2018 TV Week Logies voting: We have a few questions

LOGIES voting is open but you can’t vote for Sarah Harris for Most Popular Presenter yet two shows which haven’t even aired yet can be voted on. What is going on?

VOTING is now open for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards and to be honest, I have some questions.

Who decides which shows/personalities you can choose from in each category? Why are there some shows on the list that haven’t even aired on TV yet? And why the heck isn’t Sarah Harris on the list of people you can vote for in the Most Popular Presenter category?

VOTING SYSTEM

The public can now vote online for the 10 “Most Popular” categories which include Most Popular Actor, Most Popular Actress and the Gold Logie.

Voting closes on April 1 and then on May 27 we’ll find out which shows/personalities made it on to the shortlist for each category.

The public will then be given the chance to vote for their favourites from each shortlist from Friday, June 29 until the end of the Logies red carpet telecast on July 1.

WHO DECIDES WHO YOU CAN VOTE ON?

Yesterday a TV producer who works on Studio 10 tweeted at TV Week asking why he couldn’t vote for Sarah Harris, Joe Hildebrand, Ita Buttrose or any of the other Studio 10 hosts in the Most Popular Presenter category. Harris is also a presenter on primetime series Shark Tank.

Joe Hildebrand himself retweeted the message and wrote, “My name is Joe Hildebrand and I endorse this message”.

Even Channel Nine star Ben Fordham tweeted in response, “#harrisforthelogie”.

FYI — Both the producer and Hildebrand’s tweets have since mysteriously been deleted.

The stars of Studio 10 were not put forward by Network Ten in the Best Presenter category at this year's Logies.

When you go to vote for the Most Popular Presenter category online, there are 86 personalities to choose from, but who picks those special 86?

News.com.au asked TV Week that very question. “It is up to the networks to submit the talent they feel is most deserving of an award,” a spokesman for the magazine said.

“Each network works to a set number of entries per category and every year we have programs or talent that do not make the final shortlist.”

In that particular category, each TV network was allowed to nominate 15 people they felt were “most deserving” of that award.

Last year the Most Popular Presenter shortlist was a clean sweep for Channel 10 with five personalities nominated: Amanda Keller, Carrie Bickmore, Grant Denyer, Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris.

The Logie award was won by Waleed Aly.

But Channel 10 chose not to put Sarah Harris forward for a nomination this year and instead chose 15 other presenters including the MasterChef judges, Tom Gleisner (Have You Been Paying Attention), Jonathan LaPaglia (Survivor Australia) and The Project hosts (including Lisa Wilkinson).

I’VE NEVER SEEN THESE SHOWS

Scrolling through the different Most Popular categories, a few shows caught my eye.

In the Most Popular Comedy Program category, Channel 10 has nominated Show Me The Movie! If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s because that show hasn’t gone to air yet.

The comedy show, which is hosted by Rove McManus and features two competing teams captained by Jane Harber and Joel Creasey, will launch on Channel 10 on Thursday, 22 March.

Viewers will only have seen two episodes of the show by the time voting closes on April 1.

It’s the same in the Most Popular Reality Program category with Channel 10 putting forward Bachelor In Paradise, a show the network hasn’t even released an air date for yet but which is expected to hit screens when I’m a Celeb wraps up.

I N CONCLUSION

Who decides who is eligible to vote on for a Logie? The TV networks do, although they are limited as to how many shows/personalities they can put forward for the public to vote on.

Why are there some shows on the list that haven’t even aired on TV yet? Because a few episodes will have aired by the time voting closes and networks might not have had many other shows to nominate in that category.

And why the heck isn’t Sarah Harris on the list of people you can vote for in the Most Popular Presenter category? Here’s what a Network Ten spokesman told news.com.au: “Network Ten, along with every other Network, must submit nominations based on the rules and guidelines set by TV Week.

“While we would like to be able to publicly recognise every on air personality for the valuable contribution they make to television, unfortunately the 2018 rules stated that we were able to nominate far fewer names in the categories of Most Popular Actor, Actress and Presenter.”

So what are you waiting for, get voting!