Ray Meagher

Welcome back! In 2010 the Logies were back in top form in one of the most witty, entertaining and well deserving ceremonies in the 21st century. It is almost ironic that a television icon in Bert Newton would be the one to bring the show into a new century for a new audience. Bert was sharp and witty and provided many classic quotes for the evening. There were a number of highlights and interesting points from the 2010 “night of nights”:

• Network count was 8 wins for the Seven Network, 7 wins for Network Ten, 4 wins for SBS, 2 wins for the ABC and just one solitary win for the Nine Network. Is that not kind of embarrassing for Nine?
• K.d Lang’s performance on the show was breathtaking.
• The Gold Logie win for Ray Meagher was a moment in television that all Australians will remember for years to come. Although I was hoping that Ray would win, I thought Rebecca Gibney had that one in the bag. It almost seemed that Rebecca was just as enthusiastic and delighted by Ray’s win as much as everyone else.
• Claudia Karvan drops the f-word during her acceptance speech and it was not edited out by Nine here in Perth.
• Closing credits began to roll at 11:38pm which is pretty good.

Well, the show opened perfectly when Bert welcomed the audience to the night and credited the traditional owner – Brendan Fevola. Classic! He referenced that the Australian landscape is full of comedians, criminals and chefs. Funny, but true. The first award for ‘Most Popular Presenter’ which went to Shaun Micallef, sowed the seed for what was to come with an immediate upset over always winning, Rove McManus, who was expected to take the award again for his final season of his self titled show.

Packed to the Rafters took out ‘Most Popular Drama Series’ with actors Rebecca Gibney and Hugh Sheridan taking out the ‘Most Popular Actor/Actress’ awards. I was all fine with that but it would have been nice for Erik Thomson to take out the award. He is one of the most well deserving but very under rated main characters in the show.

Bondi Rescue took about ‘Most Popular Factual Program’ award for the third time. However, the speeches were most bizzare. Was it poor preparation of too much of the good oil? As usual, Better Homes and Gardens took out the ‘Most Popular Lifestyle’ category and I was most pleased that Johanna Griggs took a small moment to congratulate stalwart Graham Ross who has appeared in the program since the pilot and has appeared in 600 episodes.

A fantastic ‘In Memoriam’ section of the show where we paid tribute to fine people in the media including Bud Tingwell. I was disappointed that ‘Hey Hey’ was not placed in this section. Perhaps a small omission by Nine?

Kudos to Channel 10 for a total of 7 awards covering the ever popular ‘Generation’ and juggernaut program, MasterChef’ for their multiple wins.

One thing that does not seem to get a mention each year is the fact that ‘Sunrise’ is nominated in the ‘Most Popular Light Entertainment’ program. That is either a.) a compliment in the sense that the show is being awarded for a Logie or b.) an absolute embarassment that the program is considered under light entertainment instead of news.

In another embarrassment, Logie network host, Channel 9 win just one Logie award and that is for a 17 year old NRL panel show that has been on the cusp of cancellation for the last 3 years. With ‘The Matty Johns Show’ a potential nominee next year, could this be the end of the run for the NRL and AFL football programs that have had dibs on the ‘Most Popular Sports Program’ category.

Credit goes to SBS for winning 4 awards for the evening mostly in reference to ‘East West 101′, which was two more awards than the ABC and 3 awards more than Channel 9.

There were no tacky numbers and very few lame presenter comedic rehearsed exchanges, Bert did a fantastic job, there were some nice surprises in winners and the Gold Logie to Alf Stewart capped the best night of Logies in 10 years.

P.S This blog is is about the events of when the actual awards ceremony started. No review or comment has been made about Jules Lund and his supposedly great presenting skills on the Red Carpet.

Ratings: To Be Added shortly