Frocked up to dress down
In the first few minutes of Gretel Killeen's hosting of the 51st TV Week Logie Awards she 'died' on stage as part of a cop-show stunt.
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In the first few minutes of Gretel Killeen’s hosting of the 51st TV Week Logie Awards she ‘died’ on stage as part of a cop-show stunt. It was to prove something of a metaphor for the night.
Killeen has been an acclaimed live performer over her Big Brother years, dealing with all manner of technical pressures and unscripted moments. Here, she conceded, a return to hosting, particularly for the Logies, was a daunting task.
The opening gags fell flat, the “shooting stunt” as a segue to the first award was perplexing. A “teen angel” lowering from the ceiling, with Bondi Vet’s Dr. Chris Brown was just downright bizarre. Better results came from her visit to the Ladies Room where Ruby Rose threw in an unexpected line and Carson Kressley added a little zing.
Killeen needed better writers and less focus on frock-changing. Her impromptu chat to Home and Away’s Jordan Rodrigues felt awkward.
The Logies themselves desperately needed some guests who could editorialise. It’s the one night of the year when somebody can take give a room of influential people a bit of a report card. Done with wit and discretion this works with the audience in the room and at home. Denton, Bert, Dame Edna -you were all missed.
Even The (usually funny) Umbilical Brothers seemed to drag, and a moment with Humphrey B. Bear ran out of puff quick smart.
Filmed “campaign” sequences by Charlie Pickering and Michael Chamberlin lifted the mood. Myles Barlow’s Review sequence was even better. Lookout The Chaser…
Points also to Dave Hughes, Wil (“Farmer Will Settle For A Root Thanks”) Anderson, Shaun Micallef for their punchy spots and to Ian Smith for showing a good sense of humour in several clips.
But the only moment of history will be left to Annie Lennox, whose accoustic performance clearly kept the room spellbound. A moment that wasn’t TV related, and wasn’t even Australian.
As far as surprising wins on the night, how did Border Security win Most Outstanding Factual over a very strong field? Meanwhile the NRL Footy Show defeated its higher-rating AFL equivalent in Most Popular Sports. And viewers would be unlikely to given Seven’s Beijing Olympics a Logie.
After criticism of its many former hosts, the annual Logies gig shows no signs of dropping its mantle as “the toughest job in television.”
50 Responses
Think you will find Seven brings a lot of their people onto the carpet very late to avoid them being on 9’s show.
gretel wasn’t that bad-better than when wendy harmer hosted (and does anyone remember when rove AOK and eddie hosted). she wasn’t great at the start but she warmed up (the toilet bit was quite funny) its not her fault the crowd gave her nothing (not everyone is great at improv put that kid from home and away could have given her something to work with).
the real issue i had with the night was (as always) the channel 9 show. firstly on the red carpet when they interviewed the cast of homerun-i was in shock. i know there is going to be cross promotion but interviewing a group of unknowns during a red carpet that hardly included any of the nominees were interviewed. (apart from the cast of PTTR was anyone from 7 interviewed?) then playing the theme song from underbelly as the cast arrived (flogging the last dead horse much?) it was just pathetic.
then what was with the four awards being presented ahead of time (the show was 20minutes ahead of time surely they could have had time to include them!) and why was most outstanding factual one of those awards (some might think 9 new border was going to steal it away from perennial favourite RPA and it was best to hide it to save face)
i know all the networks are guilty of cross promotion butan extremely desperate (and pathetic) 9 took it to a whole knew level last night!
when is australian television going to get over its obsession with carson kressley? is this the only place he can get work?
paul lynde was doing the same schtick 40 years ago
Should have followed the Oscars and done some sort of musical number.
Chris Lilley’s/Mr G’s ecstacy song a few years back was brilliant. Should do more like that.
Oh Logies yet again you fail. I don’t understand why year after year the network/TV Week continue to put the same show on and hoping it will be a success.
A few thoughts about the Logies:
– I think most comments here reflect that Shaun Micallef would be the best host.
– Whats the point of having a host if they don’t actually host the thing? Gretel Killeen only seemed to show up every 30 minutes with a different dress and bad jokes. How about instead of the stupid voice over guy introducing the presenters, actually have the host introduce them? Like the BAFTAS.
– No matter what host you have the show will always struggle with the current format. Having a room filled with people sitting at tables is a distraction that comes accross through the TV broadcast. You can here people talking and obviously not interested in the show.
– It’s a hard room for a host to perform for and keep interested.
All right thats enough.
Oh and the shape of the stage last night was horrible, no one seemed to know how to get on stage to collect their award.
I think it would have been good if the hosting role was shared by a couple of people rather than relying on one person to carry the show. Sometimes you’re on fire, other times you struggle. Gretel had an off night.
Matthew Newton has once again proven that he’s a knob. Not funny. Same goes for Rove. Not funny without his writers.
rattle: Gretel looking like a Dr Spock and Liza Minelli love child…yes! I absolutely agree! In fact it looked like Liza had styled a few people last night. And Dannii Minogue had Willy Wonka as her stylist.
Annie Lennox was terrible, and so was Gretel… though she was hardly only either… some host!
Well, I have to say I am a big Gretel fan and she let me down last night. Not sure why her gags were so lame. She would have had ample time to prepare. Have to say unless they get a classy and witty presenter like Shaun Micallef or Denton they may just have to play it straight.
