This was published 8 years ago
Logies 2016: Seven stars David Koch, Samantha Armytage and Larry Emdur to boycott awards
By Andrew Hornery
It is shaping up as a blood-red carpet at next month's TV Week Logies.
Fairfax Media can reveal that some of the biggest names in Australian television will be boycotting the evening as rival networks play out a game of political schadenfreude that makes Donald Trump look like a pussycat.
Among those not going to the Logies in protest are some of the biggest names on the Seven Network, with David Koch, Samantha Armytage, Larry Emdur, Kylie Gillies, Natalie Barr, Mark Beretta and Sally Obermeder all giving the Logies a wide berth after claims within Seven it had been thwarted from covering the event.
"We were told that Seven could not get a berth to do an outside broadcast the next morning, so there really wasn't much point in covering the event ... even though Sunrise is nominated for a gong this year," a Seven insider told PS, noting that official broadcaster Channel Nine will be doing its post-Logies broadcasts from Melbourne's Crown Casino.
The 56th Logies Awards 2014 at Crown.Credit: Eddie Jim EJZ
Instead, Sunrise entertainment reporter Edwina Bartholomew will be covering the event, and presumably will be on hand to personally accept any Logies going the show's way.
Seven rival Channel Nine has long been accused by Seven of using the awards night to showcase its on-air talent and programming, especially during coverage of the pre-awards red carpet. Indeed, rival network egos remain heavily bruised from past years' experiences as cameras linger on Channel Nine weather girls while the likes of previous Gold Logie winners such as Seven's Rebecca Gibney were all but ignored.
Indeed, Gibney didn't even score a nomination this year, despite starring in one of 2015's hugely successful Peter Allen mini-series.
"This year they have Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson hosting the red carpet with Richard Wilkins there too, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that it would be pretty uncomfortable for the Sunrise guys to be smiling and waving at their rivals," a source says.
Bonnie Sveen, who won the most popular new talent Logie in 2014 for her role in Home & Away.
Budgets are also being blamed, with networks spending about $10,000 on travel, hair and wardrobe for each of their female stars alone to shine at the Logies.
TV Week publisher Jayne Ferguson, wife of Seven newsreader Mark Ferguson, has been heavily involved in this year's Logies, which have endured some heavy criticism especially for the unusual – though others would argue refreshing – line-up of contenders for the evening's top award, the Gold Logie. Among them are SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin and The Project's Waleed Aly.
Happier times ... Scott Cam, Gold Logie winner in 2014, is the host of Channel Nine's ratings failure Reno Rumble.Credit: Eddie Jim
Ferguson refused to reveal how many people have cast votes for this year's nominees, but recently assured Fairfax Media's PS column that it was a "good cross-section of the television-viewing public".
However, PS has since heard that the number of votes could be as few as a few thousand, which if the case, would cast a question mark over how representative the awards are of the public's viewing habits.