytime television by the time 1999 rolled around. She had already played the glamorous, spirited, and sometimes unpredictable Erica Kane on All My Children since 1970, and she’d go on playing Erica until ABC canceled the soap in 2011.
However, all that time without receiving her industry’s highest honor did breed “rumors” of “behind-the-scenes meltdowns,” which Lucci flatly denies in her memoir.
“How could there be when I knew my children were waiting for me at home with lots of hugs and kisses, precious homemade signs, balloons, handwritten notes, poems, and freshly baked chocolate cake?! Any one of these was more valuable than that elusive Emmy!”
Still, she jokes, “Having said that, winning felt pretty darn good—winning is definitely better!
Susan Lucci in New York in 2025
Stephanie Augello/Getty
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Lucci ended her run on All My Children as the most nominated actress in Daytime Emmys history, with a total of 21 nods. But one actor has her record beat — Young and the Restless star Peter Bergman, who so far has racked up a total of 24 nominations and four wins for his portrayal of Jack Abbott since 1989, and one nom for his portrayal of Cliff Warner alongside Lucci for 10 years on All My Children.
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