Logie Awards
The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine TV Week. The event is telecast live and billed as "television's night of nights". The first ceremony was hosted in 1959 as the TV Week Awards.
Logie Awards
Excellence in Australian television
Australia
1959 (as The TV Week Awards)
- Nine Network (1959–2022)
- ABC (1961–1965)
- Seven Network (1989–1995, 2023–present)
- Network Ten (1981–1993)
3 hours+
The Gold Logie is the most prestigious award and the industry's highest honour; it's awarded to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television for the previous year. The award receives much publicity and media attention. Awards are presented in 20 categories, representing both industry and public voted prizes
The event has been strongly associated with the Nine Network, who have hosted the ceremony on the most occasions, and TV and former radio personality Bert Newton, particularly in the early days, who served as a solo host of the ceremony on 17 occasions, with a constant run from 1966 until 1980 and as co-host on three other occasions. Over the years, the Logies have been hosted in Melbourne and Sydney. From 2018 to 2022, the ceremony was held on the Gold Coast before the 2023 ceremony was announced as moving to Sydney for the first time in 37 years.
History[edit]
Known from their inception as the TV Week Awards, the awards were instigated by TV Week magazine with the first voting coupons provided in the magazine in late 1958, two years after the introduction of television in Australia. The first awards were presented on 15 January 1959 on an episode of In Melbourne Tonight. Only Melbourne television personalities were nominated and awards were given in eight categories, including two for American programs.[1]
The most prestigious award in 1959 was Star of the Year presented to IMT host Graham Kennedy. The following year, Kennedy coined the name Logie Awards, to honour the Scottish engineer and innovator who contributed to the development of television as a practical medium, John Logie Baird.[2]
The Logie statuette was designed by Alec De Lacy, chief designer for Melbourne-based trophy makers KG Luke Ltd. The first Gold Logie, the equivalent of the Star of the Year Award, was presented in 1960, and again won by Graham Kennedy. The record for most "Gold Logie" wins—at five apiece—is a tie between Kennedy and Ray Martin.
The 2020 and 2021 ceremonies were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3][4]
Nomination and voting procedures[edit]
Public voting[edit]
Voting for the Most Popular Logie categories is done using an online form, or by SMS (short message service) voting for the final nominees. Ten of the Logie Award categories are fan awards. In the past, the "Most Popular" Logies categories were voted by the readers of TV Week magazine using a coupon.
SMS (short message service) voting was introduced in 2006 for the Gold Logie. In 2008, Internet votes could be cast for the first time without having to buy a copy of the TV Week magazine.[14]
Before 2018, public voting usually lasted for four weeks, beginning in December or January, while the ceremony itself was in late April or early May. Since 2018, voting begins in March and the ceremony is held in July.
Industry voting[edit]
The Most Outstanding categories are voted on by a jury comprising members of the Australian TV industry peers. There were 15 categories in the industry awards at the Logie Awards of 2018.
Eligibility[edit]
To be eligible to receive a Logie, a program must be Australian produced, set in Australia and have a predominantly Australian cast. Although in other years there has been a Logie for overseas programs, these awards are no longer part of the awards. People eligible for a Logie must have appeared on an Australian-produced show that was broadcast on Australian television in the previous year.
There are long-held suspicions that network publicists engage in mass voting to rig the results. However, no hard evidence had emerged for this, other than the experiment by the satirical newspaper The Chaser, who attempted to have low-profile SBS newsreader Anton Enus nominated for the Gold Logie. They did so by getting their small readership to buy copies of TV Week and vote for Enus for the award. While the attempt failed (they came "reasonably close", to earning a nomination for Enus, according to a "TV Week Insider"), their failure gives some cause for the widespread derision in the industry (particularly the 'quality' end) towards the popular-vote awards.[15]
Community television, Channel 31, personalities and shows are eligible for nomination for Logies, however since their audiences are far smaller than those of the commercial channels and public broadcasters, they are at a tremendous disadvantage. For a time they had their own community television awards, known as the Antenna Awards. Despite this, in 2009 the Logies were dogged by minor controversy after organisers refused to allow an acclaimed community television show, The Bazura Project, to be nominated in the category of Outstanding Comedy Show, stating "As TV Week does not cover community television within the magazine, we are unable to consider individual programs on this platform." The ABC's Media Watch program first reported the story on Monday 9 March 2009,[16] with many media outlets covering the growing support for the community television program since.
