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One season, two Logie ceremonies…

NITV kids series Grace Beside Me may have identified a Logies loophole.

NITV kids series Grace Beside Me has been nominated for a Logie Award 2 years running, despite only producing one season.

In what may indicate a loophole that needs addressing, no rules have been broken by NITV.

The series launched in March 2018, just before the eligibility cut-off date of March 31. That led to a nomination for Most Outstanding Children’s series in the awards held on July 1st.

Episodes that screened after April 1 fell into this year’s eligibility period, leading to another nomination in this year.

It may raise questions about whether a season of television should be eligible once per Awards.

But Grace Beside Me isn’t the only curious nominee this year, with UK produced The Cry up for Most Outstanding Drama and Most Outstanding Actress for Jenna Coleman. While ABC had some money and script input into the project, it has always considered the project a “minority” co-production.

A Logies source indicated The Cry passes the Significant Australian Content test at Screen Australia.

4 Responses

  1. Perhaps shows should only be eligible once the full season has aired, and this will also allow the public/press to determine whether the season in its entirety is worthy of an award.

    Unfortunately, we don’t have a consistent schedule like the U.S. (though their intermittent airings of scripted shows is a problem of its own), and a lot of scripted Australian shows sit in the vault for months/years before going to air (unaired Wonderland episodes were stockpiled and aired as a “new” season, while 10 sat on Coight season 3 for over a year).

    Another oddity is The Hollowmen, where ABC ordered an additional six episodes which aired immediately after the initial six and was marketed as a “new season” when it was merely an extension of the first (and only) season, and in spite of its success (and unusually quick production turnaround), no further episodes had been produced.

  2. It’s a tricky situation. I understand longer seasons of shows being able to be up for both ceremonies, but it’s a tricky one for shorter seasons.

    Then again…..We can have another popular tele-movie that can only run over two weeks, and can be nominated for two ceremonies (aka “Molly” and Gold Logie winner Samual Johnson). So that loophole needs some fixing…. somehow.

    Maybe have the eligibility be from Jan 1 – Dec 31 like how it used to be? And return the Logies to an earlier date?

  3. Don’t really see the issue. If the loophole is closed the broadcasters will just decide any episodes aired after the 1st April are a “new” series.

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