Fun police take shine away from a once glittering Logies

Usually, for at least a few weeks leading up to the Logies, there would be a frisson of excitement about television’s night of nights, from dramas over red carpet dresses to seating arrangements creating political minefields.

But, after covering the event for the best part of two decades, there is a distinct lack of “buzz” around tonight’s Logies.

The Logies are no longer held in Melbourne where locals Dannii Minogue and Delta Goodrem were regulars on the red carpet.Credit: Craig Sillitoe

Perhaps it’s the fact it’s happening in a new venue – The Star – and in a new city – Sydney? Or that there’s a new broadcaster at the helm in the Seven Network? Maybe it’s the lack of big international stars or the largely same-same list of contenders up for the gongs?

Even the inexplicable media ban might be partially to blame.

The malaise is a real shame because, apart from providing some of the best TV cringe moments of the year, after 63 years the Logies is still about celebrating our unique, irreverent and self-deprecating culture in an increasingly globalised, homogenised and banal television landscape.

Not that anyone will be talking about that openly inside the room tonight, which quite rightly will be all about the winner of the Gold Logie, awarded to the most popular television personality as voted by the viewers.

The Logie Awards are headed back to Sydney after 37 years.Credit: Seven

In the old days, the award was determined by punters filling out forms in TV Week magazine, though tales of entire publicity departments buying vast quantities of the magazine to vote for their in-house stars are now folklore.

Today the process has morphed into a quasi celebrity popularity contest with networks flogging their favourites for online votes at every chance.

For the first time in its history voting for the Gold Logie will remain open through most of the telecast, closing at 10.30pm. Predictably the winner will be bathed in flashes and a few days of fawning media coverage, and a guaranteed cover of TV Week.

Things are not what they used to be. Even TV Week’s parent company, Are Media, has outsourced the Logies. The awards night is now run by events company Rizer, which has taken a more serious, concerted approach to Logies efficacy.

Of course, popularity is only one measure of talent in television. For the rest we have the peer-determined Most Outstanding Logie awards, which this year has undergone quite a shakeup.

The real power for this award is held within the hands of a “Secret 100” who sit on a series of newly appointed judging panels that were once restricted to a limited pool of veteran TV Week writers and their pals.

While I have not seen who is on the Secret 100, I am assured it is now comprised of a much broader selection of respected, experienced and trusted industry players: from critics and producers to directors and casting agents. Each of them has signed a watertight non-disclosure agreement and their identities are a closely guarded secret.

Not even the bosses of Australia’s television networks know who is on the panels – even those who have been trying to get a sneak peek. Let’s just say this year some of them have been trying really, really hard.

These efforts to inject more rigid protocols are to be commended, so long as they are not coming at the expense of the Logies’ more “looser” traditions, such as the off-camera shenanigans that once made the evening a gold mine of celebrity intrigue.

This year the media is banned from attending the awards and after parties, relegated to only covering the somewhat mechanical offerings of the red carpet parade of wannabe soapie stars and reality TV try-hards.

Instead, it will be left to social media feeds of various stars to give us their – ahem – “curated” version of events. Yawn.

In the end, the success of this year’s Logies will be determined by the people it is intended for: the public.

Tom Gleeson at the Logies, 2018, promoting Grant Denyer for the Gold Logie.

In 2022 The Logies telecast on Nine had a robust 885,000 viewers tune in for the ceremony, while 826,000 watched the red carpet arrivals. That was up on the last time the Logies were held in 2019, where 799,000 watched the arrivals and 866,000 watched the ceremony.

But that was significantly down on the numbers tuning in just a decade before.

Hamish Blake won his second gold Logie last year. He later joked it was “The first Gold Logie in five years not to be decided by Tom Gleeson”.

It was a joke stemming from when the unlikeliest of contenders Grant Denyer won the Gold Logie in 2018, largely thanks to a campaign by comic Tom Gleeson who dared the public to upset the Logies establishment and vote for Denyer.

The next year Gleeson himself won the Gold Logie. In his acceptance speech, he told his television colleagues: “There’s been a lot of concern that I’m turning this award into a joke. This award has done a lot of great things for a lot of different people. In the past it has represented trying to get more diversity on the screen or launching charities and that’s fantastic. But for me, it represents a joke, but I love jokes. I really enjoy them. I really think we should all lighten the f--- up.”

All jokes aside, Gleeson certainly provided the event with an injection of intrigue and humour. Indeed, they are both ingredients it could do with a lot more of right now.