Logies hits and misses of 2023
Hit: Lynne McGranger and Alan Fletcher presenting. Miss: That Todd McKenney dance routine.
- Published by David Knox
- on
The Logie Awards was a very long night, ending around 11:30pm.
It was great to have a host in Sam Pang.
But the night was not without its curious moments.
In case you missed these highlights and lowlights…..
HIT:
Opening sketch with former Logie hosts, Rove McManus, Steve Vizard, Wendy Harmer, Andrew Denton, Shaun Micallef plus a nod from Patti Newton.
Sam Pang opening routine: ‘I’m the first host of the Logies to be half and half… half Channel Seven and half Channel 10. Let’s be honest, it’s just great to have an Asian on Channel Seven who didn’t try to smuggle a bird through Border Security.” And his advice to winners not to “mix your acceptance speech with an active court case.” Ouch.
Ed Kavalee read out a ‘speech’ on behalf of Sam Pang in case Front Bar won: “I’m so pleased to win this for my spiritual home, Channel Seven. It’s such an honour to be part of the same network as my mentors, Andrew O’Keefe, Craig McLachlan and Ben Roberts-Smith.” Zinger.
Marta Dusseldorp and Matt Shirvington inducting Brian Walsh into the Hall of Fame.
Kate Miller-Heidke turning Xanadu into a poignant In Memoriam moment.
Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall saying anything.
Lynne McGranger and Alan Fletcher presenting together.
Sam Pang’s ‘TV Show In Memoriam’ to Rush, Blow Up and The Real Love Boat being watched 14,000 or as SKY News would call it “a big night.”
MasterChef producers dedicating award to Jock Zonfrillo.
MISS:
Red Carpet editing. Cut from Sonia interview to Sonia interview. Yes we know it’s done on the fly, but still…
Todd McKenney’s gauche dance routine for Reality shows which he then referred to as the death of his own career. Filing this number now for a future Friday Flashback, Todd.
Karl Stefanovic tries to make a joke about David Koch liking Bump: “I did want to just check something. I am pretty sure before I heard Kochie say he loves Bump’s season 3. Did anyone mishear that? Because I am pretty sure I did. Anyway, those are the headlines tomorrow morning.”
Sam Pang’s joke about Oceangate. Too soon?
Daryl Somers launching into a bizarre auction for the Gold Logie trophy: “Julia Morris, $5000, thank you. Wonderful, we are off, on the market. Hamish Blake, $10,000 from Hamish Blake. You will go back to back if you are lucky tonight. And from the heavy table, it is $15,000 from Sonia Kruger….Oh, hang on, the phone is going, it is a phone bid? Hello. $25,000? No, Tom Gleeson you are not even nominated”. Tom Gleeson could be seen saying “This isn’t funny!”
A loose Colin Fassnidge and Poh Ying Leow presenting an Outstanding News category. Because…?
Sonia Kruger referencing manager Mark Klemens, who also represents Hamish Blake, saying Blake was a bit on the nose. “Frankly I am hoping that he will leave the agency so I can concentrate all of my efforts on you, Sonia.” Ouch.
All presenters who went on so long they stole oxygen from the actual winners of the category they were presenting. Lookin’ at you Larry and Grant.
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25 Responses
Great summation,David.The two biggest misses for me were Sonia’s joke about her and Hamish Blake’s manager which went down like a lead balloon and distracted from her gold Logie win.And the other one was Daryl Somers’ bizarre routine about starting a mock auction for the gold Logie nominees.That joke was so painfully
unfunny it was cringe worthy.Surely someone should have told him it just wasn’t funny before he went onto the stage?
Tom Gleeson could be seen saying “This isn’t funny!” – not the f word we thought he used…
Oh I liked Todd Mckenney’s act I found it very entertaining. I think some of the misses were some of the winners.
Hits
Sam’s hosting. Excellent. Some genuine laugh out loud moments. E.g. ‘Mick Molloy said yes [to hosting] but the lawyers said no!’
The opening skit with Rove, Denton, Vizard etc.
The camera work – able to quickly switch to people being referenced to see their reactions.
Amy Shark’s item. She is so damn likeable.
Kate’s beautiful rendition of Xanadu for the In Memoriam section. Exquisite.
Professional voiceover rather than Tony Martin taking the piss. I know this is an unpopular opinion but it makes the awards more credible not having him.
Misses
Jessica Mauboy singing instead of talking. So annoying.
Dave Hughes’ bit. Recycled material. Not good enough and he’s usually better than this.
The length. As others have said, get rid of half the awards.
Well I thought Sam nailed it and it seemed to be all positive on social media. He came out with a bang and got the laughs.
I’m not sure why presenters can’t just read out the nominations then the winner . Why do they have to try and perform a stand up act. Sometimes it was just cringworthy.
Nice to see Masterchef win
Not sure how Bluey didn’t win
Loved that The 12 won some logies. Kudos to Brooke Satchwell who played a great character.
Also why did they have 3 presenters for an award. There was Sam Armytage, Sophie Monk and someone else.
Darryl just come out and read the gold logie winner. Not drag it out for over 10 minutes. It was already way overtime and people just wanted to go to bed and I’m sure the celebs just wanted to patry.
Kate did a wonderful job singning Xanadu and I finally worked out after all these years the in memorium is in alphabetical order.
