Showing posts with label Winners And Losers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winners And Losers. Show all posts

Monday, 16 April 2012

The 54th TV Week Logie Awards

hamishblakeComedian Hamish Blake (pictured) was last night (Sunday) awarded the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the 54th annual TV Week Logie Awards.

There was also celebration for Blake and his comedy cohort Andy Lee with their program Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year also winning a Logie for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program.

Following the usual Red Carpet coverage, Gold Logie nominee Adam Hills was the first presenter on stage at Crown Palladium.  Although Hills stressed that he was not hosting the show last night, his opening monologue showed that perhaps he was someone who should have been.

chrissieswan_0001Other presenters on the night included Chrissie Swan (pictured), Lincoln Lewis, Rodger Corser, Jacki Weaver, Alison Langdon, Hamish Macdonald, Alex Dimitriades, John Wood, Sigrid Thornton, Rove McManus, Kate Ritchie, Shane Jacobson, Tracy Grimshaw, Kerry O’Brien, Julia Morris, Manu Feildel, Denise Scott, Essie Davis, Stephen Curry, Don Hany, Georgie Parker, Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic as well as Blake and Lee.

It was a long night, with Shaun Micallef appearing on screen after midnight to announce the winner of the Gold Logie – however controversy occurred behind the scenes, with the Herald Sun apparently reporting Blake’s victory online before it had been formally announced at the event itself and almost two hours before it appeared on air in the eastern states.

The newspaper said the mishap occurred during “live testing” of its iPad application and blamed the glitch on Google, claiming that the search engine had found the article before it had been published and hence perpetuated the headline online even after the Herald Sun had removed the article.  Media reports say Google has refuted the claim, stating that it can not access material that has not been published.

The Nine Network claimed six Logies on the night, including Underbelly: Razor star Chelsie Preston Crayford winning the Graham Kennedy Award for Outstanding New Talent, Nine News’ coverage of the Queensland floods winning Most Outstanding News Coverage and Nine’s coverage of the NRL State Of Origin III winning Most Outstanding Sports Coverage.

rebeccagibney_0003Seven’s Packed To The Rafters came away with two Logies – Most Popular Drama and Most Popular Actor (Hugh Sheridan) – prompting an unusual response from star Rebecca Gibney (pictured):  “For a show that’s in decline, we’re doing OK.”  Seven’s other dramas Winners And Losers and Home And Away also collected awards.

Network Ten’s Bondi Rescue won again for Most Popular Factual Series, and the network’s coverage of the 2011 AFL Grand Final won Most Popular Sports Program.  The network also ‘shared’ a Logie with ABC, with actress Asher Keddie winning the award for Most Popular Actress for her roles in Ten’s Offspring and ABC’s Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo.

ABC took away a number of awards, particularly among the industry-voted categories, for programs including The Slap, My Place, Spicks And Specks and Four Corners.  Adam Hills was awarded the Silver Logie for Most Popular Presenter, following a year that saw Spicks And Specks wind up after seven years and the debut of Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight.

SBS won the Logie for Most Outstanding Documentary Series for its widely-acclaimed series Go Back To Where You Came From.

There were musical performances from UK teen band One Direction, the legendary Tony Bennett, Flo Rida and The Voice judges Seal and Delta Goodrem.

mollymeldrum_3As speculated in recent media reports, Ian ‘Molly Meldrum (pictured) was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall Of Fame, with tributes from John Paul Young, Red Symons, Delta Goodrem, Dannii Minogue and Michael Gudinski.  The segment had a fairly sombre tone about it, appearing more like an obituary rather than a celebration of Meldrum’s work, but nevertheless Meldrum is a worthy recipient of the honour and it was well overdue.  The former Countdown and Hey Hey It’s Saturday presenter is recovering from severe injuries sustained from a fall just before Christmas and was not able to attend the awards presentation.

billhunterMick Molloy’s moving tribute to actor and former colleague Bill Hunter (pictured) led the list of those that have passed on in the last year – including Ian Turpie, Vince Lovegrove, Carl Bleazby, Godfrey Philipp, Jon Blake, David Fordham, Sean Flannery, Bob Davis, Michele Fawdon, Googie Withers, Paul Lockyer, Ian Carroll, John Bean, Gary Ticehurst, Rex Mossop and Harold Hopkins.

