
TV Tonight Awards: Best of 2024
Readers applaud Boy Swallows Universe, Fisk, Matlock, Slow Horses, and Only Murders in the Building.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
Readers have voted Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe as the Best Aussie Drama and ABC’s Fisk S3 as Best Aussie Comedy in the 2024 TV Tonight Awards.
It was the third win for Fisk with runners up: Colin From Accounts, Thank God You’re Here, Austin and The Office Australia.
Kitty Flanagan said, “When you make a show, you obviously hope people are going to like it but short of sitting in their living rooms watching them watch the show, how do you really know if they find it funny or not? Well, this favourite comedy award is a lovely way to find out. Thank you to all the viewers and the voters. We all have so much fun making the show so it’s wonderful to find out that viewers are really enjoying it too.”
Kitty Flanagan was also voted Favourite Female for the fourth year running.
She added, “I think maybe I won this award because I’m lucky enough to have been handed gigs on some of people’s favourite TV shows – like Utopia, Have You Been Paying Attention? and Fisk (although to be fair, I handed myself the gig on Fisk – didn’t even make myself audition. Completely “self-nepo-babied” that role). Big fat thank you to all the voters and TV Tonight, it’s a lovely boost to know that people are watching and enjoying your work.”
Boy Swallows Universe picked up two awards, Best Aussie Drama as well as Best New Australian Show.
Boy Swallows Universe executive producer Andrew Mason said, “Speaking for the entire BSU team, on both sides of the camera, a huge Thank You to the readers of TV Tonight for embracing Trent Dalton’s story of hope and light. We loved making it, and are so happy you loved watching it.”
Runners up for Best Aussie Drama included Fake, Neighbours, Home & Away, The Twelve and Total Control.
Sam Pang again took out Favourite Male while Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Front Bar were both category winners.
There were many repeat winners this year, but plenty of new additions in the various runners-up.
New names on the Favourite performers list this year include Robert Irwin while Julia Zemiro makes a return after 15 years.
Best Aussie Drama: Boy Swallows UniverseÂ
Fake / Neighbours
Home & Away / The Twelve / Total Control
(2023: The Newsreader)
Best Aussie Comedy: Fisk *
Colin from Accounts
Thank God You’re Here
Austin / The Office Australia
(2023: Colin from Accounts)
Best International Drama: Matlock / Slow Horses
Baby Reindeer
Yellowstone
The Day of the Jackal
After the Party / Douglas is Cancelled / Mr Bates vs the Post Office / Shogun
(2023: Succession)
Best International Comedy: Only Murders in the BuildingÂ
Hacks
The Bear / What We Do in the Shadows
Abbott Elementary / Ghosts / English Teacher
(2023: Ted Lasso)
Best Light Entertainment: Have You Been Paying Attention? *
The Cheap Seats
Hard Quiz
The 1% Club
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee
(2023: Have You Been Paying Attention?)
Best Morning Programme: News BreakfastÂ
Sunrise
Today
The Morning Show
Insiders / Weekend Sunrise
(2023: News Breakfast)
Best Reality Show (Aussie): Australian SurvivorÂ
MasterChef Australia
I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
The Amazing Race Australia
Australian Idol
(2023: Australian Survivor)
Best Reality Show (International): Survivor *
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
The Traitors
Love Island
(2023: Survivor)
Best Lifestyle: Gardening AustraliaÂ
Better Homes & Gardens
Travel Guides
Selling Houses Australia
Grand Designs Australia
(2023: Better Homes & Gardens)
Best Factual / Documentary / Observational: GoggleboxÂ
The Assembly
Nemesis / The Jury: Death on the Staircase
Australian Story
(2023: Gogglebox)
Best News / Current / Public Affairs: Four CornersÂ
7:30
Media Watch
A Current Affair / The Project
(2023: Four Corners)
Best Talk Show: Q+AÂ
The Project
Insight
Insiders
Gruen / Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction / The Weekly With Charlie Pickering
(2023: Insight / Q+A)
Best Kid’s Show: Bluey *Â
Hard Quiz Kids / Rock Island Mysteries / Ready Steady Wiggle
Play School
(2023: Bluey)
Best Sports Show or Coverage: The Front BarÂ
AFL
Australian Open
NRL
Bathurst 1000 / Matildas
(2023: The Front Bar)
Best New Show (Australian): Boy Swallows UniverseÂ
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee
Fake
The Assembly
The Jury: Death on the Staircase / Tipping Point Australia
(2023: Deadloch)
Best New Show (International): Baby Reindeer / MatlockÂ
The Day of the Jackal
Fallout
English Teacher / Douglas is Cancelled / Shogun
(2023: The Last of Us)
Favourite Male: Sam PangÂ
Aaron Chen
Robert Irwin
Larry Emdur / Tom Gleeson
(2023: Sam Pang)
Favourite Female: Kitty Flanagan *
Asher Keddie / Melanie Bracewell
Anna Torv / Celia Pacquola / Julia Zemiro
(2023: Kitty Flanagan)
* denotes runaway winner.
