TV Tonight Awards 2012: A ray of hope for TEN
Despite a year of mishaps, readers still find love for TEN shows Offspring, Homeland, Modern Family & The Project.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
TV Tonight readers have sent Network TEN a new year’s present by voting for their shows and personalities in big numbers in the annual TV Tonight Awards.
Key shows such as Offspring, Homeland, Modern Family, The Project, Before the Game, The Living Room and Puberty Blues have all been voted as winners while TEN stars Asher Keddie and Shaun Micallef have scored in the personality stakes along with runners-up in Carrie Bickmore, Chrissie Swan and Lachy Hulme.
Offspring won the Best Aussie Drama while Asher Keddie again won Favourite Female for the third year in a row.
In thanking readers, Keddie said, “Once again I am absolutely thrilled that Offspring has connected with so many viewers. The third series was a challenge but as always a pleasurable and fulfilling experience for me and I couldn’t be happier to be back for a fourth series, one that I feel sure will be our most exciting yet.
“I want to thank the TV Tonight readers for their robust support and affection for this show, and for me. I’m incredibly grateful.”
Newcomer The Living Room has finally toppled Better Homes and Gardens‘ stranglehold on the Lifestyle category.
But in further results to be published tomorrow, readers will also slap TEN for a year of mishaps.
Such divisive results indicate that the audience is able to discern between managerial and programming mess yet still retain an attachment to the shows and personalities they love. After a disastrous year, that message actually offers the network a ray of hope, depending on how they harness it….
New ABC comedy A Moody Christmas was voted Best Aussie Comedy while 7:30, Q&A and Dance Academy all won their categories while dual-network personality Shaun Micallef tied in Favourite Male -he has now ranked first in this category for the last four years.
Nine’s The Voice took out Best Reality (Australian) while House Husbands tied as Best New Show (Australian) and Hamish Blake tied for Favourite Male with Micallef. Survivor finally pipped The Amazing Race for the first time in Best Reality (International).
Top-rating network Seven only won a single category: Best Morning Programme for Sunrise.
Go Back to Where You Came From again dominated the Factual category for SBS after winning in 2011.
In Pay TV there were good votes for Grand Designs Australia, Selling Houses Australia, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Newsroom, Girls, Rove LA and Foxtel’s Olympics coverage -but none  was able to topple Free to Air winners.
Lachy Hulme made a strong arrival in the Favourite Male stakes after his chameleon year in Howzat, Beaconsfield and Offspring. The stocks have also risen for Julia Morris this year.
TV Tonight readers have previously recognised such names as Asher Keddie, Chrissie Swan and Carrie Bickmore ahead of their Logies nominations. Expect Lachy Hulme and Julia Morris to become nominees this year too…
This year there were 780 surveys completed.
* denotes runaway winner.
BEST AUSTRALIAN DRAMA: Offspring
House Husbands
Puberty Blues
Rake / Howzat!
(2011 winner: The Slap)
BEST AUSTRALIAN COMEDY: A Moody Christmas
The Hamster Wheel
Lowdown
Hamish & Andy
(2011: At Home with Julia)
BEST INTERNATIONAL DRAMA: Homeland*
Revenge
Downton Abbey
Mad Men / Breaking Bad / Game of Thrones
(2011: Downtown Abbey)
BEST INTERNATIONAL COMEDY: Modern Family*
The Big Bang Theory
30 Rock
Community / Parks and Recreation
(2011: Modern Family)
BEST LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: The Project
Gruen Planet
Can of Worms
Agony Uncles / Agony Aunts
(2011: The Gruen Transfer / Gruen Planet)
BEST MORNING PROGRAMME: Sunrise
Today
The Circle
The Morning Show
(2011: The Circle)
BEST REALITY SHOW (Australian): The Voice
The Amazing Race Australia
Big Brother
MasterChef Australia
(2011: The Amazing Race Australia)
BEST REALITY SHOW (International): SurvivorÂ
The Amazing Race
American Idol
The Voice US
(2011: The Amazing Race)
BEST LIFESTYLE: The Living RoomÂ
Better Homes and Gardens
Grand Designs Australia
Selling Houses Australia
(2011: Better Homes and Gardens)
BEST FACTUAL Â / DOCUMENTARY / OBSERVATIONAL: Go Back to Where You Came From*
Border Security
Australian Story
Bondi Rescue
(2011: Go Back to Where You Came From)
BEST NEWS / CURRENT / PUBLIC AFFAIRS: 7:30
Four Corners
ABC News
Sunday Night
BEST TALK SHOW: Q&A*
The Project
Can of Worms
Rove LA / Insight
(2011: 6:30 with George Negus)
BEST KIDS SHOW: Dance Academy
Play School
Giggle and Hoot
Hi-5
(2011: Play School)
BEST SPORTS SHOW OR COVERAGE: Before the GameÂ
AFL Grand Final
Australian Open / AFL Footy Show
Olympics
(2011: Before the Game)
BEST NEW SHOW (Australian): House Husbands / Puberty BluesÂ
The Voice
A Moody Christmas
Redfern Now
(2011: The Slap)
BEST NEW SHOW (International): Homeland
Revenge
The Newsroom
Girls
(2011: Downton Abbey)
FAVOURITE MALE: Shaun Micallef / Hamish Blake
Adam Hills
Karl Stefanovic  / Lachy Hulme
Wil Anderson
(2011: Shaun Micallef)
FAVOURITE FEMALE: Asher Keddie
Julia Morris
Carrie Bickmore
Chrissie Swan
(2011: Asher Keddie)
22 Responses
Thanks David – out of interest, are the runner-up results posted in order of the number of votes they received?
Yes.