With the debut of The Voice and the four-hour Logies telecast, the Nine Network claimed a massive ratings victory, on a night where all three commercial networks rolled out the big guns to kick off the ratings after the Easter break. 

Nine led the field on 37.2 per cent, followed by Seven (18.4%), Ten (13.4%), ABC1 (10.1%), SBS One (4.0%), 7mate (2.9%), One (2.6%), GO! (2.5%), GEM (2.3%), Eleven (2.1%), 7TWO (2.0%), ABC2 (0.9%), ABC3 (0.7%), ABC News 24 (0.6%) and SBS Two (0.4%).

The Voice topped the chart with 2.1 million viewers (OzTAM, 5 cities), with the TV Week Logie Awards occupying second and fourth spots (1.8m for the Red Carpet, 1.379 for the awards presentation).  Seven’s series return of Dancing With The Stars scored 1.076 viewers and ranked sixth for the night, while Ten’s screening of the movie Avatar was well down the list on 553,000 viewers.

logie_2012Public-voted categories:

TV WEEK GOLD LOGIE – Most Popular Personality
Hamish Blake

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Popular Actor
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Popular Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten / Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)

adamhills_0001TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Popular Presenter
Adam Hills (pictured) (Spicks And Specks, ABC1/Adam Hills In Gordon St Tonight, ABC1)

MOST POPULAR NEW MALE TALENT
Steve Peacocke (Home And Away)

MOST POPULAR NEW FEMALE TALENT
Melissa Bergland (Winners & Losers Channel Seven)

MOST POPULAR DRAMA SERIES
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)

MOST POPULAR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
Hamish & Andy's Gap Year (Nine Network)

MOST POPULAR LIFESTYLE PROGRAM
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)

MOST POPULAR SPORTS PROGRAM
2011 AFL Grand Final (Network Ten)

MOST POPULAR REALITY PROGRAM
The Block (Nine Network)

MOST POPULAR FACTUAL PROGRAM
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)

Industry-voted categories:

TV WEEK LOGIE AWARDS’ HALL OF FAME
Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
The Slap (ABC1)

robcarltonaskerrypackerTV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Outstanding Actor
Rob Carlton (pictured) (Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Outstanding Actress
Melissa George (The Slap, ABC1)

GRAHAM KENNEDY AWARD FOR MOST OUTSTANDING NEW TALENT
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)

MOST OUTSTANDING NEWS COVERAGE
The Queensland Floods (Nine News, Nine Network)

MOST OUTSTANDING PUBLIC AFFAIRS REPORT
"A Bloody Business" (Four Corners/Sarah Ferguson, ABC1)

MOST OUTSTANDING LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
Spicks And Specks (ABC1)

MOST OUTSTANDING SPORTS COVERAGE
State Of Origin III (Nine Network)

gobackMOST OUTSTANDING CHILDREN'S PROGRAM
My Place (ABC3)

MOST OUTSTANDING FACTUAL PROGRAM
Go Back To Where You Came From (SBS) (pictured)

Source: TV Week, Herald Sun, The Australian

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2012. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior
written consent of OzTAM.  Program performance and ranking information subject to change when not based on final program logs.

Monday, 19 March 2012

TV Week Logie Awards–the nominations

logie_2012Last night saw TV Week reveal the list of nominees for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards to take place at the Crown Entertainment Complex, Melbourne, on Sunday 15 April.

