Logie Awards most cringe moments ever, from Daryl Somers to Karl Stefanovic
From Karl Stefanovic and David Koch almost kissing to Tracy Grimshaw’s tequila mishap, Confidential takes a look through the most memorable ‘cringe’ moments in Logie Award history.
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They are the moments almost more memorable than who wins what on the night – from Karl Stefanovic and David Koch’s almost kiss to Tracy Grimshaw being caught in the nuddy back in the 90s, Australian television’s night of nights always delivers on the cringe front.
Here, starting with the 63rd event in 2023, Confidential takes a look through the vault of eyebrow raising moments at the annual Logie Awards.
DARYL SOMERS
Read the room Daryl! You’d think veteran TV host Daryl Somers would know how to read a room by now but apparently not given his excruciating Gold Logie presentation to Dancing with the Stars co-host Sonia Kruger.
With the room clearly keen to move on to the after-party, and viewers at home eager to find out the Gold winner so they could get to bed, 71-year-old Somers launched into a strange and not even close to funny mock auction involving the seven finalists in the category.
“So we have seven very nervous nominees in the room but don’t let that hold you back. What is my bid? Please, don’t be shy, don’t be shy,” Somers began.
“Julia Morris, $5000, thank you. Wonderful, we are off, on the market. Hamish Blake, $10,000 from Hamish Blake. You will go back to back if you are lucky tonight. And from the heavy table, it is $15,000 from Sonia Kruger.”
He continued, “Oh, hang on, the phone is going, it is a phone bid? Hello. $25,000? … No, Tom Gleeson you are not even nominated.
“I don’t think the auction is going to work, TV Week. Are you working on delay up there? I don’t think it is going to work tonight.”
Former Gold Logie winner Tom Gleeson summed up the sentiment of the room when seen uttering in disdain, “this isn’t funny”.
BERT’S ‘BOY’ GAFFE
Described as “the most infamous Logies moment ever,” by TV Week, Bert Newton found himself in a bit of bother with boxing legend Muhammad Ali in 1979 when he quipped ‘’I like the boy,’’ to the audience. Not knowing that “boy” could be taken as a racial slur, Ali looked at him in disbelief and said.
“Did you say Roy or Boy?’’ as the audience called out to Newton to correct the remark.
He then went on to slam the Logie award itself, asking Bert: “I don’t want to embarrass nobody, but is this real gold? What do you do to win one of these? Is this a big thing?’’
Newton replied: “This is 23 years for me.’’ Ali returned: “Twenty-three years for this?’’ Ali finished by telling Bert: “I love the award, I like your style, but this gift is so cheap, I won’t see you for a while.”
1998 TRACEY’S RACY RUN-IN
After downing tequila shots at the 1998 Logies, a short time later Tracey Grimshaw found herself in a compromising position failing to tell the difference between her hotel room bathroom and the corridor, resulting in the then Today show host being locked out of her room completely naked.
It was a gaffe Grimshaw tried to sweep under the rug for almost a decade: it wasn’t until 2013 when appearing on the Kyle and Jackie O show did she spill the beans on what really happened.
“Suddenly it was quarter to four in the morning, and I had done a few tequila shots and I was doing the Today Show that morning,” she said.
“I thought, ‘I am going to have a shower and get ready because the girls are going to be here in 15 minutes to get me all shooshed for the Today Show’.
“So I took the dress off I was wearing and the finery and pulled all the bits and bobs from my hair and went to have a shower and found myself in the hallway. At Crown. Yup.”
JULIA MORRIS NOMINEE GAFFE
Julia Morris stole the show during the live broadcast of the 2015 Logies after she accidentally forgot to announce the nominees of the Outstanding Entertainment Program, and instead cut straight to announcing the winner. After Ricky Martin, Delta Goodrem and Darren McMullen from The Voice accepted the award, Morris realised what she had done.
“Did I forget to talk about the nominees?” she said. “It’s live, don’t tell anyone, we can cut it out later!”
“Let’s pretend it hasn’t happened, ladies and gentlemen, the nominees ... I wish I had my glasses,” she said as she read out the nominees.
“Come on, why did it have to be me, couldn’t it be someone groovy who did that?”
