Logie nominations for 2017 revealed: Samuel Johnson nominated for top award

TV star Samuel Johnson has been nominated for a Gold Logie despite last year slamming a campaign aimed at landing him the award.

Samuel Johnson as Molly Meldrum for Ch7 miniseries Molly. Picture: Ben Timony

SAMUEL Johnson, who starred as Molly Meldrum in TV miniseries Molly, has been nominated for a gold Logie despite last year slamming a campaign aimed at landing him the award.

The 2017 TV Week Logies finalists have today been exclusively revealed by News Corp Australia.

Johnson was nominated by the public for the top award along with Grant Denyer, Jessica Marais, Peter Helliar, Rodger Corser and last year’s winner Waleed Aly.

Johnson recently said his role in the telemovie was “something I wanted to do for Molly Meldrum more than for me. It’s one of those roles that you spend your career waiting for.”

Johnson has also been named a finalist for ‘best actor’ for his portrayal of the iconic music guru.

The announcements come after Johnson last year revealed he was retiring from his 25-year acting career to concentrate on Love Your Sister, the charity he and Connie established in the wake of her diagnosis with terminal breast cancer at the age of 33. She is now 39.

In December, the 38-year-old actor’s two sisters appear to have ‘tricked’ him into going offline for the weekend, in a bid to secretly post a call-out for Logies votes via the family’s charity Facebook page, Love Your Sister.

It may have been well-intended but Johnson was clearly unimpressed by the scheme at the time.

In a lengthy Facebook post, he explained that while he didn’t want to appear like an “ungrateful swine”, he was upset that the campaign had shifted focus from their fundraising efforts for his sister Connie, who is battling terminal cancer.

“I had very solid reasons for not mentioning the Logie thing to you guys and I’m wishing I had have explained it to my sisters better before I went on a ‘fishing trip’ with my best mate who I thought would never dog me,” Johnson wrote in December 2016.

“We share our family in the hope that it will encourage other mums to be proactive about their health ... But most importantly, we try to encourage action by taking action ourselves.

“A whopping 12,498 villagers have reached for their wallets in the last two weeks (volume that we’ve never come close to before) to help Connie’s Big Heart Project — her world record attempt to assemble the longest line of coins in the shape of a big love heart, this coming Valentine’s Day.

“So, right in the middle of the hectickest (sic), most successful period Love Your Sister has EVER experienced my two bonehead sisters decided to shift ALL of that momentum towards TV Week. So that we can win a shiny trophy. Are you starting to see it from my perspective yet?”

Samuel Johnson road around Australia on a unicycle to raise money for cancer research in honour of his sister Connie who has terminal breast cancer.

“I can hear you now. ‘But a Logie will inspire more actions!’ Well yes, if you win. If we don’t win, it’s a hell of a lot of wasted actions. That’s my point. That’s why I didn’t yell and scream about getting your vote in the first place. Of course I want a Logie. Desperately, if I’m honest. It would open so many more doors for us. But the numbers don’t add up. We’re up against PR machines, ya know?

“So what’s my solution? All I feel I can really do is encourage anyone who hasn’t already to purchase a metre ($2.90) for Connie’s Big Heart Project? We’re on our way to busting the mint, breaking a world record, raising a mint for cancer research and fulfilling the dreams of a sick mum. That seems most important to me.

“But if you’re going to insist on helping me out too, let’s at least leave this Gold Logie nonsense alone, shall we? We just don’t have the numbers and we want Carrie to win that one anyway. If Carrie took out the Gold and I got up for the Silver, then that’d be pretty spesh. So if you must, I’ll take your vote, but only after you’ve seriously considered the merits of the two ‘actions’. One helps cures cancer, the other one inflates my already oversized ego. The choice is clear.”

Regardless of Johnson’s modesty, Molly Meldrum himself has already tipped the actor to take home the statue.

“I have no doubt, like most people I speak to, that Sam will get a nomination at next year’s Logies for Best Actor the miniseries,” Molly Meldrum said earlier this year.

“And that he’ll probably win it. He deserves to.”

Originally published as Logie nominations for 2017 revealed: Samuel Johnson nominated for top award