Melody Thomas Scott at the 51st Daytime Emmy Awards held at The Westin Bonaventure Hotel on June 7, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Melody Thomas Scott received a special honor at this year’s Daytime Emmys, as she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony on Friday, June 7.

The 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at the historic Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles, Calif., included a special presentation to honor Melody and her husband, Edward J. Scott, for their contributions to the daytime television industry.

Melody, 68, is known for her longtime role on The Young and the Restless, while Edward, 79, is a Daytime Emmy-winning producer on the long-running soap opera.

During the ceremony, Melody’s onscreen husband, Eric Braeden, and Y&R co-star, Lauralee Bell, presented the award.

Edward shouted out their three daughters, Jennifer, Alex and Elizabeth (and their spouses), and their five grandkids in his portion of the acceptance speech. Meanwhile, Melody expressed how much her Y&R family has meant to her through the decades.

“A lot of people have been talking about family tonight on this stage,” Melody said at one point. “And growing up, this Hollywood kid was family-challenged.”

She continued: “When I was cast on Y&R 45 years ago, I walked on Stage 41 at TV City and knew I was finally home with a family that had been waiting for me all along.”

Melody is known for playing the character Nikki Reed Newman, whom she first portrayed when she joined the show in 1979. She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress at the Daytime Emmys in 1999 and won the same category for the Soap Opera Digest Awards in 2001.

Her husband is a six-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning producer who currently works as the supervising producer for The Bold and the Beautiful. Melody and Edward have been married since 1985 and share three daughters and five grandchildren.

“We’ve long wanted to honor the legendary daytime duo of Melody Thomas Scott and her husband Edward J. Scott,” said Adam Sharp, President and CEO of NATAS. “With a combined 93 years of contributions to our community, they are true institutions in the world of Daytime television.”

“We are honored and humbled to receive this recognition from NATAS,” the couple said in a statement. “Throughout our decades-long careers in front of and behind the cameras, we have had the opportunity to work not only with each other, but also with an incredibly talented pool of people who excel in their crafts and are passionate about the art we create in daytime television.”

They added, “We are grateful to have worked side by side with them and to be included with such esteemed recipients who have made their mark in our industry. We look forward to spending another wonderful evening celebrating the daytime community!”

The 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards presentation is airing live on CBS. You can also stream the ceremony live and on-demand on Paramount+.

“The Newman Ranch burning down was an emotional story for the Newmans, but it was not lost on us that the Newman family and Genoa City just weren’t the same without Victor and Nikki’s original home,” said Josh Griffith, Executive Producer and Head Writer. “We’ve discussed bringing the set back for many years, and decided that its return around Y&R’s 13,000th episode would be perfect timing to help celebrate this incredible milestone as well as the legacy of Victor and Nikki. I must give special thanks to Y&R’s art department and stage crew who went above and beyond in executing the return of one of Y&R’s most iconic sets.”

The Young and The Restless will celebrate its 13,000th episode today at Television City. Airdate for the milestone episode is Nov. 13.

They “met at a time in our lives,” she says in her autobiography, “where the stars were aligned for us.”

The Young and the Restless’ Nikki could learn a lot about keeping a relationship intact from portrayer Melody Thomas Scott, who on October 12 is celebrating her 39th wedding anniversary with husband Edward J. Scott, who’s just returned to the show as supervising producer after more than a decade at sister soap Bold & Beautiful.

“A marriage is two people who love each other, obviously, and respect each other enough to both be caretakers of the unit they’ve created,” the actress told Soap Opera Digest in 1995. “It’s swallowing your pride about something if it makes your partner feel better.

“It’s hard sometimes,” she added, “but I very firmly believe that when you write down a list of priorities, your mate should be No. 1, because a family is based on the bond between the parents.”

And from the start, the bond between the Scotts was tight. “Sometimes life is about timing, and Edward and I met at a time in our lives where the stars were aligned for us,” she wrote in her memoir, Always Young & Restless: My Life On and Off America’s #1 Daytime Drama. “That’s the best way to describe it!“

Since then, the couple has come to regard themselves as, to borrow a phrase from Rick Astley, “together forever. That seems to be our deal.”

Though Scott was hitched twice before saying “I do” to the love of her life — those unions lasted six months each, Digest reported — she told the magazine, “In my heart, this is my only marriage.”