Tomorrow: TV Tonight Awards: Worst of 2024
- Tagged with Boy Swallows Universe, Fisk
17 Responses
Long running music show “rage” deserves some votes for Best Morning Programme. I don’t like that News Breakfast breaks it up for couple hours each Saturday. Worst season ever of Have You Been Paying Attention as soap Bold and the Beautiful wasn’t used for the Individual Round.
Tipping Point robbed
Very happy that my favourite Aussie comedy show won (Fisk) in its category, and my 2nd favourite international TV comedy show Only Murders In The Building won its in category.
Wasn’t too keen on Boy Swallows Universe. Must be the only Australian who isn’t.
Similar, I couldn’t get into Boy Swallows Universe, stopped half way through the episodes and just not interested to finish it, can see why the acting applauded but just nothing interesting me to try and finish it, maybe I’m having flashbacks to 1980s afternoon kid shows with those school uniforms lol.
I can see how Boy Swallows Universe may have landed differently for different viewers. The story is heavy with themes from a unique period of political and social change in 1980’s Brisbane, under an entrenched government that was both conservative and corrupt (Fitzgerald Enquiry). As a local girl of just the right age the social and political history in Trent Dalton’s story resonates strongly for me and I know it influenced my enjoyment of the series.
I didn’t like it either.
Do you give them a little trophy they can use as a doorstop?
I once did for Best FTA Network after an exec asked me, it was sort of a one-off.
The Office Australia being voted one of the best shows of 2024 is odd, as weeks ago you reported it was being voted one of the worst shows of 2024. It’s like if a film was nominated for Best Picture Oscar and Worst Picture Razzie (and I just checked, it’s never happened for those two categories)
Ha, every year there are shows that polarise viewers, and Worst will be published tomorrow. That said, it did not win Best Comedy.
The Office Australia would definitely be polarising, there’s loads of people that wrote it off purely because it’s an Australian version of The Office, or they wrote it off from the trailer, then there’s the “turned it off after 2 minutes” crowd.
I believe the second episode onwards was much better and definitely makes it worthy of one of the best Aussie comedies of the year, but man it’s reputation needlessly took a beating.
But Sandra Bullock won Best and Worst actress for All About Steve and The Blind Side. Genuinely, the script for All About Steve was bad and her performance was brilliant under the circumstances.
Tens dominance and profile in the light entertainment/ comedy/reality space shows where they should continue to invest. Their efforts in news and other areas will likely never be rewarded. Time to shift the project to 9.30 and replace with a short sharp entertainment panel show that can still discuss todays big topics but have a more variety based focus rather than current affairs/ news.
They did something similar to that in 2013 with Dave Thornton, Tommy Little, Tom Gleeson and Meshel Laurie. It only lasted a season.
I quite liked that show. Was kinda a younger take on the panel.
“This Week Live” I think it was called – agreed it was pretty great, it just rated horribly from the get go.
A year is a long time in tv trends these days, so something tried 10 years ago with a totally different tv landscape too what we have now might work?