Tom Gleeson rips into Tracy Grimshaw over Gold Logie criticism

After the ACA host had a go at Tom Gleeson for his “smug” Gold Logies win the comedian has fired back in spectacular fashion — and ouch, just ouch.

Tom Gleeson has labelled Tracy Grimshaw out of touch after she criticised his “smug” Gold Logies win.

Gleeson won the Logies’ top honour after launching a tongue-in-cheek campaign which saw him run mock political smear ads about his opponents.

The comedian’s tactics — and eventual Gold Logie acceptance speech, which saw him tell his audience to “lighten the f**k up” — rubbed plenty in the industry the wrong way, including Grimshaw.

Speaking on 2GB’s Ben Fordham Sydney Live, Gleeson had a biting response to detractors of his Gold Logie win, in particular Grimshaw.

“I know that there were various people who aired their views, and I know Tracy Grimshaw had a bit of a whinge on Channel 9,” he said on Wednesday.

“But I got nothing but non-stop praise from the people that watched it at home — on Youtube it clocked up 500,000 views … it’s hard for me to feel anything other than pride.”

Tracy Grimshaw slammed Gleeson's win on A Current Affair after the Logies.

Gleeson claimed A Current Affair’s viewers had even agreed with him as a poll they had run on the show’s Facebook page saw him voted a hero not a villain for his Gold Logie stunt.

“A Current Affair’s own viewers voted me a hero. So Tracy, if you’re listening I reckon you should probably get in touch with your audience and what they do and don’t like, because they think I’m a hero,” Gleeson said.

Grimshaw had ripped into Gleeson during an A Current Affair segment after his win, sarcastically labelling his performance “hilarious”.

“We were celebrating achievement in an industry whose main purpose is to entertain, and also happens to employ thousands of Australians — an industry the Gold Logie winner smugly told us last night was ‘dying’” she said.

“We all waited for him to change pace and close his speech with some grace, but no chance. Hilarious.”

Grimshaw said Gleeson’s win “has taken some of the shine off the coveted Gold Logie, capped by a speech that not surprisingly, went too far”.

Tom Gleeson win rubbed many the wrong way. Picture: AP Image/Darren England.

The A Current Affair host wasn’t the only one to take issue with Gleeson, with Gold Logie nominee Amanda Keller struggling with the political attack-style ads he ran against her.

Keller had been the favourite to win this year’s Gold Logie before Gleeson made his unconventional tilt for the prize.

She told Andrew Denton’s Interview after the Logies she had been “unimpressed” with his speech and “lack of graciousness”.

“Every interview I did, I was asked about what Tom had said about us — the comedic firing he’d done at us all. It wasn’t an easy process. We were made to feel ashamed for being in the television industry, and I don’t think that’s fair, because this industry supports a lot of jobs,” Keller said.

Gleeson told Fordham he had found Keller his biggest competition, mainly because it had been hard to find something bad to say about her.

“Well, they were sketches on a comedy show. Amanda was funny for me because she’s so universally loved she’s almost impossible to think of anything negative to say,” he explained.

“We said that she was untrustworthy because on (1990s TV show) Beyond 2000 she promised we’d have flying cars, and we don’t have flying cars. I mean that was the best we could get together.”