Pretty happy that Dance Academy won best children’s show; I watched I think 2 or 3 episodes of it and it is very well made, the cast are excellent. Yes, the storylines are pretty edgy for a children’s show, but the viewers love it.
Survivor; 25 seasons on, it is still simply the best reality show on the planet.
Good to see Homeland won the best international drama, it is still picking up award after award after award after two scintillating seasons.
Claire Danes has revived her career somewhat because of Homeland’s success!
Pretty good results. Glad to see Survivor is up there despite Channel 9’s programming disasters with it. Hopefully they will take some note for the next season. Offspring was terrific last year as was the cast and A Moody Christmas was a great new Aussie comedy that I’d like to see more of. Good selection folks-well voted.
@tvaddict -“the system is setup to favour 7 & 9, because i again do not believe those ratings”.
Problem for TEN is that none of the shows you mention are on-air now.
How does the system “favour 7 & 9” when ABC1 constantly beats TEN and ABC often beats Nine?
Other shows have rated a 0 in some states. NRL in Adelaide rated a 0 (less than 1,000).
If the system’s designed to favour Nine someone at Nine Perth should complain about it not working.
@tvaddict – here we go again, this old chestnut. The people voting here are hardly a representative sample of the whole TV watching population. Ten has always done better here than overall. I’m pretty sure that Ten and some of the bigger advertisers would have something to say if they thought that the ratings system was biased in favour of or against any one network.
Never got around to voting in these awards but feel they are spot on. They make the Logies look like a joke. Maybe another network could start up another awards night in conjunction with TV Tonight. They would have so much more cred.
I just read an article on the Sydney Morning Herald website about you and these TV Tonight Awards (and its link to the upcoming Logies). Congrats for the publicity. Keep up the good work, and can’t wait for part 2 of these awards 🙂
Yay for The Project! It’s one of my favourite shows and it so rarely gets the recognition it deserves.
Yes…as a long time viewer of Better Homes and Gardens….I am now a convert to The Living Room.
This further proves that the ratings system is not accurate imho, with shows as popular as Masterchef, Offspring & Homeland i simply do not believe that Ten rate as low as they do in overall ratings. If i remember correctly, i read some time ago that the Breakfast show with Paul Henry rated 0 watchers once. Things like that make me go so far as to say the ratings system is corrupt & the system is setup to favour 7 & 9, because i again do not believe those ratings.
The living room is such a good show! Has everything you could ask for and more, just needs a higher budget to pack more into the show:) Also i’m glad before the game won cause that also it a kool show with alot of laughs.
Good to see some good news for ten…..but I guess they will do quite well in the worst awards too!!!
Glad Living Room did well….Considering it gets beaten badly most nights. But I guess it’s the type of show that can make money for ten.
Lets face it – Most of Ten fans have grown up with Simpsons, Beverly Hills, Melrose Idol, Rove, Big Brother etc….so there is a sense of loyalty there….for Ten’s sake lets hope they hang in there.
I’m glad Offspring finally won Best Aussie Drama! Though I wish it had won for the much stronger second season… But this category was a lot more competitive last year.
I like most of the personalities getting mentions, but it seems like we’re voting for the exact same people everywhere! Asher Keddie, Carrie Bickmore, Chrissie Swan, Shaun Micallef, Adam Hills, Wil Anderson, Hamish Blake, Karl Stefanovic… The last two, especially… Yawn!
Also big congrats to The Project and The Living Room for being rewarded on being entertaining and doing it consistently…
And lastly, I was disappointed not to see SBS’s Danger 5 in the comedy category… Though I’m not surprised that it didn’t have the numbers to rate! Great program nonetheless.
Pretty much how mine looked, except I had the Marngrook Footy Show in for Sport and was expecting it to get up there given the responses for ABC2 axing it, but ah well I still love it (and hope it will be on NITV this year).
Good to see The Living Room get up there, I voted for that as well, when it first started I thought it felt a bit like a TEN afternoon show rather than an evening one, however as it went on I grew to appreciate that about it.
Nice to see you quoted all over Fairfax this morning for these results David! Apparently you/we are to the Logies as the Golden Globes are to the Oscars! 😉
Congrats to Shaun Micallef again! I can only hope that he gets a better time slot this year for Mad As Hell. As long as it isn’t up against Mr & Mrs Murder though…
I must say I’m disappointed that “local content” observational program Motorway Patrol didn’t get a look in. Definitely the best and most informative show baa none.
Don’t know if I’d call it a ray of hope because IIRC Ten wins every year in the TV Tonight awards yet ends up flopping in the ratings where it counts.
A lot of Ten fans must vote
Pretty much spot on with all of these awards. I’ve said it many times, Ten has the best list of shows than any other network. The problem is they feel need the need to screw themselves over with poor programming decisions and last year chose to favour reality trash rather than their quality shows and it backfired. Gonna take a lot for Ten to win me back .
The results justify Ten keeping Before the Game, but how do Seven not renew The Amazing Race Australia when it’s so loved? Same with Nine and Survivor. After 25 seasons and Australians still vote it their favourite Int’l reality show. Wake up Nine. New season starts next month
Looking at the winners, the only real ratings stunner was The Voice. The ch10 dramas that did well in the survey didn’t exactly set the ratings on fire. Any hope or faith that viewers have in ch10 mgt is surely going to be misplaced, still new year clean slate…..we will see
Interesting to see that the shows and personalities that are most appreciated are not always the most watched.
I like offspring and I was glad when ten announced there would be definately two more seasons. That removed the speculation. Lachy hulme was very good in howzat, beaconsfield and offspring. Before the game is going to have a tough time this year if it remains at 8.30pm thursday against the footy show. The newsroom looks like an interesting show. Would like to watch but its on foxtel.