 

Publicly-voted categories:

GOLD LOGIE

karlstefanovicMost Popular Personality on Television
Adam Hills (Spicks And Specks/Adam Hills In Gordon St Tonight, ABC1)
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten / Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)
Carrie Bickmore (The Project, Network Ten)
Esther Anderson (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Hamish Blake (Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, Nine Network)
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network) (pictured)
(Last year’s winner: Karl Stefanovic, Today)

SILVER LOGIES

Most Popular Actor
Daniel MacPherson (Wild Boys, Channel Seven)
Eddie Perfect (Offspring, Network Ten)
Erik Thomson (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Ray Meagher (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Hugh Sheridan, Packed To The Rafters)

asherkeddieasitabuttroseMost Popular Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten / Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1) (pictured)
Danielle Cormack (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network / East West 101, SBS)
Esther Anderson (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Jessica Marais (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Asher Keddie, Offspring)

adamhills_0001Most Popular Presenter
Adam Hills (Spicks And Specks/Adam Hills In Gordon St Tonight, ABC1) (pictured)
Carrie Bickmore (The Project, Network Ten)
Chrissie Swan (The Circle, Network Ten)
Hamish Blake (Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, Nine Network)
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network)
(Last year’s winner: Karl Stefanovic, Today)

LOGIE AWARDS

Most Popular New Male Talent
Dan Ewing (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
James Mason (Neighbours, Network Ten)
Peter Kuruvita (My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita, SBS)
Steve Peacocke (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Tom Wren (Winners & Losers, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Firass Dirani, Underbelly: The Golden Mile)

Most Popular New Female Talent
Anna McGahan (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Demi Harman (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Melissa Bergland (Winners & Losers, Channel Seven)
Tiffiny Hall (The Biggest Loser Australia, Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: Chrissie Swan, The Circle)

winnersandlosersMost Popular Drama Series
Home And Away (Channel Seven)
Offspring (Network Ten)
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)
Underbelly: Razor (Nine Network)
Winners And Losers (Channel Seven) (pictured)
(Last year’s winner: Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Light Entertainment Program
Australia’s Got Talent (Channel Seven)
Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year (Nine Network)
Spicks And Specks (ABC1)
Sunrise (Channel Seven)
The Project (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: The Circle)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)
Getaway (Nine Network)
iFISH (Network Ten)
Ready Steady Cook (Network Ten)
Selling Houses Australia Extreme (LifeStyle Channel, Foxtel)
(Last year’s winner: Better Homes And Gardens)

Most Popular Sports Program
2011 AFL Grand Final (Network Ten)
Before The Game (Network Ten)
The AFL Footy Show (Nine Network)
The NRL Footy Show (Nine Network)
Wide World Of Sports (Nine Network)
(Last year’s winner: The Footy Show (AFL))

Most Popular Reality Program
Beauty And The Geek Australia (Channel Seven)
MasterChef Australia (Network Ten)
My Kitchen Rules (Channel Seven)
The Block (Nine Network)
The X Factor Australia (Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: MasterChef Australia)

Most Popular Factual Program
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)
Bondi Vet (Network Ten)
Border Security: Australia’s Front Line (Channel Seven)
RPA (Nine Network)
World’s Strictest Parents (Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Bondi Rescue)

Industry-voted categories:

SILVER LOGIES

Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
Cloudstreet (Showcase, Foxtel)
Offspring (Network Ten)
Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo (ABC1)
The Slap (ABC1)
Underbelly: Razor (Nine Network)
(Last year’s winner: Underbelly: The Golden Mile)

robcarltonaskerrypackerMost Outstanding Actor
Alex Dimitriades (The Slap, ABC1)
David Wenham (Killing Time, TV1, Foxtel)
Don Hany (East West 101, SBS)
Geoff Morrell (Cloudstreet, Showcase, Foxtel)
Rob Carlton (Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1) (pictured)
(Last year’s winner: Richard Roxburgh, Rake)

Most Outstanding Actress
Asher Keddie (Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)
Diana Glenn (Killing Time, TV1, Foxtel)
Essie Davis (The Slap, ABC1)
Kat Stewart (Offspring, Network Ten)
Melissa George (The Slap, ABC1)
(Last year’s winner: Claire van der Boom, Sisters Of War)

