Australia's biggest names in television are vying for the biggest gongs in (domestic) television - the Logie Awards. Follow the glitz and glamour of the red carpet to the celebration of the Gold Logie. To leave a comment on the blog, please log in or sign up for an ABC account. By Hannah Story
Boy Swallows Universe has almost swept the awards, missing out on only one of the categories in which it was nominated. The actors were basically only bested by each other.
It's a demonstration of the domination of streaming services in the Australian drama space: Screen Australia's Drama Report 22-23 has their combined spending at a whopping $186 million, across 19 shows.
But the domination of streamers is not without issues: They have no obligation to make Australian content, or to keep making it. We were meant to see content quotas for streamers from the federal government by July this year, but they've yet to materialise.
And very few dramas on streamers make it beyond a season or two. Like Boy Swallows Universe, they're often adaptations of beloved books, so limited to just one miniseries.
The Future of Australian Television
Where's the space for risk-taking, for original Australian screenwriting? And for the development of character, tone, plot, and even an audience over the course of years?
Sometimes, it doesn't even matter if a show finds an international audience: Wellmania topped charts across the world for weeks and still didn't get renewed.
So yes, it's exciting that streamers are making high-quality drama like Boy Swallows Universe, but we want them to have an obligation to invest over a long period of time.
Because without them, what's left? ABC mostly. (To toot our own horn, ABC dropped $43 million on Australian drama in 22-23. Combined with the SBS, it's a total of $50 million, on 23 shows.)
By Tessa Flemming
By Hannah Story
Sadly it looks like Julia Morris is going to lose out on the Gold Logie for the third year running.
It seems like if anyone from I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is winning, it's Robert Irwin. Which would be brutal not only for Julia, a beloved actor/comedian/presenter on Australian screens (who absolutely stole the show on S1 of Taskmaster Australia), but for her former co-host/celebrity vet Chris Brown, who never even copped a nomination.
At least it's some comfort for Julia that she was part of the Full Frontal cast when they were winning Logies in the mid-90s, and the House Husbands cast when it won most popular drama series in 2013. She's a pivotal part of the team. And she looks fab in this red dress.
Maybe if she's up for it in 2025, fourth time will be the charm.
By Tessa Flemming
As expected, Trent Dalton— whose book is the basis for the Netflix series— has given a touching speech for Boy Swallows Universe's win.
He starts with a big thanks to Brisbane, and goes on to thank "every last beautiful soul who lent a hand and a heart to this show."
"You showed the world why I love my mum, why I miss my dad," he says.
And he ends with a shout out to all the mums "who are a bit like Frankie Bell".
"I just want to to tell you, please believe me when I say that when your children look at you in the darkness all they see is your light."
By Tessa Flemming
By Tessa Flemming
Tom Steinfort, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters accept the award on behalf of 60 Minutes.
"We definitely weren't expecting this given Ben Roberts Smith's employment history," Tom Steinfort starts.
"Good journalism is telling stories that often people don't want you to hear and I'm so glad that this team fought so hard to tell it."
Chris Masters goes on to thanks those "brave soldiers" who came forward.
By Tessa Flemming
By Tessa Flemming
By Hannah Story
It's easy to make fun of Australian TV's night of nights. It can be a bit perceived as a bit naff or cringey. Tom Gleeson even did a whole speech about it when he won the Gold in 2019.
But let's not forget that some of Australia's biggest Hollywood exports were once Logie winners or nominees.
See: Chris Hemsworth winning most popular new male talent in 2005, and being twice nominated for most popular actor, for his role in Home and Away back in the mid-00s.
Or Margot Robbie being up for popular new female talent in 2009 and most popular actress in 2011 for her role in Neighbours.
Sadly we can find no evidence of Ben "Mendo" Mendelsohn attending the Logies, but he was up for most outstanding actor in 2007 (Love My Way) and 2010 (Tangle).
(OK, fine, I admit it, this was just an excuse to look at some 00s fashion.)
By Hannah Story
I’m well aware Larry’s the favourite, but what are Andy’s chances?
- Mikayla
The odds that Andy Lee is taking out the Gold Logie are not in his favour.
Is anyone watching The Hundred? Does anyone know how The Hundred works? I sure don't. I could look it up right now, to be professional, but I won't.
He's certainly a beloved figure on Australian TV and radio andpodcasts. But he just doesn't have the same cheeky reach as his comedy partner and two-time Gold Logie winner Hamish Blake, who is rumoured to have declined the opportunity to be up for the award for the third year in a row.
I'll back this assertion up with data: 1.2 million Instagram followers for Hamish, but only 400,000 for poor Andy.
An affable man, a deserving nominee, but sadly, probably not our winner.
By Hannah Story
Are you guys watching on TV or in attendance? Curious to know where you’re sitting if you’re there
- Anonymous
Well, it's a mix of both!
