Traditionally, voting for the popularity-based categories starts in the new year and is conducted through both the TV Week website and in the printed publication.
This year the public voting is being conducted entirely online via the TV Week website.
But despite obvious efforts to improve the online voting process compared to previous years – at least now we can see who we are being asked to choose from – there still appears to be some discrepancy or omissions from the nominations list.
A glance at the nominees list noted a few missing names, though this a far from being an extensive list:
Some of the names listed above do appear, however, in the Most Popular New Talent category – seemingly implying that any new talent nominee is ineligible for any of the above categories. A curious, and possibly new, condition given some have been in very prominent roles or have given exceptional performances.
Some inconsistencies also appear – Poh Ling Yeow (Poh’s Kitchen)qualifies for the Most Popular Presenter vote as well as Most Popular New Talent, although Julie Goodwin (Home Cooked) only qualifies for the latter. Spicks And Specks team captains Adam Brough and Myf Warhurst qualify for Most Popular Presenter votes, but their equivalents at Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Josh Thomas and Amanda Keller, do not. Generation’s Charlie Pickering qualifies for a vote based on his role as co-host on The 7PM Project. The X Factor judges Guy Sebastian, Ronan Keating, Natalie Imbruglia and Kyle Sandilands all qualify for a vote, but their So You Think You Can Dance counterparts – Jason Coleman, Matt Lee and Bonnie Lythgoe – miss out.
While TV Week is possibly only listing names provided by the publicity agents of the networks (and looking at the lists above, it seems that ABC and Network Ten are being the most remiss), it is unfortunate that such omissions do occur or that some quality control over the list of names doesn’t seem to happen, even after such inconsistencies with the nominees list have been occurring for some years. And while column space might have been limiting in the print edition, causing some names to not be included, now with online voting there is more space allowed to include a more comprehensive list of names.
On a more positive note, the award nominations this year do take into account community television for the first time. While it is unlikely that these programs or presenters will walk away with a popular-voted award, the acknowledgement that they even exist is a positive one.
An industry-based panel will again judge contenders for the Most Outstanding award categories – including the Hall of Fame and the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent.
Coming up next month in ABC’s weekly interview series Talking Heads, host Peter Thompson talks to one of Australia’s most well known actresses, Kerry Armstrong.
After thirty years in a career that has also included movie roles and winning AFI and TV Week Logie awards, Armstrong concedes that she is re-thinking her future as an actor. “It feels like I’m almost all done,” she says.
