Logie Awards

The highest honour and most widely publicised award is the Gold Logie, which is awarded to the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television for the previous year.

The event has been strongly associated with the Nine Network, who have hosted the ceremony on the most occasions, and TV and former radio personality Bert Newton, particularly in the early days, who has served as a solo host of the ceremony on 17 occasions, with a constant run from 1966 until 1980 and as co-host on 3 occasions. Over the years, the Logies have been hosted in Melbourne and Sydney. From 2018, the Logie Awards moved the ceremony to new location on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Known from their inception as the "TV Week Awards", the awards were instigated by TV Week magazine with the first voting coupons provided in the magazine in late 1958, two years after the introduction of television in Australia. The first awards were presented on 15 January 1959 on an episode of In Melbourne Tonight. Only Melbourne television personalities were nominated and awards were given in eight categories, including two for American programs.[1]

The most prestigious award in 1959 was Star of the Year presented to IMT host Graham Kennedy. The following year, Kennedy coined the name Logie Awards, to honour Scottish engineer, innovator after the contributor to the development of television as a practical medium, John Logie Baird.[2]

The Logie statuette was designed by Alec De Lacy, chief designer for Melbourne-based trophy makers KG Luke Ltd. The first Gold Logie, the equivalent of the Star of the Year Award, was presented in 1960, and again won by Graham Kennedy. The record for most "Gold Logie" wins at 5 a piece goes is a tie-in between Kennedy and Ray Martin.

The 2020 Awards were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

In 1960, the ceremony is coined "Logie Awards" to honour inventor John Logie Baird, by Graham Kennedy, after he won what was previously known as the "Star of the Year Award".
In 1961, the awards ceremony was televised for the first time, with the ABC screening the first half-hour of the awards in Sydney.
In 1962, Australian variety presenter, singer and actress Lorrae Desmond, best known for her role as Shirley Gilroy on A Country Practice was the first female star to win a Gold Logie, for her music variety program The Lorrae Desmond Show.
In 1963, the planned televised ceremony was cancelled due to the intended host, Tony Hancock cancelling a trip to Australia.
In 1968, there was no award for the Most Popular Female in Television. According to Bert Newton, who was hosting that year, "it appears no one was deemed worthy enough to receive it". He pleaded with the producers to never be put in that position again.[4]
In 1973, the media was invited for the first time to attend the Logies.
In 1974, Number 96 star Pat McDonald became the first "soap star" actress (not television personality) to win the Gold Logie.

In 1975, the Logie Awards are broadcast in colour for the first time.

In 1976, the first and only fictional character to win a Logie was Norman Gunston, with the award being presented to portrayer Garry McDonald, who accepted the award in character.

In 1981, the Logie Awards after being held in Melbourne for 20 years return to Sydney are broadcast for the first time on Network Ten.

In 1984, the Hall of Fame Logie was introduced by TV Week, awarded to recognise outstanding and continued contribution to television by an individual or program with the first induction being former conductor turned producer and television pioneer Hector Crawford (see below, under Logie Hall of Fame).

In 1988, Actress and future international pop star Kylie Minogue became the youngest person to win a Gold Logie, aged 19 for her role as Charlene Robinson in soap opera 'Neighbours.

In 1989, the Seven Network screens the Logie Awards for the first time.

In 1997, Agro's Cartoon Connection won its seventh consecutive Logie Award for Most Popular Children's Program, ending the longest undefeated streak of the Logies of either show or person.

In 2010, Ray Meagher became the oldest person to win an award (age 66), for his portrayal of Alf Stewart in Home and Away.

In 2006, a new Logies category was introduced, named Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding Newcomer, to honour Kennedy's career and legacy and to commemorate the 50th year of broadcasting of television in Australia.

In 2016, the Logies accepted nominations from locally produced digital content. Also in 2016, Waleed Aly (whose parents where born in Egypt) became the first non-Caucasian person to win the gold Logie.

In 2017, TV Week announced that after 30 years, the awards ceremony will no longer be held in Melbourne, due to the withdrawal of financial support by the Victorian government. The Logie awards ceremony will be held at The Star Gold Coast on the Gold Coast, Queensland for four years, with support of the Queensland government.[5][6]

The decade of the 2010s was the first decade where no one won the Gold Logie award more than once.

On 29 April 2020, the Logie Awards scheduled for 28 June 2020, were cancelled outright prior to any voting or nominations taking place, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. TV Week has promised that the Logie Awards will return in 2021, with the eligibility window increased to include programs and personalities from both 2019 and 2020.