LOGIE AWARDS

hamishmacdonaldGraham Kennedy Award – Most Outstanding New Talent
Anna McGahan (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Hamish Macdonald (Senior Foreign Correspondent, Network Ten) (pictured)
Hamish Michael (Crownies, ABC1)
Melissa Bergland (Winners & Losers, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Firass Dirani, Underbelly: The Golden Mile)

Most Outstanding News Coverage
“Lockyer Valley Flood” (Brisbane News, Channel Seven)
“Qantas Grounded” (Sky News National, Sky News Australia, Foxtel)
“Skype Scandal” (Ten News At Five, Network Ten)
“The Queensland Floods” (Nine News, Nine Network)
“Unfinished Business” (SBS World News Australia, SBS)
(Last year’s winner: “New Zealand Mine Disaster”, Seven News)

Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report
"A Bloody Business" (Four Corners/Sarah Ferguson, ABC1)
After The Deluge: The Valley (Paul Lockyer, ABC1)
"Rescue 500" (Sunday Night, Channel Seven)
"Salma In The Square" (Foreign Correspondent/Mark Corcoran, ABC1)
Tour Of Duty: Australia’s Secret War (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: “Smugglers' Paradise”, Four Corners)

spicksandspecksMost Outstanding Light Entertainment Program
Australia’s Got Talent (Channel Seven)
Gruen Planet (ABC1)
Spicks And Specks (ABC1) (pictured)
Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation (Network Ten)
The Project (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: Spicks And Specks)

Most Outstanding Sports Coverage
2011 Australian Open Tennis (Channel Seven)
2011 Bathurst 1000 (Channel Seven)
2011 Melbourne Cup Carnival (Channel Seven)
State Of Origin III (Nine Network)
Tour de France 2011 (SBS)
(Last year’s winner: The Ashes 2010 First Test – Day One at the Gabba)

Most Outstanding Children’s Program
Camp Orange: Wrong Town, (Nickelodeon, Foxtel)
Lockie Leonard (Nine Network)
My Place (ABC3)
Saturday Disney (Channel Seven)
Scope (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: Dance Academy)

gobackMost Outstanding Factual Program
Go Back To Where You Came From (SBS) (pictured)
Leaky Boat (ABC1)
Mrs Carey’s Concert (ABC1)
Outback Fight Club (SBS)
Tony Robinson Explores Australia (The History Channel, Foxtel)
(Last year’s winner: Trishna & Krishna: The Quest For Separate Lives)

TV Week is yet to announce this year’s inductee into the Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

The 54th annual TV Week Logie Awards will be held on Sunday 15 April and telecast on the Nine Network.

Source: The Age.

Saturday, 31 December 2011

Another year gone… already…?

december31It doesn’t seem that long since we welcomed 2011!

Australian television reached a number of milestones this year: Ten years of digital TV; 40 years of Sesame Street on the ABC; Mal Walden celebrated 50 years in broadcasting and Tracy Grimshaw reached 30 years at Nine; Play School turned 45; Four Corners turned 50; TV turned 40 in Darwin; David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz celebrated 25 years together on television; and it was 50 years since the launch of regional stations GLV10, BCV8 and GMV6.

7_2000s Ratings-wise, it was all about Seven, winning their fifth year in a row.  There was little they could do wrong, while at Network Ten there was not much that they could get right – even MasterChef took a battering – with Nine falling somewhere in between.

ABC’s Spicks And Specks made a dignified exit off the stage, while Ten’s Video Hits was pushed off the stage – after 24 years – in a bout of cost cutting.  ABC put the axe to Collectors, The New Inventors and Arts Nation.

Showbiz stalwarts Denise Drysdale and Kerri-Anne Kennerley signed off from their respective daytime programs.

