Another year, another embarrassing attempt at a serious Australian awards show.
I am of course referring to Sunday night’s screening of the 2014 TV Week Logie Awards, an annual event that has forever been touted as the Australian television industry’s “night of nights”.
But instead of being a celebration of Australian talent on television, this ‘highly regarded’ awards night is nothing more than an over-glorified popularity contest.
Wow that was horrible. And goodnight #logies2014
— Matthew Karstunen (@MKarstunen) April 27, 2014
Did you hear that? That’s the sound of the ghost of Bert Newton’s hair weeping in the corner after the most prestigious award in Australian television was awarded to Scott Cam.
There, there, Mr Newton’s hair. I feel your pain.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with everybody’s best mate Scott Cam, let’s enlighten you. Cam has been a popular Australian personality for over a decade. He has appeared on a number of TV shows including Domestic Blitz and more recently The Block.
But does he deserve television’s top honour? We’ll let you decide.
We’re confusing good person with a talented person, and our actors deserve better than a popularity contest. Why are we content to send our aspiring Hollywood stars off into the world with nothing more to their name than “Most Popular”?
How do we accept that the highest honour, the revered Gold Logie, is judged on how many TV Week viewers can be bothered sending an SMS? That incredible actors like Essie Davis and Asher Keddie were beaten out for the top honour by a glorified tradie?
We’re on the Logies red carpet eagerly awaiting the celeb arrivals! Stay tuned… #logies2014 pic.twitter.com/SefhU7iNlO
— Woman’s Day magazine (@WomansDayAus) April 27, 2014
These awards have also highlighted the fact that apparently Australians don’t like to reward good acting.
Let’s just pluck a few examples from the shambles, shall we?
For the category of Most Popular New Talent, an award that is supposed to recognise exciting and outstanding newcomers in the industry, among the nominees (and with equal chance of winning the Logie alongside some gifted young actors) was Australia’s Got Talent judge Timomatic.
Not only is that ridiculous, but it is insulting to the other nominees. Timomatic doesn’t play a character or have to learn lines. Timomatic plays himself, unscripted, on a show where he judges the (real) talents of other people. How is it that he could have easily walked away with an award if a random fan of the show had pressed ‘vote’ a few more times?
Two of the nominees for Outstanding Light Entertainment Program were shows about bogans. Housos, the eventual winner of the Silver Logie, was seated so far back in the room that a strategic ad-break was broadcast as the winners made the long trek to the stage.
It appears that even the organisers had higher hopes for the recipient, with the nominated crew from The Voice Australia seated conveniently close to the stage steps.
It’s no wonder that this country is so possessive of Australian stars that make it big overseas. Why Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are revered as gods, with our hands firmly grasping their hems to remind ourselves where they came from.
But there is a reason that these sensational actors don’t make the trip back to the motherland when the Logies season rolls around to gift us with their presence on the red carpet.
All the young Home and Away actors would have breathed a huge sigh of relief when Chris Hemsworth joined the ranks of successful Aussies, evidence that there is escape from Summer Bay after all. But it’s not with a Logie on your dashboard.
Laura McCluskey is a third year Bachelor of Journalism student at Latrobe University. When she’s not traversing Melbourne for the best ice-cream parlours, you can find her shamelessly blogging at Carpark7.