Also, I must say Rove is the most over rated presenter on tv. He showed his balndness with Rachel Griffiths who deserves so much better. Rove is not funny has never really had extraordinary talent and is basically lucky that there is no one really challenging him on tv otherwise his show would have been off air ages ago.
Tip for 2110, get the Chaser Boys in for hosting. They would do some great tv send ups and we at least know that it’s one for all as they are with the ABC.
I feel sorry for Gretel because I don’t think it went particularly to plan.
The shooting gag didn’t make much sense at all except it did get a laugh out of me with the line “you died on stage.” Because it was inevitable it made it funny. Her chat with that little kid from Home and Away… *flashbacks to some of the more awkward Big Brother evictions* and her calling out all the guys for being gay haha classic uncomfortable and rude Gretel.
To be honest it’s Gretel’s uncomfortable energy that I enjoy. All in all I doubt we’ll see her back again but I wouldn’t call the night a failure if only for the “you died on stage” line I’m more than happy.
That Logies was absolutely horrendous. Gretel was not good at all. Rove presenting with Rachel Griffiths was a joke, she deserves better than that. Not a fan of Umbilical Brothers, last night proved why. And how funny was Billy Slater and Trent Croad attempting to look like their speech wasn’t rehersed. That was hilarious.
Agree Katrina, City Homicide is a brilliant show, why not one nomination? Noni Hazlehurst and Aaron Pederson should have got acting noms.
Best part of the night was Annie Lennox. And Shaun Micallef is the best comedian on tv. He should have hosted.
To me it was simply the awful gags. They fell flat and were embarrassing to watch. It was like watching outtakes of one of those axed comedy shows. I’m sure we’d get a better show if this was produced by the talent at the ABC. This was simply poorly produced and looked cheap!
Killeen was ok for her 5 minutes of airtime and looked a lot better when everything less planned. You could have sworn she was promoted as the host of the evening! It seemed like this was all slapped together in a week and Killen was a last minute decision!
To make it worse, some quality programs never got the awards/recognition they deserved. -sigh-
@Katrina. A few worthy shows and names I think missed nominations. The Gruen Transfer surely deserved a nomination somewhere, cant fathom that Mark Loves Sharon scored an “outstanding” nomination but Gruen didn’t. Agree with you that Scorched was hardly worthy of a nomination of any sort. It was horrendous. And Figaro Pho scored a nomination when it hadn’t even aired until only a few weeks ago.
@Neon Kitten. I’m hearing ya regarding Annie Lennox. And scary as this is, I have to agree with Matthew Newton who seemed to be visibly scoffing Ms Lennox while she was performing.
Who else remembers when all the nomimations for news were from channel 9 and 60 minutes and maybe ABC? And when ch 9 had more nominations and winners than all other channels?
When she was first announced as host I wrote here that I had a bad feeling about this. Well I hate to say I told you so but ….
Neon……
You are not alone
Worst. Logies. Ever.
The Ladies Room was the only bit I saw, so looks like I tuned in at the right time. But what did she do to her hair?
What I want to know is why didn’t City Homicide have even one nomination? It should have had at least most outstanding drama nom. You can’t tell me that Scorched (which was pretty universally panned) and Rush were better than City Homicide.
I gave up on the Logies many years ago, but I still looked to the Outstanding Categories as a beacon. Not anymore! When Today Tonight gets a nomination, you know it’s gone to the dogs.
where was rachel whats-her-name from brothers and sisters i thought she was going to be there?
How did Bondi Rescue won over Border Security?
“Killeen needed better writers” – according to the end credits, Gretel’s material was written by Gretel Killeen.
And yes. Whoever wrote that Humphrey skit, Humphrey doesn’t wear pants. We get it, it’s been a gag for over 40 years.
Must admit, though, I didn’t love Annie Lennox even though she sang one of my favourite songs of hers.
As soon as I read that Gretel Killeen was to host the Logies I could see the train coming down the tracks. To me it was a very strange choice of host.
Having not watched last years telecast (for the first time ever), I decided to record this years show so that I could pick out Bill Collins’ segment.
I unfortunately watched a few minutes of it live, somewhere where Rove was on- screen, and the only feeling I had was one of embarrassment.
If this show ‘celebrates’ the best of Australian TV, then Australian TV is in a very sad state.
It is time for change.
It is time to once again treat viewers as intelligent.
It is time to let TV be programmed by artists, not accountants.
Wow, the biggest night of the year for Australian television and the best moment of the night by far was by a wonderful singer from another country.
Gretel was cringe worthy and the best thing about her hosting last night was that I now know that Mr Spock and Liza Minnelli’s love child would look like.
Good grief, Ms Killeen was dreadful, I found it her presentation so difficult to endure, left pondering if anyone can host this gig. Humour falling downright flat is embarrassing. Although it is the “night of nights” for the TV industry to party, it has become very little entertainment value for the average viewer. Congratulations to the award winners though.
I didn’t watch much of the show but does this remind people of what happened with Letterman a few years back?
I suspect I’m in the minority here, but Annie Lennox was, to me, absolutely rubbish. Histrionic beyond belief, torturing every note with all the finesse of an American Idol hopeful, she forgot the emotion and warmth of the song and made it all about her and her vocal gymnastics. It was awful.
My brother, watching with me at the time, said it best – she sounded like a car alarm.