11_hello Network Ten launched its new digital channel Eleven, and attempted to raise the bar in current affairs reporting with 6PM With George Negus (later 6.30).  It was a tumultuous year at a management level for Ten with the dismissal of CEO Grant Blackley and the appointment of interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch before James Warburton, a former Seven Network executive, takes over the role in January.  Under Murdoch’s watch, sports channel One HD was re-worked into a general entertainment and special interest channel, Ten News suffered a number of format changes, budget cuts and staff departures (including Deborah Knight and George Donikian), while Late News and 6.30 With George Negus were both axed.  Newspaper columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt was given his own show, and the network walked away from AFL after ten years.

ytt_aca Nine’s A Current Affair revisited some TV classics during the year, including Young Talent Time (pictured) and Big Brother (coincidentally both programs are to make a comeback in 2012).  ACA also took a trip to Wandin Valley to remember A Country Practice.  Meanwhile, Today Tonight took ‘70s sex symbol Abigail to task for no good reason.

There were cosmetic changes made to ABC1, ABC2 and ABC 4 Kids, and SBS appointed a new Managing Director.

karlstefanovic Karl Stefanovic (pictured) won the TV Week Gold Logie, and veteran political journalist Laurie Oakes was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

After a quiet few years in drama, ABC made a stellar comeback this year with Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo and The Slap both receiving critical acclaim and good ratings.  The broadcaster also launched a new legal drama, Crownies.  SBS scored a hit with its reality-documentary series Go Back To Where You Came From, triggering a wave of social commentary on what has always been a controversial topic.

Regional Victoria and Regional Queensland made the final switch from analogue to digital television – while remote area networks Imparja and Southern Cross have only now switched on to digital transmission and Regional WA is now seeing the roll-out of the digital multi-channels from the commercial networks.

Millions watched the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton – it was an event that was hard to miss with saturation coverage on free-to-air and multiple pay-TV channels.

So what will 2012 bring?

ten_2008 Network Ten will hope for a better, more stable year with a new CEO and News Director on board.  Last year the network took a gamble with George Negus and more News bulletins.  This year Ten is taking a gamble with launching a new breakfast show up against Sunrise, Today and ABC News Breakfast – will this risk pay off?  And will the re-named and expanded The Project lead to improvement in Ten’s embattled 6.30 timeslot?

Also, will MasterChef be able to knock out the few dents it copped in its armour this year?  And how will Young Talent Time fare with its return after 23 years off our screens?  As Hey Hey It’s Saturday and more recently It’s A Knockout have shown, the nostalgia factor can bring high ratings but the novelty can wear off pretty quickly. 

9_logo_2009_2 Nine had something of a late-year resurgence this year with The Block winning ratings in its new 7.00pm timeslot and Celebrity Apprentice also bringing in strong figures.  The success of these will see Nine delve further into the reality genre in 2012 with another series of The Block, the return of Big Brother and an Australian version of singing contest The Voice.

In Aussie drama there will be more Neighbours, Home And Away, Packed To The Rafters, Offspring and Winners And Losers.  Nine will launch a new series, Tricky Business, and is set to present another instalment of the Underbelly franchise as well as its dramatisation of the Beaconsfield mine disaster of 2006.  Nine will also relive former owner Kerry Packer’s 1970s challenge to the cricket establishment with Howzat! – The Kerry Packer Story.  Ten will have a mini-series Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms as well as an updated adaptation of the book Puberty Blues.  The network is also to launch a new series, Reef Doctors, starring Lisa McCune.

Andrew Denton and Shaun Micallef are set to return to ABC with new programs – and there will be another series of Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight.

AFL In sport, Seven becomes the sole free-to-air broadcaster of AFL for the first time since 2001, while sharing the rights with Foxtel – while Nine and Foxtel are off to London for the Olympic Games.  It will be Nine’s first coverage of the Summer Olympics since 1976.

2012 will mark 50 years of television in regional New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and in Canberra.  Analogue television will be switched off in regional New South Wales and the ACT.

number96_1972 The ground-breaking drama of the 1970s, Number 96 (pictured) will have its 40th anniversary commemorated with another DVD release of episodes – this time revisiting some of the few black-and-white episodes to still be in existence, as well the episodes surrounding the bomb-blast storyline of 1975.