Awards ceremony[edit]
The Logie Awards ceremony is televised and became generally more elaborate as years went by. The awards have mostly been held in a ballroom, rather than a theatre, which is common for the Emmy Awards and Academy Awards. Dinner is served just before the ceremony and drinks are served during the ceremony.
Bert Newton, who has won the Gold Logie four times, hosted the awards a total of 19 times. GTV-9/Nine Network is also strongly associated with the history of the Logies. Nine has hosted the awards 46 times in their 60-year history.
The Seven Network will take over from the Nine Network as host broadcaster.[21][22] Seven had last broadcast the Logie Awards in 1995.[23][24]
Controversies[edit]
In 1973, American actor Michael Cole generated controversy after accepting an award while apparently drunk, uttering the word "shit" in a short, incoherent acceptance speech. This was the first time such profanity had been said on Australian television.[25] According to Bert Newton, Channel Nine received thousands of complaints about the use of the word, however, when it was edited for the repeat transmission Newton stated "they got double the calls complaining it had been dropped."
In 1979, during a notable appearance with Muhammad Ali as co-presenter, Newton made a comment "I like the boy!" (in reference to a series of TV advertisements Bert had recently done). Ali became upset at the comment, as the term "boy" carried negative racial connotations for many black Americans, although Newton was oblivious to this use of the term and claimed this was not his intention. After realising his faux pas, Newton quickly apologised to Ali on stage.[26]
The most difficult guest to interact with, according to Newton, was Vic Morrow in 1967. He would just stand there saying nothing, silently handing out the Logies. According to Bert, "every so often, I'd say 'how are you going, Vic?' and he would just nod his head."[5]
Grant Denyer's 2018 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with people believing he only won because of Tom Gleeson's campaign.[27] Gleeson has shrugged off those suggestions.[28]
Tom Gleeson's 2019 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with him not being so humble by the victory.[29]
The trial of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins was delayed because of comments from Lisa Wilkinson's acceptance speech.[30]
Every year before public voting opens, major commercial networks ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, and 10 are restricted in the number of personalities and programs they can submit for consideration in the publicly voted category, including up to 10 names in both the Most Popular Actor and Actress categories, 15 names for Most Popular Presenter and five programs for Most Popular Drama. These restrictions often are introduced over those who are not listed in the voting form, and as a result, they are not eligible to be nominated for an award.
Live performers[edit]
Many local and overseas performers have appeared at the Logie Awards ceremony. While it had been a tradition to choose performers with a television connection, this has not always been the case.
In 2001, Ricky Martin was the headline performer. In 2002, Destiny's Child performed, with Elton John and Shakira making appearances. In 2004, it was Michael Bublé with Delta Goodrem. In 2011, Katy Perry performed and presented an award, while 2012 saw One Direction and Delta Goodrem perform on the night with appearances from Flo Rida, Tony Bennett and Seal. In 2013, it was Bruno Mars and 2014 Ed Sheeran.[31]
Most wins[edit]
Programs[edit]
As of 2017, Home and Away is the most successful program in Logies history, having won 46 awards since it premiered in 1988. Neighbours is the second most successful having won 31 Logies since it began in 1985. A Country Practice follows as the third most successful program, having won 29 awards throughout its twelve-year run. Blue Heelers is fourth with 25 Logies.
People[edit]
Television personalities with the most national wins (excluding state-based Logie awards) are:
Actors/actresses with the most national wins: