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TV Tonight Awards 2011: It’s a Slap-down by ABC

TV Tonight readers vote The Slap Best Drama series and New Australian with other winners including At Home with Julia, Gruen, Amazing Race and Go Back to Where You Came From.

ABC’s The Slap has been voted Best Australian Drama series and Best New Australian Show in the 2011 TV Tonight Awards.

The Slap was a runaway winner in the local drama category, with runners-up including Offspring, Packed to the Rafters and Rush.

Acknowledging the win, actress Melissa George said, “Playing ‘Rosie’ was the most career-fulfilling part to date. I am honoured to have worked on such a brilliantly produced, written and directed slice of Australian drama.”

Producer / Director Tony Ayres from Matchbox Pictures thanked readers for the vote of confidence.

“TV Tonight is the premiere online space for intelligent, informed discussion about all things television. We are honoured that your readers have such high regard for our TV series,” he said.

ABC also dominated Best Australian Comedy, won by At Home with Julia with runners-up The Hamster Wheel, Angry Boys, Laid and SBS’ Housos.

Actress Amanda Bishop said, “Thank you to the ABC for allowing us to film a fun series about a sitting Prime Minister in the first place. An absolute privilege that none of us took lightly. We squeezed every frame possible out of that precious budget and those 18 shoot days!

“On behalf of Quail TV, Phil Lloyd, Rick Kalowski, myself and all at At Home With Julia, may I say in the words of my muse ‘thank you TV Tonight readers for this opinion poll!'”

In other Aussie categories the winners included:

The Amazing Race Australia (Reality)
Go Back to Where You Came From (Doco / Factual)
Better Homes and Gardens (Lifestyle)
The Circle (Morning Show)
The Gruen Transfer / Gruen Planet (Light Entertainment)
6:30 with George Negus (News / Current Affairs)
Q & A (Talk)
Play School (Kids)
Before the Game (Sports)

In the International section the winners were:
Downtown Abbey (Drama)
Modern Family (Comedy)
The Amazing Race (Reality)
Downton Abbey (New Show)

There were more than 1000 votes in the extensive survey this year, the biggest result of the Awards across 5 years.

* denotes runaway winner

AUSTRALIAN:

Best Drama
The Slap *
Offspring
Packed to the Rafters
Rush
(2010: Packed to the Rafters)

Best Comedy
At Home with Julia

The Hamster Wheel
Angry Boys
Laid
Housos
(2010: The Librarians)

Best Light Entertainment
Gruen Transfer / Gruen Planet
Spicks and Specks
The Project / 7PM Project
Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation
Rove LA
(2010: Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation)

Best Morning Programme
The Circle

Sunrise / Weekend Sunrise
Today / Weekend Today
ABC News Breakfast
The Morning Show
(2010: The Circle)

Best Game Show
Deal or No Deal

Hot Seat
Letters and Numbers
It’s a Knockout
It’s Academic
(2010: Deal or No Deal)

Best Reality
The Amazing Race Australia

MasterChef Australia
The X Factor
The Celebrity Apprentice Australia
The Block
(2010: MasterChef Australia)

Best Lifestyle
Better Homes and Gardens
*
Selling Homes Australia
Getaway
Grand Designs Australia
Poh’s Kitchen on the Road
(2010: Better Homes and Garden)

Best Factual / Documentary / Observational
Go Back to Where You Came From
*
Border Security
The Family
Australian Story
Bondi Vet
(2010: Border Security)

Best News / Current / Public Affairs
6:30 with George Negus
Four Corners
Seven News
Sunday Night
Media Watch
(2010: 7:30 Report)

Best Talk Show
Q&A
*
The Project
The Circle
Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight
Rove LA
(2010: Q&A)

Best Kid’s Show
Play School

Dance Academy
Hi-5
Prank Patrol
My Place
(2010: Dance Academy)

Best Sports Show or Coverage
Before the Game

AFL  / Grand Final
Australian Open
The Footy Show AFL
State of Origin
(2010: Before the Game)

Best New Show 
The Slap*
Winners & Losers
Crownies
The Celebrity Apprentice Australia
The Amazing Race Australia
(2010: Offspring)

Favourite Male
Shaun Micallef 
Adam Hills
Wil Anderson
Karl Stefanovic
Hugh Sheridan
(2010: Shaun Micallef)

Favourite Female
Asher Keddie*
Chrissie Swan
Julia Morris
Carrie Bickmore
Rebecca Gibney
(2010: Asher Keddie)

Most Underrated Performer
Jackie Woodburne
Shaun Micallef
Kat Stewart
Wil Anderson
Julia Zemiro / Larry Emdur / Adam Hills (tie)
(2010: Shaun Micallef)

INTERNATIONAL:

Best Drama
Downton Abbey
*
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Dexter
The Good Wife
(2010: Mad Men)

Best Comedy
Modern Family 

The Big Bang Theory
Community
30 Rock
Parks & Recreation
(2010: Modern Family)

Best Reality 
The Amazing Race 
Survivor
So You Think You Can Dance
American Idol
The Voice
(2010: The Amazing Race)

Best New Show
Downton Abbey 
Game of Thrones
American Horror Story
Terra Nova
Ringer
(2010: Modern Family)

International Show we need to see on Aussie TV
The Walking Dead

Homeland
Revenge
Once Upon a Time
New Girl
(2010: The Walking Dead)

This year there were four shows that took a noticeable dive from 2010 results: MasterChef Australia, Packed to the Rafters, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation and ABC’s 7:30. All of them won their respective categories last year and all of them were defeated this year.