GRETEL KILLEEN AND THAT HOSTING PERFORMANCE
After taking some time out from showbiz following a seven year stint hosting Big Brother, Gretel Killeen made a surprising comeback to the limelight, accepting the gig of hosting the 51st Logies awards. Sadly it was a short-lived comeback.
Only a short time after she took the stage she was slammed for wooden delivery, lacklustre jokes falling flat, an overabundance of self-deprecating humour and poking fun at members of the live audience.
Further adding to Killeen’s misfortune the 2009 Logies coincided with the rise of Twitter, with viewers using the new microblogging platform to tear her to shreds.
Poor Gretel was so scarred from hosting the event she retreated from show business for years, later reflecting it almost killed her.
“It killed me, it was so hard and so difficult and so isolating,” Killeen told the program One Plus One on the ABC.
“I can think of no other way of describing it: it killed me. It absolutely killed that person who had existed up until then.”
RIVERS RIPS IT UP
Joan Rivers had the audience in stitches after a few drinks at the Logies in 2006. While on stage with Richard Wilkins, an inebriated Rivers told the audience: “They don’t know who the sh*t I am. I don’t know why the f*** I’m here. I know him (pointing to Wilkins) and I know you’re all famous [gesturing to audience] and I hope you all win. I know I’m sitting with important people, I don’t know who you are.”
When Wilkins then presented her with her own pink Logie award, Rivers wasn’t so humbled by the gesture. “I am so touched,” she said before flinging it behind her shoulder.
“It’s the ugliest award I’ve ever seen. You can get it on eBay tomorrow.”
SAMMY LIGHTS UP
It probably wasn’t as shocking in 1978 as it is now, but when American entertainer Sammy Davis Jr was on stage with Bert Newton to present the gold Logie, he lit up a cigarette and puffed away on it during the broadcast. While no one told him to stop smoking at the time, he sadly died of throat cancer 12 years later.
KOCHIE AND KARL’S ALMOST-KISS
Speaking of awkward moments.
This clumsy encounter between rival Kochie and Karl Stefanovic ranks pretty highly in notable awkward Logies moments.
The two rival morning show stars crossed paths on the red carpet at the 2017 Logies, when Karl, who was working as a red carpet correspondent, addressed the camera to announce the audience was going to witness a TV first.
What they did witness was the two men almost kiss, when one went in for a hug and the other went in for a peck.
The ever graceful Lisa Wilkinson, at the time Stefanvoic’s co host, tried her best to deny there was any awkwardness between the duelling morning TV duos, taking to Instagram to post a portrait of the four.
IRWIN’S SNAKE GOES ROGUE
In 2003, Ten presenter Tim Webster left the Logies with more than a headache after he was bitten by a snake that Steve Irwin was handling and flinging around the stage. Webster suffered puncture marks and a bruise on his thigh after Irwin descended from the stage and into the crowd with the wayward snake.
“I’m assuming it was all part of Steve’s routine because he was trying to get the thing to bite Eddie [McGuire] and tried to convince him it was a tiger snake,” said Tim, who took the bite as graciously as could be expected.
KARL HOSTS TODAY SHOW POST-LOGIES
Karl Stefanovic appears again on this list, as of course any trip down Logies lane would be incomplete without a mention of one ill fated episode of Today show back in 2009.
Broadcasting live from the Crown casino, just hours after festivities had wrapped up, an allegedly still-drunk Stefanovic could be seen erupting into giggles, and slurring his words, at one point abandoning a weather update half way through by saying ‘you know what, who cares’.
Co-host Lisa Wilkinson held the three hour broadcast together but Stefanovic’s drunken conduct was looked upon favourably, with many saying the slip up made his public image more relatable.
He later described it as a ‘game changer’ career moment but unsure if that is the wisest of career advice one should take.
“It wasn’t any different to any other year — we all get smashed at the Logies and go to work the next day; we’d done it for years and years. But this was the first Logies when stuff really started working on the internet,” he says.
Karl is not the only star to admit to rocking up to work post Logies more than a little bit dusty.
Margot Robbie appeared on US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! Back in 2019 and revealed how one year at the Logies she got ‘so drunk she thought she died’ and passed out on the bathroom floor before turning up for work on the set of Neighbours.
“I showed up to work then in my gown, and a nurse had to give me some oxygen and I felt great afterwards.”
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