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2011 Logies: Random acts of Carpetness

TV Tonight asked the stars about storylines, episodes, new projects and a question Kochie really didn't want to answer.

Who will win Gold? Who are you wearing? Who cares….?

On the Red Carpet this year many media were once again asking stars the bleedingly obvious, but TV Tonight was more interested in storylines, episodes, new projects and a question Kochie really didn’t want to answer.

Here is this year’s bunch of random questions in the madness that is the Red Carpet.

Sky News‘ David Speers on a big year in politics in 2010:

“When you think about the years in politics they don’t get much bigger than the last 12 months. We had a Prime Minister dumped, an election, 17 days of waiting to form a government, and now we have policy battles left right and centre.

“The whole team has worked really hard to cement our place as the home of politics, and coming up with People’s Forums and new ways of covering elections.”

Peter Maddison on Grand Designs Australia:

“We’re well into series 2 and we have houses all over Australia in different states: Tasmania, Byron Bay, and even going as far as Western Australia. So we’re stretching the boundaries and trying to make it a really national show.

“They haven’t officially announced seasons three and four but we’re very busy. Some houses take longer than 12 months so they have to go onto the next series.”

Luke and Wyatt on Camp Orange:

“We’re shooting another series after tomorrow at a secret location.”

Shaun Micallef on talk of a new chat show:

“It’s still being hammered together and we need to find a home for it in terms of where it fits and when it’s on.

“It won’t be this year. If it’s to be seen it will be next year.”

And on Talkin’ Bout Your Generation:

“In June we go back in for another 8 episodes and that’s it, so it’s not long, about 4 weeks.”

Rodger Corser on the new season of Rush:

“We start shooting on Friday, but I’m still shooting the last two episodes of Spirited. So I’m up and down for two weeks, and then I’ll move back down (to Melbourne) fulltime for three months.

On shooting during a Melbourne winter:

“The first year we got stung a bit but we learned the hard way that you wear double thermals at certain times of the year. But it’s not too bad, we shoot 35 seconds and they yell cut then someone brings you an umbrella and a cup of tea, so you can’t complain.”

Offspring’s new season will include appearances by Jay Ryan, Dan Spielman, Dave Roberts.

Eddie Perfect: “I recorded a big of an epic tune for one of the later episodes. The first season has a lot of the getting-to-know-you out of the way and it’s getting to know what the characters are about.”

Asked about Don Hany’s involvement with this series Kat Stewart said: “I think we might be murdered if we reveal that.”

Richard Davies: “We got ‘silencing emails’ telling us not to say anything.”

Rescue stars on their upcoming new season.

Libby Tanner: “We finished shooting 22 eps last week and we’re yet to hear about series 4, but we’ve got a good feeling about it.”

Katherine Hicks: “Series 3 is really interesting because we’ve got a threat from a privatised rescue organisation, so it creates a lot of conflict. There’s a feeling a lot of the time that the Rescue could go under.

“There’s a lot of action and a lot of character-driven drama.”

There are guest appearances this season from Todd Lasance, David Fields, Craig McLachlan.

Sunrise‘s David Koch didn’t seem pleased to be asked about what he made of the Adam Boland vs Seven legal saga.

Tactfully he answered: “When I saw Adam in London he was looking good.”

Natalie Barr, who was in Sydney when the Brekkie crew flew to London added: “And I haven’t seen Adam for at least a week.”

The Slap producer Tony Ayres on how the ABC show nabbed a top cast:

“It was the quality of the project, really. They all really loved the book and responded to the scripts, so I guess that was the launching pad.”

“The Sydney office is just about to go into production on a 10 part series for the ABC called The Straits. It’s a very ambitious project.”

The Slap Co-Producer Michael McMahon added: “In the second half of the year we’ll be going into production on an observational documentary series called Aussiewood which follows 6 young actors going through Pilot season in LA next year.

“There will be a mix of actors for the ABC.”

Veteran game show host Tony Barber on the state of game shows:

“I’m sort of locked into the grand old formats but now they tend to get a bit tricky. I guess they have to look for different audiences. Game shows are notoriously attracted to the 50+ demographic advertisers are not totally in love with. They want the kids.

“All of the great shows still run in the States even though it’s had a changing landscape of television with satellite and cable. The great networks still stick to Wheel of Fortune, Sale of the Century, Price is Right, Jeopardy. They still work. If you design a Rolls Royce you don’t muck around with it.”

Asked whether he enjoyed any current formats:

“I really like ‘What’s the highest mountain in the world? Bzz. Mount Everest. You’ve won a hundred dollars.”

“But they’ll have a go again sooner or later.”

MasterChef judges on their new season:

Gary Mehigan: “From a viewer’s perspective when you start getting into the nuts and bolts of it, connecting with people, that’s when it’s special because there’s something at stake.

“But when there’s 50 people that you’ve never seen before, there’s nothing at stake. That’s my theory.”

“We’ve got a really good sense of these people and I still feel they’re the kind of guys you would invite for dinner or go and have a drink with.”

“Series one was all amazing, up in the air, fantastic success with Julie and Poh. Series two was a strange one. People had seen series one and tried to work it all out. But there’s no working it all out. It’s just going on, being yourself, and people fall in love with your character whether you’re quiet or garrulous. These guys have worked that out so they’re just enjoying it.”