In terms of stars, Asher Keddie’s stocks have risen dramatically thanks to Offspring and Paper Giants -she could be a real contender for Gold Logie this year. Wil Anderson and Karl Stefanovic have also improved, while Julia Morris is a very strong new entry onto the field.

TOMORROW:
Worst Show (Aus)
Worst Show (Int)
Worst Male
Worst Female
Most Overexposed Performer
The Story of the Year
Biggest Blunder of the Year
Best Subscription Channel
Best Multichannel
Best Free to Air Network

28 Responses

  1. It is a pity those at channel 10 don’t read this. Axing a great aussie show like Rush when it comes in as one of the runner’s up for best aussie dramas.
    Well done guys, how to get the viewers back

  2. After this years terrible treatment from seven of PTTR, I was tempted to put the show in the worst category. I had trouble following what was going on thanks to the large breaks in viewing.

  3. Prior to the awards being released I was convinced that Seven just did not want to show the AFL live on Friday evenings as a result of the current Poll results i.e. 61% do not watch Better Homes and Gardens, yet it wins the Best Lifestyle category.

    Was BH&G a runaway winner only for the fact that it had no major competition ?

    Best Lifestyle
    Better Homes and Gardens*
    Selling Homes Australia
    Getaway
    Grand Designs Australia
    Poh’s Kitchen on the Road
    (2010: Better Homes and Garden)

  4. welll done to Shaun Micallef winning Favourite Male two years running. It seems ironic that he also rates highly in the most Underrated category, but I would say that he is underrated in a sense that he is not overexposed like too many performers these days.
    It’s good to also see Neighbours actors acknowledged for their work.

  5. Personally I think The Slap should win the award for most overrated program of the year. It was okay but no means amazing and definitely not worthy of all its accolades. There were some great moments and performances but it wasn’t consistent and i found myself bored during a lot of the episodes.
    Offspring season 2 was the standout show of 2011 in m opinion. The producers and writers did an excellent job mending everything that wasn’t right about season 1 which made for funny , touching and addictive escapism australian drama at its best!

  6. All those Channel Ten shows doing well in the voting. Imagine how they might have rated on TV if the Mottley Crew in Ten’s programming dept had managed to leave them in the one timeslot.

  7. All great choices. Was a shame there didn’t seem to be anywhere to vote for Judith Lucy’s ABC series. Was hard to work out what category that would fit in.

  8. Very happy with most of those results. IMO your poll is a better award to get then the Logies in which i believe are botched. The Slap is a very deserving winner and glad to see Downton Abbey and Amazing Race Australia win.

  9. Shaun Micallef wins Favourite Male 2 years in a row, but finishes 2nd Most Underrated, after winning that the year before. Clearly he is rated, don’t think people understand what underrated means.

    The Walking Dead gets “International Show we need to see on Aussie TV” 2 years in a row. Shows how long it’s taking to get on tv here.

    It’s up to Seven to make Amazing Race rate well which means a decent timeslot and kept there, because clearly people love the show. Well done George Negus. Not his fault most people are idiots and prefer trash.

    @Tasmanian Devil, TBYG ratings is due to Ten moving timeslots several times in the one year, nothing to do with people “over” Shaun Micallef. Just people over their show being moved constantly. Same with Modern Family. Wins Best Comedy, but rates poorly now cos of Ten’s shuffling.

    The results are mostly spot on. Congrats to them all.

  10. The Walking Dead isn’t even that good!! Season two has been heavily criticised for poor characterisation and a very slow pace.

    Overall rather predictable results IMO, I like this year’s winners more than last year’s. Hooray for The Amazing Race Australia winning its category and The Hamster Wheel scoring runner-up. Also nice to see The Slap beat out PTTR, although I haven’t seen it

  11. Re. Best Comedy and Best Light Entertainment, Joy of Sets was a massively underrated show, and I liked twentysomething, which also doesn’t seem to have got a nod. The Hamster Wheel is fair enough but Laid? Are you people serious? It garnering any votes at all for Best Comedy is funnier than anything that happened in the show. And who’s underrating Kat Stewart or Wil Anderson? They’re not exactly having to take a second job in a convenience store to make ends meet. Come to think of it, all the runners-up on that list seem to be doing better than fine.

  12. I believe I said this same thing last year, but if Shaun Micallef still manages to get 2nd place in Most Underrated then it goes to show that the category has lost its meaning. If anything people have become sick of him (not an attack on Shaun) as TBYG has dropped in ratings.

    @ Sheba Percy – I believe he was referring to David’s intelligent informed discussion, not the comments. Those thousands of Peter Everett fans would kind of nullify that…

  13. As I asked when I sent my votes in I would like to see –

    1. Somewhere where we can see all the voting. Some of my votes were not for straight down the middle most obvious options. I’d like to know if people shared my opinion.

    2. Some of the funnier/weird responses. Good for a new years laugh!

  14. David, was there many votes separating Modern family and Big Bang Theory?
    The results for Chrissie and the Circle demonstrate how hard it may be to keep the magic going now Chrissie and Yumi have left.
    As interesting as today’s results were, tomorrow is what I’m looking forward to… terrible but I do enjoy the meaty stories… :0

    Of course V Tonight is the premiere online space for intelligent informed dicussion- I’m here, lol….

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