The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially 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.
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
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 ceremony, instituted the previous year as the TV Week Star Awards, now officially becomes known as "Logie Awards", in reference as an honour to TV inventor/engineer John Logie Baird, the name is chosen by entertainer Graham Kennedy, after he won what was known the previous previously year as the "Star of the Year Award", which itself would become the Gold Logie.
The planned televised ceremony was cancelled due to the intended host, Tony Hancock cancelling a trip to Australia.
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.[5]
1973
The media was invited for the first time to attend the Logies.
1974
Number 96 star Pat McDonald became the first "soap star" actress (not television personality) to win the Gold Logie.
1975
The Logie Awards are broadcast in colour for the first time.
1976
The first and only fictional character to win a Logie of any kind was Norman Gunston, who won the Gold Logie, with his portrayer Garry McDonald, accepting the award in character.
1981
The Logie Awards after being held in Melbourne for 20 years return to Sydney and are broadcast for the first time on Network Ten.
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 television pioneer and producer Hector Crawford (see below, under Logie Hall of Fame).
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 Robinson in soap opera Neighbours.
1989
The Seven Network screens the Logie Awards for the first time.
1997
Agro's Cartoon Connection won its seventh consecutive Logie Award for Most Popular Children's Program, ending the longest undefeated streak of the Logies of either show or person.
The Logies accepted for the first time nominations from locally produced digital content. Also in 2016, presenter Waleed Aly (whose parents where born in Egypt) became the first non-Caucasian person to win the Gold Logie.
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 instead held at The Star Gold Coast on the Gold Coast, Queensland for four years, with support of the Queensland Government.[6][7]
The decade of the 2010s was the first decade where no one won the Gold Logie award more than once.
2020
It was announced on the 29 April that the Logie Awards scheduled for 28 June 2020, were being cancelled outright prior to any voting or nominations taking place, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony was set to return on 28 November 2021, but was again cancelled on 4 September 2021. It later took place on 19 June 2022.[8]
The first time that an Indigenous person, Mark Coles Smith, was nominated for the Gold Logie. Kween Kong from RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, became the first drag queen nominated for a Logie. 6 of the nominees for Most Outstanding Actress are from a subscription television network.[10]
2024
The Logies announced a major overhaul of award categories for the 2024 ceremony. Whilst the Gold Logie Award, Bert Newton Award for Most Popular Presenter and Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent will remain publicly voted, the previous most popular and most outstanding categories will be replaced by a "best" category which will be determined using a combined score from a jury, viewing data and public voting. The acting awards will be separated into drama and comedy categories, whilst the drama and miniseries category will also be separated. The new category format is more similar to the style used in the United States Emmy Awards.[11][12]
These are the only programs that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.[15]
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.[16]
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
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.[17]
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,[18] 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.
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.[27] 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.[28]
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.[29] Gleeson has shrugged off those suggestions.[30]
Tom Gleeson's 2019 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with him not being so humble by the victory.[31]
The trial of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins was delayed because of comments from Lisa Wilkinson's acceptance speech.[32]
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
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.
As of 2017, Home and Away is the most successful program in Logies history, having won 49 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:
3 Gold Logies (1983, 1986, 1989), 3 Most Popular Light Entertainment Personality (1993, 1995–1997), 1 Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Personality (1990) and 1 Most Popular Comedy Personality (1995)
Chris Taylor, 17 May 2003, "The Insider", Sydney Morning Herald – article describing the Logies, as well as a comic attempt to rig the Gold Logie voting process
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