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Logie voting campaigns pay off

Aggressive Logie voting campaigns have paid off for in this year's nominees, especially those in morning television.

Just two of last year’s Gold Logie nominees are in the race for Gold in 2011 after changes to this year’s voting.

Only Rebecca Gibney and Adam Hills, in his fourth shot at Gold, have made the cut.

Previous favourites have missed out on Gold including Shaun Micallef, Wil Anderson, Esther Anderson, Paul McDermott and even former winners including Ray Meagher.

In their place are Jessica Marais, Asher Keddie, Karl Stefanovic and Chrissie Swan.

The changes included trimming the number of nominees to 6 -it has been 8 since 2006- and the elimination of voting via magazine coupons, in favour of online votes.

In switching to online voting some networks have undertaken aggressive campaigns, not dissimilar to Oscar “For Your Consideration” strategies.

Morning television shows were particularly focussed on voting campaigns. Karl Stefanovic was one of the personalities Nine was pushing via TV advertising with “Vote for Karl” reminders. TEN’s The Circle has also been reminding its audience to vote. But while 2011 may be seeing more focussed campaigning, it isn’t necessarily new. 2009 saw Neighbours actor Ian Smith heavily pushed by TEN, which landed him a Gold nomination.

Swan’s appearance in the Gold and Most Popular New Female Talent sees her year in television soar. While the New Talent candidates cannot be submitted for Outstanding or Popular Actor/Actress Awards, few would have expected a Gold nomination in their first year.

New Talent is always a perplexing category. Last year Charlie Pickering was nominated, despite him having co-hosted an entire season of The Mansion for the Comedy Channel. Female winner Carrie Bickmore had been a regular on Rove. Of this year’s nominees, Swan was runner-up on 2003’s Big Brother, Firass Dirani was a lead in Power Rangers Mystic Force, Ryan Corr was part of Blue Water High and Eddie Perfect has been a regular guest on Spicks and Specks and The Sideshow.

Last year TV Week Editor Emma Nolan explained the criteria for New Talent nominees to TV Tonight.

“Actor/actresses, presenters, judges or reporters who made their major TV debut on an Australian-made television show in 2010. Criteria also require that the person has featured in at least three episodes as one character, reporter, presenter or judge. This may not be their first appearance on Australian TV. It will be their first major role,” she said.

Packed to the Rafters leads with 15 nominations, with Angus McLaren a glaring omission. Offspring has 7 (but not Most Outstanding Drama) and Underbelly: The Golden Mile has 6 nominations.

Rush, Rake, Hawke, Sisters of War, Neighbours and Home and Away were nominated alongside Rafters, Offspring and Underbelly for either Most Popular or Most Outstanding Drama. Missing out were Tangle (another glaring omission), Spirited, Rescue, Sea Patrol, Bed of Roses, Cops L.A.C and Dance Academy.

In its final season City Homicide was again snubbed.

The Pacific was not eligible.

Pay TV’s nominations were acting nods for Tangle, plus Camp Orange, XIX Commonwealth Games coverage and SKY News‘ Election 2010 coverage. Significantly, Grand Designs Australia landed a nomination in the Most Popular Lifestyle category over and above such shows as Poh’s Kitchen, Collectors, Home Cooked! With Julie Goodwin and Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam.

But Selling Houses Australia missed out entirely as did Spirited.

Another change this year was to include Community TV programs in the mix. None made the nominee list -strongly suggesting there was never any need to exclude them in the past.

Still the Logies has never been about reflecting the shows that are actually the highest rating on the box.

2010’s most popular television show MasterChef has one nomination, as Most Popular Reality Program. It had better win.

FOOTNOTE: In the TV Tonight Awards in January, Gibney, Hills, Swan and Keddie all polled strongly with readers.

40 Responses

  1. tardis3 says:
    April 4, 2011 at 7:08 am
    despite the previous article on tvtonight.com.au there was just one nomination for hey hey

    That was an April Fools Joke!

  2. 2dayfm or should I say the Kyle & Jackie O show are campaigning hard for Rebecca to win. (probably cause Kyle is bitter again)

    They are tweeting it to their so called 400,000 followers, mentioning it on the show daily and also giving her $60,000 worth of advertisement on their website.

    Is this fair? and who takes it that seriously? lol

  3. @ Melby: It is definitely the building behind her … her taste is not that bad … but overall, our conversation about the “hat” summs up just how silly all this Logies stuff is … as Jake said … no-one “really” takes it seriously … particularly if the voting is so easily manipulated now … it is by email, isn’t it??

    Another sad pretence by the TV industry that most of the public see straight through … tragic.

  4. I think people on telly are only as good as the company they keep – the ones that become the focal point, are often an example of this. Karl is surrounded by the glorious Lisa and Georgie. Chrissie is a larger than life persona, but is well supported by Yumi and especially the iconic Denise; Adam Hills bounces off the generous Alan Brough and Myf; Rebecca Gibney is just a beautiful persona on screen, but also needs the actors she supports and visa versa. Asher Keddie created a fully fleshed chracter in Offspring but as all actors do, need others to bounce off and the wonderful Kat Stewart, Don Hany etc boosted her. I say all of this, as rationale for how certain individuals rise to the surface and not others. Karl has shown more gravitas, Chrissie is down to earth, Adam is very likeable on screen, Rebecca is the Mum and wife everybody wants, Ashe played a flawed and vulnerable character that struck a chord. I think they are a great set.

  5. Maybe a bit early for Chrissie Swan to get the nod for Gold, however I have no problem with her being nominated, she has an it factor not seen in a while (well apart from probably Julia Zemiro).

    Really I see Chrissie having the same appeal as Denise Drysdale, and Denise won a Gold Logie, sure albeit when they had separate Golds for Male and Female, however she did win one.

  6. So people are saying that only people with huge ratings should get Logies? Not people with talent? Which side of the fence are you on? Chrissie, in my opinion, is the stand out new talent on TV in the past year.

  7. @Secret Squïrrel , your something else , you have a go at Hey Hey fans for protesting about there show and not shutting up about It , and here you are still going on about It and not leaving well alone .

    I think “secretly ” you should take a look In the mirror .

    Also folks , why the big fuss over Gold Logie Nominations , at least theres no Home and Away actors in there this years .

    Oh and by the way you only got to watch the circle to see the talent and humour that Chrisse Swan has , she well deserves her place In there.

  8. I have a question for you David. How Long is the broadcast contract that 9 has on the event. It seems like they have had it forever. When does that contract expire so that another network can broadcast it. Or does the 9 Network have a mortgage on the event?

  9. Yes, MC better win that logie!

    Im quite pleased with the nominations – except I think Tangle should be nominated for Outstanding Drama. Rush better win that, top show!

  10. To all you saying The Circle doesn’t even get ratings – maybe this is a sure sign that all those ratings boxes don’t really reflect actual viewership?

  11. The Logies is a popularity contest, and if the people nominated are the most popular, then good on them. Chrissie Swan for example is extremely likeable and fresh, although I didn’t vote for her myself, I’m happy for her that she is nominated.

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