The secret deals and squabbles behind Logies list
IS your favourite star missing from yesterday’s Logies nominee list? It’s because of TV network politics and backroom strategising, writes Colin Vickery.
Rendezview
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rendezview. Followed categories will be added to My News.
I’M thinking of starting an alternative Logies after seeing the nominees for television night of nights in 2018.
The Aussie stars and shows that didn’t make the list for the 60th Logie Awards, to be televised on July 1, is just as if not more impressive than those that did.
Despite their popularity there was no recognition for Lisa Wilkinson, Waleed Aly, Dr Chris Brown, Karl Stefanovic, David Koch, Delta Goodrem, Samantha Armytage, Manu Feildel, Pete Evans, Hamish Blake, Andy Lee, Scott Cam, Shaynna Blaze, Craig McLachlan, MasterChef Australia or The Doctor Blake Mysteries.
And Channel 7 could only manage a handful of nominations — mainly for Home and Away — even though it is the number one network in the country.
Talk about a head-scratcher. The Gold Logie nominations were particularly baffling.
Gold nominee Grant Denyer’s Family Feud has just been canned. So has Jessica Marais’ The Wrong Girl and Marais’ Love Child is no more.
Amanda Keller’s The Living Room is getting smashed in the ratings by Seven’s Better Homes and Gardens and the ABC’s Gardening Australia.
Gold can’t be considered the pinnacle of an awards event when half the stars have axed or failing shows.
Sources tell me that the ABC stripped McLachlan and The Doctor Blake Mysteries — its number one drama of 2017 — off the list of nominees it submitted to TV Week.
Who knows whether that is because of McLachlan’s legal troubles, because the ABC axed Blake and it is heading to Seven or it didn’t want anything competing with Harrow.
But the McLachlan snub points to one glaring problem with the way the Logies are decided. The list of nominees is supplied by the networks — and if a network doesn’t list you then you simply miss out.
In 2011 the ABC outraged Chris Lilley fans when it forgot to submit Lilley and Angry Boys for voting consideration. The ABC blamed an “administrative oversight”.
TV Week refused to bend the rules despite acknowledging that Lilley is “a very important part of the TV landscape”.
It beggars belief that TV Week wouldn’t scrutinise the lists supplied by the networks and make sure any glaring omissions were rectified. It cuts to the heart of the awards’ credibility.
Getting a nomination is helped immensely when a network swings into action and does a campaign of support.
Grimshaw is a worthy Gold Logie nominee but the reason the A Current Affair presenter suddenly made this year’s list is because Nine rallied viewers to vote. Ten did the same for Keller.
The campaigns work. They skew the vote. They can be the difference between winning and losing.
What if a network doesn’t bother campaigning? The lack of nominations for Seven can mainly be explained by the fact that it doesn’t embrace the Logies because it screens on rival Nine.
Seven doesn’t put any promotional grunt into nominating or campaigning for its stars because it doesn’t want to give Nine’s Logies telecast any sort of ratings boost.
That lack of enthusiasm means Seven’s stars and shows are under-represented in the nominees and Nine’s, and particularly Ten’s, are over-represented.
Erik Thomson made the cut for Most Popular Actor for 800 Words as did Ray Meagher for Home and Away. Sam Frost and Sophie Dillman (both Home and Away) are up for Most Popular New Talent.
My Kitchen Rules gets a nod for Most Popular Reality Program. There is a smattering of nominations in Outstanding Children’s, Sport, Public Affairs and Documentary categories. Seven got absolutely nothing in Gold.
Which isn’t to say there weren’t some deserving inclusions.
The ABC is cock-a-hoop about its 20 nominations with the big surprise being Silver Logie acting nods for cult comedy Rosehaven’s Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola.
Foxtel is over the moon about its 17 nominations including Andrew Winter in Gold. That’s not a shock. Selling Houses Australia is hugely popular.
Foxtel is also punching above its weight in the drama categories — an area the commercial networks are struggling in — with multiple nominations for hits including Top of the Lake: China Girl, Wentworth, and A Place to Call Home.
Moving the 60th Logie Awards to the Gold Coast seemed like an opportunity for a burst of new energy for Australian television’s gala night — an opportunity to re-set.
But I reckon some of that momentum has been lost after Sunday’s middling list of nominees was revealed.
What should have been ‘oh wow’ became ‘ho hum’.
Colin Vickery is a Herald Sun TV writer.
Originally published as The secret deals and squabbles behind Logies list