Every girl dreams about her wedding day; what will it be like, what the dress will look like, which kinds of flowers will I carry, who has recently pissed me off and is no longer on my guest list? And pretty much by the time a little girl hits about 12 years old, she has her entire wedding planned.

Well, I’m not one of those girls. For me, I didn’t dream about my wedding. Didn’t have a clue what it would be like, the shoes I would wear, how my hair would look, veil or no veil. Instead, I grew up flipping through People and Us Magazine and I dreamed about walking the red carpet. What would THAT be like?! how many photographers would be feverishly snapping my photo, how many autographs would I give, what would my dress look like and of course, how many body guards would I require?

After many years of contemplating this scenario, it finally came true this past weekend at the 38^th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards! Well, most of it, at least. Let’s start with what DIDN’T happen: to my surprise, I did not have photographers feverishly snapping my photo. Instead, I had my friend, Frank, snapping my photo entirely at my direction and NOT because he wanted to. I didn’t have any body guards, didn’t give out any autographs, (unless you count the ticket I signed at the Bell Desk when I turned in my phone) and I didn’t actually have a ticket to the show.

Instead, I was there to be a Seat Filler. Do you ever watch award shows and wonder why there are no empty seats when someone has just gotten up to receive an award and the cameras pan over the entire audience? Well, it’s because of the extremely important job of a Seat Filler, which I was thrilled to be a part of.

So, with that said, here is what DID happen: I did have a front row seat throughout the entire show. I did sit next to Anderson Cooper, Jillian Michaels, Vanna White and, Susan Lucci. I was smack-dab in front of Gladys Knight when she sang, “That’s What Friends Are For” in honor of Oprah Winfrey and I was close enough to hear Wayne Brady tell the production crew during a commercial break that he was going to adlib the next segment, which threw the production crew into a bit of a frenzy with one of the crew responding, “Just read what’s on the monitor Mr. Brady” – yeah, right. And the most exciting part of all…I DID walk the red carpet…TWICE!

Behind the scenes, the show gets very interesting. There are about 30 seat fillers and as a Seat Filler, you are placed in a holding area in 2 lines at the back of the auditorium. The seat filler crew is dispersed throughout the room with headsets on and at each commercial break the lights go down and the crew orders however many seat fillers are needed. The crew working the holding area will then pull the correct number of people and send them down to the crew member in the seating area to place them into the empty seat.  If the occupant of that seat comes back at the next commercial break, then the Seat Filler gets up and goes back to the holding area and waits for the next seat to fill. Some seat fillers end up staying in the same seat throughout the entire show, which happened to my friend Linda, who was lucky enough to sit with the entire cast of the Young and the Restless and was able to relax and enjoy the entire show from the same seat.

However, before the show began, I was pulled out of the holding area and placed in the front of the line, where my toes were inspected for polish and my shoes were scrutinized from every angle. Perplexed by this, I was wondering if my black, sparkly, shoes didn’t pass the Emmy criteria, when I was pulled down to the front of the auditorium with about 10 other seat fillers and was placed in a seat surrounding 4 actors who were going to tape the intro and the ending of the Emmy show. My job was to sit, clap and chat with the person I was sitting next to, (a dancer in the Cirque Du Soleil Elvis show), as they taped the intro. Once the taping was finished, we all went back into the holding area and watched the stars walk in.

At the 3 minute call for the show to begin, the seat filler crew began to pull and place seat fillers throughout the audience. My first seat was in the second row on stage right. After that, I move two more times both to the front row and remained there until the end.

As the show ended and everyone was walking out of the auditorium, fans were lined up all along the red carpet, yelling names, snapping pictures, jumping up and down. And let me tell you something, if you think Justin Bieber fans are crazy, you haven’t seen anything like soap opera fans. Those women are on a totally different playing field! To the extreme, even, that Susan Lucci travels with a squad of bodyguards because of all of the death threats she receives from extreme fans thinking that she really IS Erica Cane. (And you thought TV destroyed brain cells)…

So, as I was walking down the red carpet with Frank and Linda, and all of the stars, smiling and waving at the crazy fans, I thought, “Screw the wedding day. This is WAAAY better!”

Editor's note: The Friday before the big Daytime Emmy Award show on CBS, Definition 6's senior editor John Tierney received the Emmy at the Creative Arts Awards at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles. It is for Multi Camera Editing for his work on Sesame Street.  Def 6 got a big shout out from the stage and was acknowledged for their great creative contribution to the iconic program. - Frank Radice