Matt Moran: “It gets better and bigger. It doesn’t have to be bigger but the contestants are better cooks in my mind.”

Megan Gale on Project Runway Australia:

“It will start screening from July on Arena.

“We’ve got our three finalists so it’s very exciting. But I’m not sure what I am and am not allowed to tell.

“As a host I feel like I’m the one driving it as the anchor but as a judge I feel like I’ve got to give constructive criticism and that’s a very tough position to be in, because when we go back to host I’m the one who’s got to deliver the bad news.”

Charlotte Dawson on the next series of Australia’s Next Top Model:

“Knowing what we’ve got scheduled for the filming next week it’s very ambitious. I don’t quite know how they’re going to pull it off.”

Sandra Sully on covering the Royal Wedding:

“It was wonderful to be there and see it. I don’t think it will really hit me until tomorrow. It was so busy and so big, it was a bit surreal –like you were watching it through another lens even though you were there. The precision was extraordinary. It was a fantastic experience.”

Underbelly‘s Firass Dirani on upcoming work:

“I’ve secured a manager in LA, who has some great actors from the UK.

“Hopefully I’ve got something really amazing coming up and the writing is unbelievable. I can’t say too much, but it’s totally different to what I’ve done before. But I will be working with some top directors, working with the best. I can probably tell you next week. Hopefully I’ll be signing something next week.”

Jamie Durie on Top Design:

“They’ve ordered a couple more eps already. I can’t tell you how many. It’s architects competing with architects and designers. The stakes are quite high and the ideas are really relevant.

“It did play in the US but it hasn’t played in Australia yet.”

“It will be on air in a few weeks but I don’t know the timeslot. They never tell you, they don’t even tell me until the last minute. But I’m just happy to be back at Nine to be honest. It’s home.”

Hamish and Andy on their new Nine series:

“We’re expecting to have a hell of a lot of fun and be a fish out of water again. We had so much fun on the caravan trips.

“New York will be a home base, so rather than travel around we wanted to have a home base.”

“Channel Nine said we’re not going to give you any money for the contract but you can have one go on Sale of the Century and whatever you win you can have as your budget. Unfortunately we lost and got a stick pin.”

“Channel Nine said ‘We’d like you to do about ten’ so we’ll hold them to ten.”

On following other Nine variety shows such as Ben Elton:

“They’re going to have to stick with one. But in all seriousness what we do love about Nine is they’ve taken a massive risk with us and they should be celebrated for that. If shows don’t work, then ok they don’t work but you’d much rather have a network that backs you and lets you live or die by your own merits. If that happens to us then we’ll still be thankful to Nine for the chance.”

Ian Stenlake on new Sea Patrol:

“My character finds out some things in his past life that he would never, ever imagine.

“I’m still doing the ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording). But it’s just been the best 5 years of my life.

“Can I just say thankyou for watching Sea Patrol for the last 5 years, I’ve had the best time.”

Letters and Numbers cast:

“It’s a particularly exciting time because this week is the final of the series, so all of the best contestants from the last 100 episodes are back for the week and the final on Friday.

“They get a glamorous trophy which is very coveted, I guess.

“One of the things we’re proud of is that Letters and Numbers is not a show to win things, it’s a thing to celebrate the abilities of your brain. The runners up on the show go home with a Dictionary and the people who stay on the show a long time go home with a Dictionary, and I think that says something about the calibre of the show.”

“You can play at home, you can play with the sound down and you can join the drama of the show at any given point.”

And lastly, Letters and Numbers guru David Astle told me, “If you remove all the roman numerals from your name you’re left with K-O-A & N which is the Buddhist philosophical riddle. So you’re a mystic.”

And to think I never knew…

16 Responses

  1. “Jeopardy!” is just overrated. All it does is it takes the ‘What is?’ off the beginning of questions and sticks it onto the answers instead.

    e.g. “What is the capital of Australia? Canberra.” becomes “The capital of Australia. What is Canberra?”

  2. Interesting that Megan Gale said the show would be airing on Arena… I thought we had all been told it was moving to Fox8?? If true, I’m glad it’s staying on Arena – this sort of show just doesn’t belong on Fox8.

  3. @ Peter, the Neighbours cast hardly got their heads on telly during the broadcast, and I’ve only found one still shot of one of the cast. It’s like they’ve been put in the who cares basket.

  4. I thought on the night of the awards that Samantha Armytage looked very hot. So did the other news readers. I know that i would not flinch if asked to co host a show with Sam as said earlier she is hottt.

  5. Thanks for your red carpet interviews, David. Always insightful. As for less episodes of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, I think it has something to do with The Renovators which begins after MasterChef.

  6. Wow, great article! you really got to speak to numerous people and got some great information. Thanks!!

    Gotta say I agree with Tony Barber re quiz shows. My favourite types are fast paced general knowledge quiz shows where you have to beat the buzzer, like Sale of the Century. I wish like hell that one of our networks would revive Jeopardy, best quiz show ever. i watch the US version of it occasionally on W and it is such a top show. Fast paced and challenging, it’s really good.

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