Twitter Reacts to The Daytime Emmys' Rape Joke

When, a few weeks ago, it was announced that the Daytime Emmy Awards would forgo a live broadcast in favor of online streaming, no one was surprised. After all, this is an awards show that has categories like "Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program" and "Performer In A Children/Youth/Family Special" — it's not exactly must-see entertainment. So when this year's ceremony rolled around on Sunday, not too many people, save for a few die hard soap opera fans, tuned in to see it unfold. As it turned out, though, those who did watch the show, or at least the red carpet, saw one of the most cringeworthy, disastrous hosting jobs in awards show history, when the four women chosen to lead the Emmys pre-show made jokes about rape, flirted with racism, and generally did everything hosts — or, really, all people — aren't supposed to do.

Where to start? There was the question host Jessica Harlow, a beauty vlogger (all four pre-show hosts were chosen for having large social media followings), asked The Bold and the Beautiful actor Lawrence Saint-Victor: "what's it like to be a black man on a soap opera these days?" Nothing in the conversation had led to this, and to make things worse, Harlow introduced the actor as "a beautiful chocolate man."

Then, there was the flirting, or more like harassment; host Brittany Furlan, a Vine star, attacked practically every guy who arrived on the red carpet, kissing Mario Lopez, commenting on actor Daniel Polo's barely legal age, and doing and saying enough other inappropriate things to make "Giuliana Rancic look positively demure," reported TVLine.

And, perhaps most distressingly, Furlan, in a goodbye to General Hospital's Ryan Paevey, made this supposed "joke:" we're going to get you away from us before we rape you."

As expected, viewers quickly took to the Internet to voice their disgust with Harlow, Furlan, and the two other hosts, criticizing both the women for their actions and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for picking them to lead the pre-show when clearly, none of them knew how to interact on live TV. So far, none of the hosts have apologized, but with outrage like this, it's likely only a matter of time. A few of the best viewer responses:

And one that sums it all up:

Image: DaMikeyGoldberg/Twitter