The prestigious Logie Hall of Fame was first introduced in 1984; former conductor, turned television producer and pioneer and founder of Crawford Productions, Hector Crawford was the first inductee. The induction was a posthumous honour for TV cameraman Neil Davis, actor Maurie Fields, conservationist Steve Irwin, news anchor Brian Naylor and journalist Peter Harvey. In 2017, Kerri-Anne Kennerley was only the third woman to be inducted after Ruth Cracknell and Noni Hazlehurst. It has been criticised for its lack of women.[7]

Four Corners, Neighbours, Play School, Home and Away and 60 Minutes are the only programs that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.[8]

To be eligible to receive a Logie, a program must be Australian produced, set in Australia and have a predominantly Australian cast. Although in other years there has been a Logie for overseas programs, these awards are no longer part of the awards. People eligible for a Logie must have appeared on an Australian-produced show that was broadcast on Australian television in the previous year.

There are long-held suspicions that network publicists engage in mass voting to rig the results. However, no hard evidence had emerged for this, other than the experiment by the satirical newspaper The Chaser, who attempted to have low-profile SBS newsreader Anton Enus nominated for the Gold Logie. They did so by getting their small readership to buy copies of TV Week and vote for Enus for the award. While the attempt failed (they came "reasonably close", to earning a nomination for Enus, according to a "TV Week Insider"), their failure gives some cause for the widespread derision in the industry (particularly the 'quality' end) towards the popular-vote awards.[10]

Community television, Channel 31, personalities and shows are eligible for nomination for Logies, however since their audiences are far smaller than those of the commercial channels and public broadcasters, they are at a tremendous disadvantage. For a time they had their own community television awards, known as the Antenna Awards. Despite this, in 2009 The Logies were dogged by minor controversy after organisers refused to allow an acclaimed community television show, The Bazura Project, to be nominated in the category of Outstanding Comedy Show, stating; As TV Week does not cover community television within the magazine, we are unable to consider individual programs on this platform. The ABC's Media Watch program first reported the story on Monday 9 March 2009,[11] with many media outlets covering the growing support for the community television program since.

The Logie Awards ceremony is televised and became generally more elaborate as years went by. The awards have mostly been held in a ballroom, rather than a theatre, which is common for the Emmy Awards and Academy Awards. Dinner is served just before the ceremony and drinks are served during the ceremony.

Bert Newton, who has won the Gold Logie four times, hosted the awards a total of 19 times. GTV-9/Nine Network is also strongly associated with the history of the Logies. Nine has hosted the awards 46 times in their 60-year history.

In 1973, American actor Michael Cole generated controversy after accepting an award while apparently drunk, uttering the word "shit" in a short, incoherent acceptance speech. This was the first time such profanity had been said on Australian television.[16] According to Bert Newton, Channel Nine received thousands of complaints about the use of the word, however, when it was edited for the repeat transmission Newton stated "they got double the calls complaining it had been dropped."

In 1979, during a notable appearance with Muhammad Ali as co-presenter, Newton made a comment "I like the boy!" (in reference to a series of TV advertisements Bert had recently done). That was seen as racist by Ali, although Newton was oblivious to the term and claimed this was not his intention. Ali was upset at the comment and a full apology was issued by Newton and the Awards producers.

The most difficult guest to interact with, according to Newton, was Vic Morrow in 1967. He would just stand there saying nothing, silently handing out the Logies. According to Bert, "every so often, I'd say 'how are you going, Vic?' and he would just nod his head."[4]

Grant Denyer's 2018 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with people believing he only won because of Tom Gleeson's campaign.[17] Gleeson has shrugged off those suggestions.[18]

Tom Gleeson's 2019 Gold Logie Win has proved controversial with him not being so humble by the victory.[19]

Many local and overseas performers have appeared at the Logie Awards ceremony. While it had been a tradition to choose performers with a television connection, this has not always been the case.

In 2001, Ricky Martin was the headline performer. In 2002, Destiny's Child performed, with Elton John and Shakira making appearances. In 2004, it was Michael Bublé with Delta Goodrem. In 2011, Katy Perry performed and presented an award. 2012 saw One Direction and Delta Goodrem perform on the night with appearances from Flo Rida, Tony Bennett and Seal. In 2013, it was Bruno Mars and 2014 Ed Sheeran.[20]

• List of television awards
• ASTRA Awards
• Antenna Awards

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Logie Awards.

• Official website
• The History Of Australian Television - The Logies
• Archived list of Logie Awards