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TV Tonight Awards: Best of 2022

Heartbreak High, Kitty Flanagan and Sam Pang amongst the big winners in annual reader awards.

Readers have voted Heartbreak High as the Best Australian Drama of 2022.

The reboot of the 1990s classic, which hit Netflix top 10 lists around the world, also took out Best New Aussie Show of the year.

Fremantle Executive Producer Carly Heaton said, “The whole Heartbreak High family has been overwhelmed by the support we have seen from audiences across the country and globally. This is an unexpected honour and we are so thankful to TV Tonight and readers for continuously backing new Aussie drama, we can’t wait to show you what we have in store for Season 2 – it’s a cracker!”

For the second year in a row readers gave a big thumbs up to Kitty Flanagan, with Fisk winning Best Australian Comedy, and Flanagan again voted Favourite Female.

“Thanks so much TV Tonight – it’s always special to win an award that’s voted for by the actual viewers. So glad real people enjoyed the show,” said Kitty Flanagan.

Sam Pang again took out the Favourite Male award, with both Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Front Bar winning their categories.

The Project took out two wins, as Best News / Current / Public Affairs and toppling Q+A this year for Best Talk Show.

The Reality category was a double win by Australian Survivor / Survivor (US), while ABC’s News Breakfast and Bluey also scored.

There were also a number of new entries this year including by Hunted, Frankly, Mystery Road: Origin, Colin from Accounts, Summer Love, The Traitors, Old People’s Home for Teenagers, The Dog House, Mirror Mirror, The Twelve, First Day, Surviving Summer and Rock Island Mysteries.

New names in the talent categories included Aaron Chen, Patrick Brammall, Tony Armstrong, Tim McDonald and Melanie Bracewell.

* denotes runaway winner.

Best Australian Drama: Heartbreak High

Neighbours
Mystery Road: Origin
Five Bedrooms
Home & Away
(2021: The Newsreader)

Best Australian Comedy: Fisk *

Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell
Colin from Accounts
Summer Love
Kath & Kim specials
(2021: Fisk)

Best International Drama: The White Lotus

House of the Dragon
Heartstopper
Better Call Saul, Wednesday
(2021: Succession)

Best International Comedy: Hacks

Only Murders in the Building
Young Sheldon
Ghosts
Abbott Elementary
(2021: Ted Lasso)

Best Light Entertainment: Have You Been Paying Attention? *

The Cheap Seats
Hard Quiz
The Front Bar
The Chase
(2021: Have You Been Paying Attention?)

Best Morning Show: News Breakfast

Sunrise
Studio 10
Today
The Morning Show
(2021: News Breakfast)

Best Reality Show (Aussie): Australian Survivor

Hunted
MasterChef Australia
I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
The Voice
(2021: Australian Survivor)

Best Reality Show (International): Survivor *

RuPaul’s Drag Race
The Amazing Race
The Mole
Love Island UK, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
(2021: Survivor)

Best Lifestyle: The Living Room

Gardening Australia
Better Homes & Gardens
Selling Houses Australia
Grand Designs Australia
(2021: The Living Room)

Best Factual / Documentary / Observational: Gogglebox

Old People’s Home for Teenagers
The Dog House
Mirror Mirror
Australian Story, Border Security.
(2021: Gogglebox)

Best News / Current / Public Affairs: The Project

7:30
Four Corners
Seven News
ABC News
(2021: The Project)

Best Talk Show: The Project

Frankly
Q+A
Insight
The Cheap Seats
(2021: Q+A )

Best Kid’s Show: Bluey *

Play School
First Day
Rock Island Mysteries, Surviving Summer
(2021: Bluey)

Best Sports Show or Coverage: The Front Bar *

AFL Grand Final / AFL
Australian Open
FIFA World Cup
Commonwealth Games
(2021: The Front Bar)

Best New Show (Aussie): Heartbreak High

Hunted
Colin from Accounts
The Traitors
The Twelve
(2021: The Newsreader)

Best New Show (International): House of the Dragon

Wednesday
Heartstopper
Andor, Severance
(2021: Squid Game)

Favourite Male: Sam Pang *

Shaun Micallef
Tony Armstrong
Patrick Brammall
Aaron Chen, Larry Emdur
(2021: Sam Pang)

Favourite Female: Kitty Flanagan *

Melanie Bracewell
Carrie Bickmore
Jackie Woodburne
Julia Morris
(2021: Kitty Flanagan)

Tomorrow: Worst of 2022
Thursday: Story of the Year, Best Channels, Underrated Performer, International Show We Need to See Here.

