Logie Awards

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]

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, journalist Peter Harvey and television executive Brian Walsh.

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.[11]

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.[14]

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

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.[20][21] Seven had last broadcast the Logie Awards in 1995.[22][23]

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.[24] 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.[25]

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.[26] Gleeson has shrugged off those suggestions.[27]

Tom Gleeson's 2019 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with him not being so humble by the victory.[28]

The trial of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins was delayed because of comments from Lisa Wilkinson's acceptance speech.[29]

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.

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.[30]

• Antenna Awards
• ASTRA Awards
• TV Week King of Pop Awards, TV Week/Countdown Music Awards
• List of television awards

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Logie Awards.

• Official website
• The History of Australian Television—The Logies
• Archived list of Logie Awards