Host Adam Hills said in a statement:
“I have loved every second of my involvement with Spicks And Specks, and especially working with Alan and Myf. We always said we wanted to leave when we were on top and while we were still having fun, and now feels like the right time. We are indebted to our loyal fans for giving us seven amazing years on Australian television, and I hope they’ll hold the memories of Spicks And Specks close to their hearts.”
Team captain Myf Warhurst said the show has allowed her some great experiences:
“It's been a wonderful privilege to be part of Spicks And Specks. I've worked with an incredible team of people, both on and off screen, and miraculously, managed to keep a job on TV for seven years, on a show that people love. I’ve been lucky enough to experience many great things. I've seen Frank Woodley's privates, been naked under a desk with Pete Murray, and met many of my childhood musical crushes. Life can't get much better than that, so this seems like the perfect time to wind things up.”
Fellow team captain Alan Brough said it was best to walk away too soon rather than too late:
“For seven years I've had a job where I've met Gourd Orchestras, Oompah bands and Status Quo. Very few people can say that. I'd rather people were upset because we stopped a little early, than upset because we stayed far too long.”
Recorded at the ABC studios in Melbourne (in the same studio that hosted Countdown) the show began rather modestly back in February 2005, only a week after another music-based quiz show, RocKwiz, had debuted on SBS. There were inevitable comparisons between the two programs, especially as both shows were hosted by comedians and comprised a three-on-three battle on questions related to music, but it was evidently clear that both have their own distinct style.
Spicks And Specks became a popular performer in its Wednesday night timeslot on ABC and was the springboard into a Wednesday night comedy and youth-oriented line-up for the network. With the popularity that Spicks And Specks was attaining, it was inevitable that a string of similar team-versus-team shows would follow on various genres – history (ADbc), sport (The Squiz, The Locker Room, Between The Lines), television (The White Room) and popular culture (Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, You May Be Right) – though few have been a success.
More than 150 guests have appeared on the show over its seven years, representing almost a who’s who of Australian entertainment, including Marcia Hines, Jimmy Barnes, Jon English, Jim Keays, Renee Geyer, Denise Drysdale, Hamish Blake, Kamahl, David Campbell, Colin Lane, Meshel Laurie, Debbie Byrne, Ella Hooper, Cal Wilson, Pete Helliar, Fiona O’Loughlin, Toni Lamond, Patti Newton, Wilbur Wilde, Ian Turpie, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, Noeline Brown, Tina Arena, Dave Hughes, Amanda Keller, Geoffrey Rush, Caroline O’Connor, Kate Miller-Heidke, Shaun Micallef and Rhonda Burchmore.
The show was recognised this year with a TV Week Logie Award for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program, and host Adam Hills has been nominated for the Gold Logie four times since 2008. This year saw Hills launch his own talk show, Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight, which will return for a second series. ABC is also in discussions with Warhurst and Brough over potential future projects.
The final episode of Spicks And Specks is scheduled to screen on ABC1 on Wednesday, 23 November at 8.30pm.
TV Week has announced the nominations for the upcoming 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards.
GOLD LOGIE 
Most Popular Actress 
Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie 
LOGIE AWARDS 
Most Popular New Female Talent 
It’s a new era for the TV Week Logie Awards as TV Week has today opened the voting for the 2011 awards presentation.
Most Popular Actress: Janet Andrewartha (pictured. Neighbours) – who was also missing from 
Most Popular Actor: Lliam Amor (Hawke), Stephen Ballantyne (The Librarians), Morgan Baker (Neighbours), Keith Brockett (The Librarians), Vince Colosimo (pictured. Wicked Love), Richard Davies (Offspring), Firass Dirani (Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile), Bob Franklin (The Librarians), Kim Gyngell (The Librarians), Kevin Hofbauer (Rush), Lachy Hulme (Offspring, The Librarians), Josh Lawson (Hawke), Geoff Morrell (Rake), Erin Mullally (Neighbours), Eddie Perfect (Offspring), Jordan Smith (Neighbours), Matthew Werkmeister (Neighbours), Sandy Winton (Neighbours), Felix Williamson (Hawke). 
Most Popular Presenter: Paul Barry (Media Watch), Peter Evans (My Kitchen Rules), Peter Everett (Ready Steady Cook), Manu Feildel (My Kitchen Rules), Julie Goodwin (Home Cooked), Andrew Hansen (Strictly Speaking). Peter Helliar (The Bounce), Jonathan Holmes (Media Watch), Amanda Keller (Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation), James O’Loghlin (The New Inventors), Sandra Sully (pictured. Ten News), Peter Thompson (Talking Heads), Josh Thomas (Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation), Bill Woods (Thursday Night Live).
Online voting for the popularity-based categories closes 20 February 2011 and the 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards will take place on 1 May 2011.
The Seven Network has won the ratings battle for the fourth consecutive year – but all three commercial networks will have something to smile about.
Topping Seven’s ratings list is Packed To The Rafters (pictured), Australia’s Got Talent, the AFL Grand Final (and the re-match), Such Is Life: The Troubled Times Of Ben Cousins, the Melbourne Cup and the men’s final of the Australian Open.