And right here we will be continuing the theme of documenting the TV year of 20 years ago as reported in the pages of TV Week.

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for the year ahead!

Friday, 22 April 2011

Good Friday Appeal tradition continues

goodfridayappeal_0003Flashback to 1972… and Temptation and Great Temptation hostess Barbara Rogers and Homicide star Leonard Teale (pictured) are promoting the Good Friday Appeal telethons for Melbourne’s HSV7 and Adelaide’s ADS7.

The Adelaide telethon has long gone, but Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal continues to tap into the generosity of Victorians to raise funds for one of the world’s great children’s hospitals.  More than $211 million has been raised since the Appeal’s modest beginnings as a sports carnival in 1931.  Radio station 3DB joined the Appeal during World War II and HSV7 first took part in 1957.

This year’s telethon, the culmination of twelve months of various fundraising efforts across the state, will be held at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium and broadcast across Victoria through HSV7 and regional affiliate Prime Television.  Melbourne radio stations 3AW and Magic 1278 as radio partners of the Appeal will also cover the day’s activities.

The Appeal promises to feature many of Seven’s on-screen personalities from various programs including Home And Away, Packed To The Rafters, Winners And Losers, Australia’s Got Talent, Seven News, Dancing With The Stars and The Morning Show.  Royal Children’s Hospital ambassador and former Seven personality Dan Webb, probably best known as host of game show Video Village in the 1960s and journalist with Seven National News in the 1970s and ‘80s, will also be making an appearance.

Last year’s Appeal raised a record total of $14,462,000.

The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.  Friday 22 April, from 9.30am.  HSV7 (Melbourne) and Prime Television (Regional Victoria) – in association with the Herald and Weekly Times and radio stations 3AW and Magic 1278

UPDATE @ 12.40 AEST 23.4.2011 The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal has signed off with a record-breaking final total of $15,156,000.

Saturday, 9 April 2011

ACA casts an eye over Big Brother

bb_eye Nine’s A Current Affair continues to tap the well of classic TV shows for a bit of nostalgia.  While TV shows featured to date have mostly been from the last century – including Young Talent Time, The Sullivans, A Country Practice and Prisoner – the show’s latest TV feature is from a much more recent period.

Big Brother was the brain-child of Dutch TV producers in the late 1990s and had already been franchised through Europe and the United Kingdom before Network Ten had adopted the format for Australia – and ten years ago this month the first Australian Big Brother housemates were locked away in the high-tech compound located in the Dreamworld amusement park, removed from all outside influences and placed under the constant monitoring of dozens of cameras around the clock… and viewers couldn’t get enough of it.  The show was a nightly hit for Ten and the weekly eviction shows rated particularly well.

bb_merlinOver 100 housemates passed through the various Big Brother houses over eight seasons, but A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack gathered together a group of thirteen former housemates – Pete Timbs, Sara-Marie Fedele, Jemma Gawned, Peter Corbett, Jessica Hardy, Tim Brunero, David Graham, Trevor Butler, Bree Amer, Camilla Severi, Aleisha Cowcher, Reggie Bird and one of the ‘Logan’ twins – and narrator and part-time presenter Mike Goldman to talk about the show, the impact it had on their lives and some of the controversies that the show created, including the silent protest by evicted housemate Merlin Luck (pictured).

Missing from the segment was host Gretel Killeen, who fronted seven of the show’s eight seasons, and network rivalry may have prevented former housemates Blair McDonough (runner-up from series one who went on to star in Neighbours and is currently appearing in Seven’s Winners And Losers), Chrissie Swan (runner-up from series three who is now appearing in Ten’s The Circle and this week was announced as a Gold Logie nominee) and Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald (now featuring on Ten’s Before The Game) from receiving an invitation to appear.

Source/Video: A Current Affair