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TV Tonight Awards: Best of 2020

Wins for Wentworth, Rosehaven, Stateless, The Crown, Bluey & News Breakfast.

ABC and 10 titles again dominate the wins in the annual TV Tonight Awards, as voted by readers.

Wentworth and Rosehaven were voted Best Australian Drama and Comedy, respectively.

Stateless was voted as Best New Australian Show and was runner-up for local drama. Co-creators Elise McCredie and Tony Ayres (pictured above with Cate Blanchett) said, “The Stateless team are utterly delighted that the TV Tonight readers have voted Stateless as the Best New Australian show.

“We are all so proud of this show and there is nothing more gratifying than having our home audience respond so positively and enthusiastically. Thanks David Knox and TV Tonight for keeping us informed during this crazy year when watching TV was sometimes our only solace.”

Shaun Micallef again wins Favourite Male with Celia Pacquola as Favourite Female -she had a busy 2020 with Rosehaven, Have You Been Paying Attention? (both category winners) and claiming a trophy on Dancing with the Stars.

“Thank you to all the TV Tonight readers,” said Pacquola, “it makes me very happy to think that Rosehaven could have brought a bit of lightness to people during the year that shall not be named. I often wished I could have spent this time in Rosehaven for real. Emma is a character very close to my heart and brain and look she’s pretty much me in real life but if I was in a forever good mood (I’m not). It’s a joy to lean into her silliness and hang out with my pretend and real life buddy Luke McGregor as we run around beautiful Tasmania.

“I’m also so proud and impressed with the whole HYBPA production who managed to complete a full season during a pandemic. Being involved really helped me through lockdown and I’m so amazed but also not surprised that they didn’t give up and found a way to make it work. Thanks again for the continued support, I can’t wait to get back out there and make more silly things to share with you.”

Here are the first results, with ‘runaway winners’ denoted by an asterisk*.

Best Australian Drama: Wentworth 
Stateless
Halifax: Retribution
Neighbours
The Heights
(2019: Total Control)

Best International Drama: The Crown
The Queen’s Gambit
Succession
Ozark / The Undoing / The Mandalorian
(2019: Chernobyl)

Best Australian Comedy: Rosehaven 
Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell
How to Stay Married
Kinne Tonight
Drunk History
(2019 Utopia)

Best International Comedy: Schitt’s Creek* 
The Good Place
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Modern Family / Ted Lasso / What We Do in the Shadows
(2019 Fleabag)

Best Light Entertainment: Have You Been Paying Attention? *  
Hard Quiz
Gruen
The Chase Australia
Gogglebox
(2019 Have You Been Paying Attention?)

Best Aussie Reality: MasterChef Australia 
Australian Survivor
Big Brother
I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
SAS Australia
(2019: Australian Survivor)

Best International Reality: Survivor (US)
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
The Circle
Britain’s Got Talent
(2019 Survivor)

Best Aussie Lifestyle: The Living Room*  
Gardening Australia
Better Homes & Gardens
Selling Houses Australia
Restoration Australia
(2019 The Living Room)

Best Factual / Documentary / Observational: Gogglebox 
Ambulance Australia
Four Corners
Australian Story
Shaun Micallef’s On the Sauce
(2019: Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds)

Best Morning Show: News Breakfast *
Sunrise / Today
Studio 10
The Morning Show

Best Talk Show: Q&A 
The Project
Insight
Insiders
Studio 10
(2019 Studio 10)

Best News / Current / Public Affairs: The Project 
Four Corners
Seven News
7:30 / Nine News
(2019 The Project)

Best Kid’s Show: Bluey * 
Play School
The Wiggles
First Day / Giggle & Hoot / Mustangs FC / Itch
(2019 Bluey)

Best Sports Show or Coverage: The Front Bar
AFL / AFL Grand Final
Australian Open
NRL
State of Origin
(2019 The Front Bar)

Best New Aussie Show: Stateless 
SAS Australia
The Secrets She Keeps
Halifax: Retribution
Big Brother
(2019 Five Bedrooms)

Best New International Show: The Queen’s Gambit 
The Undoing
Normal People / Tiger King / 9-1-1: Lone Star
(2019 Chernobyl)

Favourite Aussie Female: Celia Pacquola 
Julia Morris
Rebecca Gibney
Amanda Keller
Kitty Flanagan / Pamela Rabe
(2019 Deborah Mailman)

Favourite Aussie Male: Shaun Micallef 
Sam Pang
Tom Gleeson
Hamish Blake
Hamish Macdonald / Dr. Chris Brown
(2019 Shaun Micallef)

Tomorrow: Worst of 2020

11 Responses

  1. Young Sheldon is one of the funniest shows on TV & was ignored by the Emmy’s & didn’t even get a mention here either. I get confused by some of the categories & what shows belong in which. I see what show won or was nominated & didn’t realise it would be in that category.

  2. Well done to shaun Micallef again for the 11th straight time. Also good to see Tom Gleeson appear in fave male category for the first time. Watched Hard Quiz and he was a great host.

  3. David any chance next year the categories can have voting options or prompts like the Logies voting? My brain is useless at recalling who I want to vote for in each category. Seeing some of these winners in the top 5, my votes definitely would have changed if I had a selection to choose from to remember my favourite shows. I know you always link through to various awards, but who has the time these days to trawl through different pages?

    1. I do understand the dilemma… but the risk is leaving people / shows out of contention. This is something awards shows grapple with constantly and readers will often complain their favourite has been shunned before voting even begins. Logies for example makes networks put forward a shortlist and decide which babies they love the most. I don’t want to be guilty of the same, so I leave fields open. You don’t need to trawl through every award post I link to if you are struggling with a category.

    1. She’s such good value, so glad to see she won the favourite female category. I voted Sam Pang for favourite male and he finished second, so happy to see he polled well too. Interestingly, most things I voted for either finished first or second in their category, so I’m happy overall with the results.

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