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Logie Awards
Gold Logie Award statuette
Awarded for	Excellence in Australian television
Sponsored by	TV Week
Location	Gold Coast, Australia
Country	Australia
Presented by	TV Week
First awarded	1959
Website	www.tvweeklogieawards.com.au
Television/radio coverage
Network	Nine Network (1959–present) ABC (1961–1965) Seven Network (1989–1995) Network Ten (1981–1993)
Runtime	3 hours
← 59th Logie Awards TV Week 60th Logie Awards →

The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards) are an annual institution that celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by magazine TV Week since 1959.

The Awards are presented in twenty categories representing both public and industry voted nominations, with the highest honour and most widely publicised award being the Gold Logie, which is awarded to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television for the previous year.

History

The event has been strongly associated with TV and former radio personality Bert Newton, who has hosted the ceremony on the most occasions. Over the years, the Logies have been hosted in Melbourne and Sydney. From 2018, the Logie Awards moved the ceremony moved to new location on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Known from there 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 Scottish engineer, innovator after the contributor 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 also presented to Graham Kennedy in 1960. The record for most wins goes to Kennedy and Ray Martin.

The latest ceremony, the Logie Awards of 2018, were held on 1 July 2018, with the Gold Logie winner being Grant Denyer, who won for game show Family Feud.

Logie milestones

In 1960, the ceremony is coined "Logie Awards" to honour inventor John Logie Baird, by Graham Kennedy, after he won what was previously known as the "Star of the Year Award".
In 1961, the awards ceremony was televised for the first time, with the ABC screening the first half hour of the awards in Sydney.
In 1962, Australian variety presenter, singer and actress Lorrae Desmond, best known for her role as Shirley Gilroy on A Country Practice was the first female star to win a Gold Logie, for her music variety program The Lorrae Desmond Show.
In 1963, the planned televised ceremony was cancelled due to the host, Tony Hancock cancelling his trip to Australia.
In 1968, there was no award for the Most Popular Female in Television. According to Bert Newton, who was hosting that year, "it appears no one was deemed worthy enough to receive it". He pleaded with the producers to never be put in that position again.^[3]

In 1973, the media was invited for the first time to attend the Logies.
In 1974, Number 96 star Pat McDonald became the first "soap star" actress (not television personality) to win the Gold Logie.

In 1976, the first and only fictional character to win a Logie was Norman Gunston, with the award being presented to portrayer Garry McDonald, who appeared to except the award in character.

In 1984, the Hall of Fame Logie was introduced by TV Week, awarded to recognise outstanding and continued contribution to television by an individual or program with the first induction being former conductor turned producer and television pioneer Hector Crawford (see below, under Logie Hall of Fame).
In 1988, Actress and future international pop star Kylie Minogue became the youngest person to win a Gold Logie (aged 19) for her role as Charlene Mitchell in Neighbours.
Jamie Dunn is the only undefeated man in Logie's history winning seven consecutive Logies in seven consecutive nominations for his work in Agro's Cartoon Connection

In 2010, Ray Meagher became the oldest person to win an award (age 66), for his portrayal of Alf Stewart in Home and Away.
In 2006, a new Logies category was introduced, named Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding Newcomer, to honour Kennedy's career and legacy and to commemorate the 50th year of broadcasting of television in Australia.
In 2016, the Logies accepted nominations from locally produced digital content. Also in 2016, Waleed Aly became the first non-Caucasian person to win the Gold Logie.
In 2017, TV Week announced that after 30 years, the awards ceremony will no longer be held in Melbourne, due to the withdrawal of financial support by the Victorian government. The Logie awards ceremony will be held at The Star Gold Coast on the Gold Coast, Queensland for four years, with support of the Queensland government.^[4][5]

Logies Hall of Fame

The prestigious Logie Hall of Fame was first introduced in 1984; former conductor, turned television producer and pioneer and founder of Crawford Productions, Hector Crawford was the first inductee. The induction was a posthumous honour for TV cameraman Neil Davis, actor Maurie Fields, conservationist Steve Irwin, news anchor Brian Naylor and journalist Peter Harvey. In 2017, Kerri-Anne Kennerley was only the third woman to be inducted after Ruth Cracknell and Noni Hazlehurst. It has been criticised for its lack of women [1].

