Bring back Bert! What’s going on as stars vie for the Gold Logie?
Falling viewer numbers and the rise of social media have knocked Australian TV’s biggest award — the Gold Logie — off its pedestal, writes Jonathon Moran
NSW
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Can someone who has actively campaigned against the credibility of Australian television’s biggest night actually be favourite to take home the top trophy at the Logie Awards?
That’s the question that the industry has spent much time debating over recent weeks and the answer will be delivered finally tomorrow night.
The biggest criticism of this year’s awards has centred around the fact a number of
the Gold Logie nominees are not so, well, famous, when in decades gone by the award was reserved for the top of the crop in the industry.
In fact, this journalist, with more than 15 years experience covering entertainment, had to Google some of the names when nominations were released.
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The Living Room’s Amanda Keller, Doctor Doctor actor Rodger Corser and The Project’s Waleed Aly are all nominated — but that’s the end of the A-list.
Others nominated include the ABC’s gardening guru Costa Georgiadis, actor Eve Morey for her work on Neighbours (although she is no longer on the soap), and Sunrise weatherman Sam Mac.
ABC Hard Quiz host Tom Gleeson rounds out the list. He has controversially campaigned hard this year with his tongue-in-cheek push taking the piss out of the awards and their credibility.
Gleeson has criticised his opposition consistently, calling Georgiadis an “impostor” and saying it would be a “travesty” if Mac won.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph’s Stellar magazine, Gleeson said: “The idea of winning the Gold Logie is so preposterous that I have to have it. It is so stupid, and it makes me laugh so much, that it makes me want it.”
His comments have turned Gleeson into the anti-poster boy for the awards, with many calling out his intentions and saying he has spoiled the event.
Ironically, online betting agency Sportsbet has Gleeson favourite to win with odds of $1.65, ahead of Keller at $4, Sam Mac at $6.50, Georgiadis at $14, Aly at $21, Morey at $31 and Corser at $31.
Grant Denyer was the surprise winner of the Gold Logie last year over A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw.
Gleeson has taken credit for the win after featuring the radio and TV host in his Hard Chat segment and subsequently launching a last-minute campaign for Denyer despite his show Family Feud being axed by Channel 10.
Many were vocal with their disappointment at the time, with Oscar winner Russell Crowe even wading into the debate and claiming Grimshaw should have won.
This year, Gleeson is also nominated for Most Popular Presenter and his ABC show, Hard Quiz, is up for Most Popular Entertainment Program.
“To win the Gold Logie, you have to fight dirty,” Gleeson wrote on Twitter. “Going negative works.”
Denyer has been vocal in his outrage at Gleeson’s antics, and some have also criticised Sam Mac, who has led his own oddly satirical campaign for gold.
“I hope if Tom does win he at least takes that moment seriously because I would hate for him to win and it all just be a big fat joke,” Denyer said.
“The downside to this is, is it he who is loudest wins or should it go to the right winner?
“There’s no denying he deserves it, his show does 800,000 (viewers nationally) and it is an incredibly successful game show format. I would be a little sad and disappointed if he won and got up on stage and didn’t at least savour in that moment and pay homage to our top honour. If he didn’t, I feel like it undermines the top award and the Logies to come.”
Denyer also called out Gleeson for faking his disdain for the awards and his fellow nominees.
“I am not sure I entirely believe he is just taking the piss and he hates the Logies because his desperation is unparalleled,” Denyer said. “It is all an act. He is desperate and will go to any level to get it. I have never seen anyone want something more than him.”
Our television networks dedicate millions of dollars worth of airtime to plug their talent in the hope of securing the gold statuette.
KIIS FM breakfast radio host Kyle Sandilands questioned the overall credibility of the awards, that are run by Bauer Media’s TV Week magazine, and believes the voting system should be overhauled.
Currently punters vote online while in the past, they had to buy a magazine and fill out a form.
“It is supposed to be the Emmys of Australian television but it has been bastardised over the last few years," Sandilands said, calling for a change in voting procedures. “It should be industry voted. It shouldn’t have turned into a magazine contest. How can it be anything other than a publicity stunt if it is not really an industry-voted situation.”
Controversy though has always gone hand-in-hand with the Logie Awards, which are named after the inventor of television John Logie Baird and are now in their 61st year.
Veteran television and radio host Susie Elelman noted that back in 1977 when they handed out separate male and female Gold Logies, a furore erupted when Jeanne Little won.
“The criticism back then was that Jeanne was just a regular on The Mike Walsh Show and didn’t have her own show,” Elelman recalled. “Way back then you had to buy TV Week magazine and fill out the coupon and it was only supposed to be one vote per person although network publicity departments were known to have had their staff fill out lots of coupons to try and get their personalities nominated.”
Graham Kennedy was the first ever Gold Logie winner in 1960, having won the Star of the Year gong at the inaugural awards a year earlier.
Gerard Kennedy was the first actor to win gold in 1971 and 1972. The Kennedys, Bert Newton, Mike Walsh and Daryl Somers dominated gold through the ’70s and ’80s and Ray Martin in the early ’90s. That is when actors really took hold with the likes of Lisa McCune, Georgie Parker, Kate Ritchie and Rebecca Gibney securing gold in the late ’90s and noughties.
Elelman recognised another shift in 2012 when radio and TV host Hamish Blake triumphed over the likes of Karl Stefanovic, Asher Keddie, Adam Hills, Carrie Bickmore and Esther Anderson in the category, for Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year.
“His whole social media and success on radio is what got Hamish gold and the reason I say that is because it became a popularity contest,” Elelman said. “He and Andy had a show that didn’t rate but they were popular as people so I think they have to decide what is the award for. Is it a popularity contest or is it for your body of work in the industry?
“I have noticed a change over the years that it has now become a popularity contest. Lee Lin Chin did the same thing, they did a concerted effort for her to go for gold whereas if you looked at it, the majority of people wouldn’t know who she was or what she did, not taking away that she was an excellent newsreader.
“Therefore you have the networks now pushing certain people that are put up for those categories.”
Bert Newton has four Gold Logies at home. His wife, Patti Newton, has been critical of the process this year, saying she didn’t know some of the nominees.
“In years gone by there would never be anyone that was nominated for a Gold Logie that you didn’t know,” she said. “I think that is the difference now. It is nothing personal but I just don’t know the woman from Neighbours or the guy from the ABC. I love Amanda Keller and we all know her because she has been around and prominent for a long time.”
Mrs Newton was surprised Sunrise weatherman Sam Mac is up for Gold over show hosts David Koch and Samantha Armytage.
“You can almost do a full presentation of yourself almost vying for votes, getting people to vote for you not because they love you but because you are being promoted on the channel you work for,” she said.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2017 and has watched the Gold Logie race with interest this year.
She agrees the social media campaigns and lobbying for a win by the likes of Gleeson and Sam Mac have hijacked the awards.
“TV Week have played into precarious hands with trying to have it all with nominations of an actor, a TV/radio host, a ‘serious and meaningful’ presenter, a sweet weatherman, a lifestyle TV bloke for oldies, and a comedian,”
Kennerley explained. “They should have thought ahead from last year’s antics knowing it would escalate and hint at a trite awards show. But they bought in and 2019 certainly doesn’t have the same credibility.”
She added, however: “The Logies have always been fodder for dissenters but when the night came they all turned up … and whinged about how relevant it is. It’s been a popular Logies pastime for years. The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
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