17 Responses

  1. Good to see Mel Bracewell on the Favorite Female list. I enjoyed watching her on The Cheap Seats. But I listen to The Cheap SEats on my podcasts. This show was so funny.

  2. No surprised that Bluey dominated the Kids Award once again. It’s the only kids show that gets mentioned by by anyone these days (as the other kids shows are on obscure timeslots dumped on a random multi-channel with no advertisement).

    Most likely be the last time we’ll be seeing The Living Room win Best Lifestyle Program.

    Come on Sam Pang. Seat down and do a proper interview with David, and accept “the award” for Best Male. In hindsight, Kitty Flannagan should have accepted his award on his behalf – like what he did at the Logies 😛

    1. I would guess that there would be overlap between fans of Four Corners and other ABC shows like 7.30, and this would split the vote between them. I don’t think The Project has an obvious alternative that it would split votes with.

  3. I can appreciate Heartbreak High because it covers so many topics that many other Australian drama/soaps do not cover but honestly I couldnt watch any more than 8 minutes as it was trying to hard to covers those topics…..

  4. Interesting read, well done all 🙂 I would suggest though, that having “Best Sports Coverage” and “Best Sports Show” is a little challenging and unfair, I think the Logies always had seperate categories, there’s for example enough ‘shows’ (if FTA is lacking these days) from Fox Sports.

      1. I completely forgot about “Ghosts” when I was voting for “Best International Comedy”. I absolutely love the US version (it’s hilarious and extremely clever). I tried the UK version and it left me cold for the most of the first episode. It wasn’t until the second episode that I managed a couple of chuckles. It’s a much darker form of humour than the US version and it’s actually a lot scarier (at least what I’ve seen so far). I haven’t made it past the third episode yet (I got distracted re-watching the US version and binge-watched up to Episode 15 of Season 1…which says it all, really!). I’m assuming that the similarity in the initial episodes of the two series wanes as the US series progresses…?

  5. Thank you as always for running and collating the results as the outcomes are always interesting.

    The win for The Project was perhaps a little surprising given its lowish ratings and high levels of criticism but its relevant omniscient presence must be respected.

    I was happy to see the respect for the ABC news and current affairs programs especially their morning effort which does not get talked about much and is something of a quiet achiever. The absence of the SKY ‘news’ and discussion programs is also notable.

    It was slim pickings on the drama front for me but what was produced was of reasonable quality.

  6. Bit surprised by The White Lotus win. I haven’t consumed a heap of drama the past 12 months but I finished White Lotus last night. I know it’s popular and I found the first 3 or 4 episodes very engaging, but it’s probably 2 episodes too long and the only real story development towards the end is around the murdered character storyline, leaving all the other characters treading water so to speak. Surprised this was voted year’s best.

    1. Only Foxtel, Netflix and Disney have the scale to get votes and their algorithms decide what people can find to stream. It’s a popularity contest not about quality. The White Lotus took up about half the space on the IQ’s home page and screened just before the vote. The first series was so dreadful I didn’t waste time checking out S2. Out of all the shows mentioned I only watched Ghosts UK and The Cheap Seats this year. House Of The Dragon, a silly melodrama obsessed with incest that won and Colin From Accounts, a comedy totally devoid of humour, ideas and good dialogue, I voted for on the next list.

  7. There’s no way that I could see The Project being a better Best Talk Show than Insight. Though ratings and voting demography may have made a difference in the awards result.

    It’s cool to see Larry Emdur on the list. Larry is a stalwart of the industry, even when some other TV personalities fell by the wayside. There was conjecture as to who is the new or next Bert Newton. It could well be Larry.

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