Logies 2022: Surprise change to Aussie TV’s night of nights

The Logies has been getting a tidy up in a desperate bid to be taken seriously. But there’s an important element of the show that’s at risk of being lost.

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Like a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon as a really bogan butterfly, the Logies has undergone a transformation.

TV’s night of nights – which returns this evening after a two-year pandemic-induced hiatus – has been steadily trying to revamp its perception by metamorphosing from national joke into esteemed honour.

The ceremony once had all the class of a catwalk fashion show at a regional shopping centre. It used to be about celebrating soap stars with frosted tips and flammable outfits.

With the advent of social media, we all relished making the same lame jokes every year about how ridiculous the ceremony was.

“Blah blah blah Rock Eisteddfod,” we’d tweet snarkily, before adding something about Karl getting drunk again.

But the Logies has been slowly cleaning up its act. Despite Tom Gleeson’s dedication to derailing the night by hijacking the votes for the top award, the ceremony has been undergoing an unstoppable evolution. Like a rural cousin who goes to the big smoke for university and returns home at Christmas with a half-decent haircut and an addiction to Messina, the Logies has become a little bit sophisticated.

Karl’s infamous ‘best arse’ speech was from a Logies long, long ago.

The spotlight has expanded to include a wider spread of talent and shows. At the last ceremony in 2019, Gardening Australia’s Costa was in the running for the Gold – proving the night was no longer just a showcase of random hot 20-somethings from Home And Away.

Remember when Karl won a gong in 2011 and used the moment to declare his then-wife had “the best arse I have ever seen”? Well, times have changed.

We’re no longer accepting speeches that sound like they could be delivered at a drunken 21st birthday bash. The bar has been lifted.

The platform provided by the night’s top award has been used by winners in recent years to champion important causes. Carrie Bickmore used her 2015 win to draw attention to brain cancer while 2017 winner Samuel Johnson dedicated the award to his ill sister.

When The Project’s Waleed Aly nabbed the Gold in 2016, he delivered an inspiring speech that mixed humour with intelligence and addressed diversity. It was the most refined moment to ever happen at the Logies.

Carrie Bickmore, Samuel Johnson and Waleed Aly have helped class-up the TV trash-fest.

Like getting a half-decent haircut and going to Messina, all these developments are positive and need to stay. But we also need to preserve the tackiness that forms the DNA of the Logies. That little gold man cannot forget his bogan roots.

During tonight’s broadcast, we want badly-conceived skits from presenters who can’t quite nail their comedic delivery. We want Hughesy coming out on stage and trash-talking his peers as the cameramen cut to their faces for awkward reactionary shots.

At 11pm when we’re half-asleep on the couch and the ceremony is only a quarter of the way through, we want Jessica Mauboy, Samantha Jade and Delta Goodrem collaborating on an exhaustive medley as the night’s headline act. It’s our version of the Super Bowl halftime performance, goddammit!

And has an international special guest been confirmed for tonight? The best part of every year’s ceremony is when producers trick a Hollywood celebrity into coming.

Past stars have included Jessica Alba, Matt Le Blanc and every Destiny’s Child member who isn’t Beyonce. It’s always a treat when the camera cuts to the A-lister in the crowd throughout the evening and we get to watch as they grow increasingly confused about why on earth they were forced to come and hang out with some guy called Daryl Somers.

You’d think the tackiness would’ve been supercharged when the ceremony relocated from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in 2018 but it’s almost as if organisers purposefully refuse to lean into it. The glitz! The glamour! The glassings! It’s all there. Don’t resist it.

Yes, every year we bemoan how embarrassing the ceremony is. But we wouldn’t want it any other way. We make fun of it in the same way we make fun of best friends and family members. Because we love them.

After the two-year hiatus, it’s vital that organisers return with a bang to prove how relevant the Logies is in Australian culture. Go big or go home.

And if the night’s biggest moment doesn’t include lowering Gold Coast icon Schapelle Corby down into the auditorium on a wire like she’s Nikki Webster at the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony, then producers simply aren’t trying hard enough.

Twitter, Facebook: @hellojamesweir

Originally published as Logies 2022: Surprise change to Aussie TV’s night of nights