We wish we could say we were in the room, having champers with all the celebrities, and gossiping in the loos. But alas, we are all frocked up and hidden away from the viewing public.
Two of us are hanging out backstage with the rest of the media scrum, chatting to winners after they get their photos taken, and watching snippets of the action in the room on TV monitors.
That's why our blog posts with comments from winners are coming in a little after the announcements on telly.
And one person is following along at home, getting all the goss on speeches and making sure we're sharing the most up-to-date winners' information we can.
By Jared Richards
Her Hallifax f.p. co-star Claudia Karvan announces the award:
Like most of our most treasured Australians, she was born in New Zealand.
I can't think of anyone more deserving to take the stage into Hall of Fame.
Karvan also notes that Gibney is the fourth woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame since its introduction in 1984. She joins Ruth Cracknell, Noni Hazlehurst and Kerri-Anne Kennerley.
Erik Thomson, Gibney's co-star on Packed to the Rafters, and her son Zachary Edison Bell also give heartfelt speeches.
In addition to Hallifax and Packed to the Rafters, Gibney's credits are plentiful, working across Australian TV and film since 1984 on shows, and include The Flying Doctors, Stingers and The Dressmaker.
By Hannah Story
Rob Sitch just won the award for best lead actor in a comedy, which, coupled with Kitty Flanagan's win earlier tonight, indicates it might be Utopia's year.
It's Sitch's first-ever Logie for acting, after being up for most outstanding actor for Frontline way back in 1998.
But he's been on our screens longer than that, making his start on ABC TV sketch comedy shows The D-Generation and The Late Show.
"It's actually a thrill after all this time," he tells ABC Entertainment.
"I said that I always wanted to win one while my kids still had show and tell. And now I have to go home and explain to them what free-to-air television is."
He gushed about how it's beautiful to share this win with the ensemble, as someone who has always worked as part of a team. And those teams include his early career work on ABC sketch shows.
Does he reckon it's time for a sketch TV revival? One led by young people like those shows were?
"Tiktok is an amazing phenomenon. YouTube's an amazing phenomenon. The next level is to commit to a show and be a team and crack it in that way," he says.
"I think you need breaks. You need the times. You need a bit of luck. We had a lot of luck."
By Tessa Flemming
By Jared Richards
Hang on, was that the gold Logie or was that a different one? (I might be just confused)
- LJ on the sofa
I understand the confusion! The Bert Newton Award for Best Presenter has a lot of nomination overlap with the Gold Logie (Most Popular Australian Personality on Television), but the latter will come at the end of the night.
Voting's still open too, till 10.30 pm. Could Larry Emdur's win here open up the pool for Robert Irwin (or Tony Armstrong!) to take it in the last hour or so?
By Hannah Story
Now, at 20, he's up for the Gold —an incredible feat, which could make him our first Gen Z winner (plus, as Sam Pang joked in the opening monologue "the first person of khaki" to win). But will it happen?
The bookers have been flip-flopping between Irwin and Larry Emdur as the winner tonight, with Tony Armstrong just behind.
It would be a pretty incredible win for Irwin, who is nominated for his first season co-hosting I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, his first major prime-time gig.
While he's not exactly a new talent — he was nominated for a Logie in 2013 when he was just nine years old for Steve Irwin's Wildlife Warriors — the Gold tends to go home with a more long-standing figure in Australian television.
As veteran Home and Away star Lynne McGranger cheekily commented on Irwin's Instagram at the time of the nomination announcement,"I'm sorry but ol'mate Irwin has been on telly for a bloody minute!! No disrespect intended."
By Jared Richards
Guy Sebastian belts out Farnham's Burn for You backed by a full band and choir, before Jessica Mauboy takes the stage for a duet of You're The Voice.
A surprise troop of bagpipe players join from the mezzanine. Flame cannons erupt from the stage, and the crowd give a standing ovation.
A documentary about the singer, John Farnham: Finding The Voice, is up for Best Factual or Documentary program.
The 75-year-old was not present. Two days ago, his sons told Sunrise that their father remains in recovery and remission from his 2022 throat cancer diagnosis.
Sebastian and Mauboy aren't the only singers to pay tribute to Farnham recently, with Céline Dion shouting him out in her recent documentary I Am: Céline Dion. In fact, he got a surprising amount of screentime.
By Tessa Flemming
This is Emdur's first Logie win, and he seems happily shocked.
He tells the crowd it's because he put a "thousand bucks" on Robert Irwin winning.
"This is lovely recognition," Emdur says.
"Recognition for me is usually someone yelling out on the street 'come on down'.
"Thank you everybody, this means a lot to me."
By Tessa Flemming
By Tessa Flemming
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
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AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