To be fair the three presenters (Osher was the third) was because 3 dating show / 3 networks.
My two cents – Hit – The Cheap Seats winning. Miss – neither Shaun Micallef nor Mad As Hell winning anything. Robbed!
Yes agree Shaun Micallef was definitely robbed. Especially since it was the last time that mad as Hell could win since it’s no loner on. Hopefully Shaun will do a new show soon after taking a break & have another chance for Gold in a few years.
It was far better than recent attempts.
I agree the two presenters for each award was tiring. Sam was the host, he did do well and should have presented an award or two with someone. Would have broken it up a bit and yea a funny interviewer too!
Annoying that they finally had a great host, yet the voiceover introduced the majority of presenters.
A bit long, so cut out the “coming up later” bits before the breaks. And do we need music to add to the time. Show some higher clips of the year or something. It’s the Logies, not the ARIAS!!!
I posted in the other thread but a couple of other misses for me:
– strange how Karl was chosen to pay tribute to Barry Humphries (plus having that Kochie joke leading into it – awks) and Nat Barr paying tribute to Olivia Newton-John then throwing to the main In Memoriam segment
– how disjointed the award presentation structure was, plus how certain shows were in multiple categories or categories which you wouldn’t think they would be eligible for (eg reality shows alongside factual shows etc)
– I don’t think I enjoyed any of the award presenters, please just announce nominees and give award
Personally, I think they should ditch most of the popular awards and just present the outstanding awards. Several of the categories even had most of the same nominees in both. Keep the Gold logie as the only publicly voted award. You’d wipe about an hour and a half from the far too long 4 hour telecast by doing this. As for Sam Pang, he was hilarious and did a fantastic job.
I think the MAFS jokes were a bit miss and harsh. So called real TV stars can look down on reality TV despite the huge ratings. But overall though Sam did a good job.
Spot on with your observations, nearly 100% in agreement. On your last point, James Bracey went on far too long accepting for 9WWOS, but also had two female colleagues just standing there saying nothing. Also an upset I reckon, Commonwealth Games was surely a shoe in (like Olympics which wins just about every time), State of Origin (not nationally appealing), a rare gong for Nine there, perhaps industry experts felt Nine were due one, Seven and even 10 (Supercars/Winter Olympics/Comm Games?) had lions share past decade, Nine’s first for Rugby League since 2012 I think V/O said.
I only got up to 10pm I had to go to bed. For me the misses also inlcude:
The poorly rehearsed, clearly auto-cued banter between presents which is completely unnecessary. When most of the presenters are actors or presenters for their day job, surely, they can do better?
Jessica Mauboy sing-talking, yes we know you’re a singer, stop being annoying.
Tony Armstrong, Abbie Chatfield and Celeste Barbers outfit choices, plus Ed Kavalee’s shoes.
Totally agree re Jess Mauboy singing. It was strange and annoying ….Otherwise I thought 7 and Sam did a great job
My thoughts: The complete lack of structure, order to the prizes themselves created a rambling and disjointed night. The Emmy might be predictable, but at least they keep categories in some semblance of logic for a viewer. The supporting acting awards together; comedy and drama and reality kept apart.
Why Logies had Outstanding Supporting Actress after the Outstanding Leads was just weird and that Supp Actor was near the front of the telecast. Too many categories. Do we really need two awards for Reality, Entertainment, and litter them through the evening just makes for a messy rundown.
I thought Sam was ok. I would have done away with a new pair of presenters every category. Get them to do two in one segment.
I seem to be an outlier, but I enjoyed Todd’s number. But I am a big fan.
At least musically we had all Aussie artists. I hope gone are the days of importing some act from overseas who have no nexus to our industry.
The In Memoriam segments were well handled.
Good summary. Do you know if the presenters write their own material or the production company does it?
These things usually depend on the artist, some have writer assistance, others refuse.
I only watched the red carpet in case there was any callbacks to it during the night. The editing was atrocious. Fassnidge was completely inappropriate for his presenting role, and based on his rambling on the red carpet he should have been pulled from presenting. I didn’t get what Karl was trying to allude to, but it was probably the red wine talking.
My TV had a glitch while Karl was talking & judging from the look on Kochie’s face I assumed it was deliberate because he was saying something rude. I even tweeted that it was probably deliberate & not my TV bit it turned out it was my TV.
I somehow think, that Sam Pang knew the “Lego submarine” joke in the opening routine would tank.
The fact that it ended up in the TV Show In Memoriam, likely supports the case for such knowledge.
Basically, it turned a joke that would have been headline worthy on it’s own, into one with a 2 1/2hr wait for the punchline.
The joke is meant to be that it’s in bad taste. I found it funny.
I think it would have been funnier if it referred to the loss of 5 mini figures.
Wasn’t fond of Lynne McGrangers attire. Congrats to all the winners.
For me: Misses: Ed’s comment. Sam’s many ‘jokes’ about the submarine tragedy, the dig at Lisa, the dig at Ray from H&A, sounded like he was insinuating he had dementia (None of that is funny!). Daryl’s ramble, not funny. Todd McKenny never funny. The list goes on. Also with the “In Memorium”, I wish they wouldn’t cut away from the screen part way through. The focus should be on the big screen always. And, I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t think they had the right host.