Talking Television: 2012's hits and misses

IT was a year Australia drama rediscovered its mojo, Channel 7 again won the ratings war, Channel 10 couldn't take a trick and Channel 9 closed the gap and found its Voice.

The Voice

IT was a year Australia drama rediscovered its mojo, Channel 7 again won the ratings war, Channel 10 couldn't take a trick and Channel 9 closed the gap and found its Voice.

Along the way, viewers were treated to some true TV triumphs and failures.

Fast-tracked for Christmas and without the benefit of Facebook likes, iTunes downloads or SMS votes, here is Insider's take on what had us buying the box set or hitting "change channel" in 2012.

Best Australian drama series:

Puberty Blues, the exquisite retelling of the 1979 coming-of-age novel of the same name, oozed chemistry and nostalgia and wins by a nose.

House Husbands hit the jackpot with a new twist on family drama, with Firass Dirani breaking hearts with his portrayal of a dad trying to hold on to his children.

Honourable mentions: Rake, Tangle and Offspring. Redfern Now was the big surprise, each episode beautifully nuanced, written and acted.

Best Australian mini series/telemovie:

Howzat! Kerry Packer's War by a century. Awesome storyline and soundtrack and very retro.

Honourable mentions: Devil's Dust and Mabo.

The latter had Deb Mailman at her finest.

Best acting:

Lachy Hulme was sublime and terrifying as Kerry Packer in Howzat!

Anthony Hayes had us in tears with his touching portrayal of anti-asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton in Devil's Dust.

Puberty Blues' Ashleigh Cummings and Brenna Harding showed acting chops beyond their years and chemistry as believable as it was touching.

And Jonathon LaPaglia scared the hell out of us with his chilling portrayal of merciless crime boss Anthony Perish in Underbelly: Badness.

Best overseas drama:

Seven's big US import Revenge gets the vote here, barely ahead of period piece turned soap Downton Abbey, Homeland, which wraps up on Ten tonight, and Foxtel imports Sons of Anarchy and Game of Thrones. That all are back next year is an indication of just how good they are.

Best reality show:

The Voice Australia was the smash hit of the year.

Those spinning chairs had us in a spin from the outset, and the show raised the bar on the reality/talent genre with outstanding casting - both judges and talent - and superior production values. We fell in love with Joel Madden, in and out of love with Seal, finally saw Keith Urban as someone other than Mr Nicole Kidman, and little girls thought Delta Goodrem was a living, breathing princess. And then they gave us Karise Eden.

The X Factor on Seven was another winner, while My Kitchen Rules also proved a tasty rater for the network.

Nine successfully revived Big Brother with Sonia Kruger at the helm and had another reality renovation hit with The Block.

Best comedy:

ABC's late-season barrel of laughs, A Very Moody Christmas, was clever, quirky and all that's good about Australian comedy as it swung between subtle, bittersweet and laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Best Australian pay TV:

Eight channels showing every Olympic sport made Foxtel's Olympics coverage gold. It was a triumph over the time difference and heralded a new era of the viewer controlling their program choices.

Biggest fail:

Everybody Dance Now was a bedazzled, awkward, mistimed, misstepping mess.

Thankfully Ten's discovery that Nobody Wanted to Dance Now took the heat off Nine for the tragedy that was Excess Baggage - the weight loss show where nobody really lost any weight - early in the year.

Most excruciating death scene:

Ten Breakfast, began in February with a promise to reinvent breakfast TV with million-dollar import Paul Henry as its centrepiece.

The audience skipped Breakfast. Ratings of between 20,000 and 50,000 viwers made no dent in the competition. Its axing in November was a mercy killing.

Shortest death scene:

Blown out of the ratings water by The Voice, Seven axed Australia's Got Talent. A day later, Nine revived the format.

Things we can't unsee:

Pretty much all of The Shire, but especially the fat cavitation scene featuring Vernesa Toroman and Sophie Kalantzis.

Then there was Patti Newton toting husband Bert's wig around in Celebrity Apprentice; and Today Show host Karl Stefanovic being groped by One Direction's Harry Styles.

Things we never want to see again: Rule No.1 of reality television: it has to be interesting in a car-crash kind of way.

Ironically, Being Lara Bingle did feature a car crash, but it still wasn't interesting.

The survivors: The Today Show chalked up 30 years on Nine. Over at Seven, Home and Away celebrated 25 years on air by remaining television's most undentable show.

And at Ten, The Project continued to deliver despite weathering more timeslots than Ten Breakfast had viewers.

Best comeback:

Leigh Sales had a stellar year at the helm of ABC's current affairs flagship 7.30.

She won a Walkley Award for her tough-as-nails interviews with the likes of Tony Abbott.

In the wake of that interview in August, former John Howard adviser Grahame Morris, observed Sales could be "a real cow sometimes".

Her reply, via Twitter, that she'd "rather be a cow than a dinosaur" made it game, set and match to Sales.