TV Week Logie Awards 2009

Packed To The Rafters star Rebecca Gibney has won the TV Week Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian TV.

The hit Seven Network series won a total of six awards in tonight’s presentation, including two for new talent Jessica Marais and Gibney also winning the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actress.

The Nine Network’s Underbelly won three awards, including Outstanding Drama Series.  Series stars Gyton Grantley and Kat Stewart won Outstanding Actor and Actress awards.

Network Ten’s Rove McManus won the Logie for Most Popular TV Presenter and Rove won Most Popular Light Entertainment program.

ABC1’s The Hollowmen won for Most Outstanding Comedy Program and current affairs program Foreign Correspondent won for Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report.

SBS’ First Australians won the Logie for Outstanding Documentary.

FOX Classics host Bill Collins was inducted into the TV Week Logies’ Hall of Fame.

The awards presentation was hosted by former Big Brother host Gretel Killeen and also featured performances by Annie Lennox, Jessica Mauboy and Natalie Bassingthwaighte.

List of all winners:

Silver Logie — Most Popular Actress
Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters)

Silver Logie — Most Popular Actor
Todd Lasance (Home And Away)

Silver Logie — Most Outstanding Actor
Gyton Grantley (Underbelly)

Silver Logie — Most Outstanding Actress
Kat Stewart (Underbelly)

Most Popular Reality Program
So You Think You Can Dance Australia (Network Ten)

Most Outstanding Comedy Program
The Hollowmen (ABC1)

Most Outstanding News Coverage
"China Earthquake" (ABC News)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)

Silver Logie — Most Popular TV Presenter
Rove McManus (Rove/Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?)

Most Outstanding Sports Coverage
Beijing Olympics (Channel Seven)

Most Popular Sports Program
The Footy Show NRL (Nine Network)

Most Popular New Male Talent
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular New Female Talent
Jessica Marais (Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Factual Program
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)

Graham Kennedy Award For Most Outstanding New Talent
Jessica Marais (Packed To The Rafters)

Silver Logie — Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
Underbelly (Nine Network)

Most Outstanding Children's Program
H20: Just Add Water (Network Ten)

# Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report
"Afghanistan: A Survivor's Tale" (Foreign Correspondent, ABC1)

Most Outstanding Documentary
First Australians (SBS)

Most Outstanding Factual Program
Border Security (Channel Seven)

Most Popular Light Entertainment Program
Rove (Network Ten)

Most Popular Drama
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)

TV Week Logie Awards' Hall Of Fame
Bill Collins

TV Week Gold Logie — Most Popular Personality
Rebecca Gibney

Source: TV Week

TV’s gold rush begins early

Who was the most popular personality on Australian television in 2008?

The list of nominees for the major award for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards has found itself inadvertently promoted in advance of the awards’ launch party scheduled for today.

The Nine Network yesterday (Sunday) ran advertisements for the special edition of TV Week, due out today, promoting the list of nominees.  The ad was pulled after a couple of screenings but the cat was already out of the bag.

So, in no particular order, these are the nominees for the TV Week Gold Logie:

Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters)
Kate Ritchie (Home And Away)
Simmone Jade MacKinnon (McLeod’s Daughters)
Ian Smith (Neighbours)
Adam Hills (pictured. Spicks And Specks)
Andrew Denton (Enough Rope With Andrew Denton)
Natalie Bassingthwaighte (So You Think You Can Dance)
Rove McManus (Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader, Rove)

The list contains a couple of curious names – particularly Kate Ritchie, whose only TV appearances last year were restricted to a couple of months in soapie Home And Away, and Simmone Jade MacKinnon, a barely familiar name from a series that the Nine Network barely ran last year before hiding the episodes away in an obscure timeslot over summer.  It could be easy to say that nominees such as these add fuel to the long-running speculation that the popular-voted categories are steered by over-zealous network publicity agents.  Though, why would Seven want to push Kate Ritchie’s profile from Home And Away when this year she’s been more famous for Nine’s Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities?  And why would Nine push for MacKinnon given the network’s lack lustre treatment of McLeod’s Daughters last year, which has been cancelled anyway.

Ian Smith is an obviously sentimental nomination from the public given his recent departure from Neighbours after over twenty years although his appearances in the show during 2008 were staggered as he actually left the program as a full-time cast member during 2007.

Adam Hills and Andrew Denton (pictured) presided over two of ABC’s most popular shows of last year.  Both were also nominated for the gold last year.

Former Neighbours star and member of the Rogue Traders, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, is host of So You Think You Can Dance which returned huge ratings for the Ten Network for its debut series last year.

Rove McManus has already won the Gold Logie three times now.  His Sunday night show had mixed but decent ratings results last year.

Rebecca Gibney, as one of the principle cast members of the ratings hit Packed To The Rafters and a long-running favourite with viewers over the years, must be a favourite to take the award this year.

Nominees for the other publicly-voted award categories will be announced at today’s launch function and will appear in this week’s TV Week.

The TV Week Logie Awards will be held in Melbourne on 3 May, hosted by Gretel Killeen and telecast across the Nine Network.

Source: Herald Sun