Four Corners, Neighbours, Play School, Home and Away and 60 Minutes are the only programs that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.^[6]

Nomination and voting procedures

Public voting

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.^[7] From 2016,

Public voting for the awards usually lasts for four weeks, beginning in December/January, while the ceremony itself was in late April or early May. However, in 2018, voting began in March with the 2018 Logie Awards held in July.

Industry voting

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

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.^[8]

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,^[9] with many media outlets covering the growing support for the community television program since.

Logies ceremonies by year

Awards ceremony

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.

Controversies

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 the word had been said on Australian television.^[14] 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 "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). That was seen as racist by Ali, although Newton was oblivious to the term and claimed this was not his intention. Ali was upset at the comment and a full apology was issued by Newton and the Awards producers.^{[citation needed]}

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."^[3]

Grant Denyer's 2018 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with people believing he only won because of Tom Gleeson's campaign.^[15] Gleeson has shrugged off those suggestions.^[16]

Live Performers

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 an opening number and then presented the Best Children's Show award with comedy personalities Hamish and Andy. 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. ^[17]

Award categories

Public voted categories

Gold Logie

• Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television

Silver Logie

• Most Popular Actor


• Most Popular Actress


• Most Popular Presenter


• Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent
  


• Most Popular Drama Program

Program Awards

• Most Popular Comedy Program


• Most Popular Entertainment Program


• Most Popular Reality Program


• Most Popular Lifestyle Program

Industry voted categories

Gold Logie

• Logie Hall of Fame

Silver Logie

• Most Outstanding Actor


• Most Outstanding Actress


• 
  Most Outstanding Supporting Actor^[18]


• Most Outstanding Supporting Actress


• Most Outstanding Drama Series


• Most Outstanding Miniseries or Telemovie


• Most Outstanding Children's Program


• Most Outstanding Factual or Documentary Program


• Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report


• Most Outstanding Sports Coverage

Former categories

• Most Outstanding Comedy Program


• Most Outstanding Entertainment Program


• 
  Best Australian Drama (1961–1976)


• Best Variety Show (1961-??)


• Most Popular Variety Program


• Most Popular Children's Program


• 
  Most Popular Australian Program (1961–2004)


• 
  Most Popular Factual Program (until 2017)


• 
  Most Popular Live Show (1966–1967)


• Most Popular Game Show (2002)


• Best Commercial (1962–1976)


• Most Popular Commercial (1977–1978)


• Most Popular Overseas Program (2003, 2005)


• Most Popular Overseas Drama (2004)


• Most Popular Overseas Comedy (2004)


• Most Popular Comedy Personality


• Most Popular Light Entertainment Personality


• Most Outstanding Sportscaster


• Most Popular Sports Event


• 
  Most Popular Sports Program (until 2017)


• Most Popular Telemovie or Miniseries


• Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report


• Most Outstanding News Coverage


• Most Outstanding Current Affairs Program


• Best News Panel or Current Affairs Program (2016-2017)


• Most Popular Public Affairs Program


• Most Outstanding News or Public Affairs Broadcaster


• Most Outstanding Newcomer


• 
  Most Popular New Male Talent (1999–2013)


• 
  Most Popular New Female Talent (1999–2013)

Most Wins

Programs

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

Television personalities with the most national wins (excluding state-based Logie awards) are:

Actors / Actresses with the most national wins:

See also

• ASTRA Awards


• Antenna Awards

References

Other references

• 
  "The Insider", Chris Taylor, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2003 – article describing the Logies, as well as a comic attempt to rig the Gold Logie voting process


• IMDB page on the Logie Awards

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Logie Awards.

• Official website


• Information website