My Kitchen Rules (pictured) returned strong ratings but failed to dampen any enthusiasm for the return of Ten’s Masterchef Australia. The X Factor, despite all the hype, promotion and expense, failed to hit any significant ratings highs but returned decent ratings with a last-minute increase as the series came to a climax. Dancing With The Stars also returned solid ratings as it ran its tenth series and Beauty And The Geek drew big numbers for what is normally a lack lustre Thursday night.
Nine’s biggest hit of 2010 was drama series Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile. Nine also scored well with the NRL State Of Origin and NRL Grand Final. Reality show The Farmer Wants A Wife returned solid ratings, while The Block (pictured), however, perhaps fell short of expectations but still managed decent numbers. Hey Hey It’s Saturday, which aired on Wednesday nights before being reinstated to its traditional Saturday night spot, has struggled to maintain significant support outside of Melbourne and its future is yet to be decided. Top Gear and its Australian version rated well. Sydney-based police drama Cops LAC failed to click with viewers.
For Network Ten, as well as the primary channel taking out the 16-39 age group, the biggest hit was once again 
New drama series Offspring (starring Asher Keddie, pictured) returned good Sunday night figures, particularly with younger viewers, although the Thursday night series Rush has struggled to be consistent and has seen ratings fall. Both shows have been renewed for 2011.
The XIX Commonwealth Games have come to a close – and while India will be congratulating itself for a successful 11 days of competition, back in Australia the Ten Network might be quietly licking a few wounds.
Also impacting Ten’s performance is the somewhat limiting anti-siphoning legislation – meaning that even though Ten has a secondary channel with One HD, combined they could only really offer a single-channel approach to coverage – something which is often at odds with such a large competition where there are multiple events occurring at the same time – while up against rival networks offering 2, 3 or 4 viewing alternatives. Ten might have helped stop the flow of viewers to other networks if it had launched its new entertainment channel, 11, with its own alternative to Games coverage, but instead the channel is scheduled to launch early in 2011.
With the obvious pre-Games expectation of the saturation coverage delivering a ratings dividend leading into the last six weeks of ratings competition for the year, it now appears that Ten will be needing to offer some promises to make good to advertisers wanting more bang for their sponsorship dollars and, with shows like The 7PM Project, Neighbours, Undercover Boss, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Junior Masterchef, Modern Family, The Simpsons, Rush and Offspring having been out of circulation for two weeks, now has to work hard to drag viewers back to the network as it heads into the home straight of the ratings survey year. And with daylight saving now part of the equation, that makes the task of attracting viewers’ attention in the early evening even more of a struggle.
After twenty three years, newsreader Mal Walden (pictured) is heading back to the 6.30 timeslot as the presenter of Ten News’ new Melbourne-based news bulletin to launch next year.
Replacing Walden’s spot in the traditional 5.00pm bulletin is George Donikian (pictured), probably still best known to many as the original SBS newsreader and now the principal newsreader for Adelaide’s Ten News, which is currently based in the Melbourne studio. Donikian has been the relief newsreader for Walden for some years now and has also read the Saturday evening Ten News bulletins during the AFL season.
TEN10 Sydney: 5.00pm Bill Woods and Deborah Knight; 6.30pm Sandra Sully (pictured)
Network Ten is certainly generating a lot of media buzz with its 2011 announcements – as well as the expanded news portfolio and the launch of digital channel 11 the network is also preparing to launch a new reality series, The Renovators, and a 
Home And Away actor Ray Meagher (pictured) has been awarded the TV Week Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. Despite Meagher’s lengthy career, including 22 years on Home And Away, it is his first Logie award.
The Ten Network was well rewarded last night with two Logies for its hit show Masterchef Australia (pictured) – including Matt Preston winning the Graham Kennedy Award for Outstanding New Talent – and Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation winning three Logies, including Shaun Micallef for Most Popular Presenter. The 7PM Project also scored a win with Carrie Bickmore winning Most Popular New Female Talent, and Bondi Rescue won Most Popular Factual Program.
The tribute to those in the industry that have passed away in the last 12 months included a performance by PJ Lane, son of 
Newton also presented an excellent introduction to the Hall of Fame presentation, with former Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor (pictured) posthumously inducted in the 
GOLD LOGIE: 
GRAHAM KENNEDY AWARD FOR MOST OUTSTANDING NEW TALENT: 
The Nine Network has boasted that its upcoming telecasts of the Harvey Norman State Of Origin will be the world’s first live sporting event on free-to-air television to be broadcast in 3D.
TV Week has announced its list of nominees for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards, to be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on 2 May.
Ten’s 2009 hit Masterchef Australia (pictured) received three nominations – one for Most Popular Reality Program and two for judge Matt Preston, both in New Talent categories. Ten’s other hit of 2009, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, also scored five nominations, including Micallef’s Gold nomination.
GOLD LOGIE* 
Most Popular Presenter 
Outstanding Light Entertainment 
Most Popular Drama 
Most Popular Light Entertainment 
