Viewers vote for TV hits and pits

MEGAN Gale says she never thinks about looking hot on screen. But News Limited readers clearly think she turns up the heat on the box, voting her the sexiest woman on Australian TV.

tv

MEGAN Gale says she never thinks about looking hot on screen. But News Limited readers clearly think she turns up the heat on the box, voting her the sexiest woman on Australian TV.

The Project Runway host posed up to celebrate her accolade in sweltering temperatures in Melbourne yesterday and easily kept her cool.

Gale, 37, said she was so shocked when she found out she had won the roll call of the most beautiful women on the TV, pulling in 21.7 per cent of the national vote in the inaugural online survey, she thought she it was a gag.

"It's a bit of a surprise but ultimately it's lovely and a bit humbling that people are acknowledging you in this way. It felt undeserved ... when I am working on television being sexy is absolutely not in the forefront of my mind," she said.

Gale beat The Farmer Wants A Wife presenter Natalie Gruzlewski (13.1 per cent), 666 Park Avenue's Rachael Taylor (12.5 per cent) and The X Factor's Natalie Bassingthwaighte (11.9 per cent).

"They are girls I admire and have great screen presence. It's a bit of a shock to be included in that group," she said.

With more than 15,000 votes cast, reigning Gold Logie winner Hamish Blake claimed bragging rights over his co-star Andy Lee (Gale's ex), winning sexiest man of the year.

Blake won with 13 per cent of the vote, in a tight race with House Husbands' Firass Dirani (12.1 per cent), Lee (11.9 per cent) and Offspring's Matt Le Nevez (11.7 per cent).

Other winners in the online poll were Anh Do, whose travel special Anh Does Vietnam was a ratings winner. He broke through a field of star standouts to win the breakout star of 2012, with 23.8 per cent, beating Howzat's Lachy Hulme (19.2 per cent) and former The Voice coach, Keith Urban (17 per cent).

Best drama went to Howzat! Kerry Packer's War, best reality series was won by The Voice, while votes for favourite international series were shared between Revenge, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Homeland and Downton Abbey.

Being Lara Bingle (49.5 per cent) just edged out The Shire (48.8 per cent) and Brynne: My Bedazzled Life (38.6 per cent) as the worst show of the year.

Viewers said they'd watch a reality series on the private lives of Mel B (29 per cent), Shane Warne (20 per cent) and Karl Stefanovic (19.9 per cent).

Kyle Sandilands was voted the most annoying person on TV (39.1 per cent), ahead of Eddie McGuire (22.5 per cent), David Koch (20 per cent) and Delta Goodrem (20 per cent).

With the retro return of classics like Young Talent Time and Prisoner, readers urged programmers to bring back McLeod's Daughters (29.6 per cent), A Country Practice (21.6 per cent) and Kingswood Country (21.2 per cent).

Monitoring Australia's TV habits, the vision of Life Be In It's Norm rings as true today as it did as a health campaign in the 1970s, with 39.4 per cent of dads still claiming control of the remote.

But it was a closely fought battle, with mums deciding what is watched in 35.1 per cent of households and kids ruling the roost 16 per cent of the time. And 6.5 per cent of those polled said they couldn't find the remote most of the time.