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Another call to rethink Logies

More opinions as The Age's Debi Enker writes, "It’s a sorry state of affairs when these accomplishments are arbitrated by a soap-oriented fan magazine."

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Another viewpoint on the Logies today comes in the form of an opinion piece by the Green Guide’s Debi Enker.

Enker floats the idea of having an independent and transparent awards system, which follows similar comments from Julia Zemiro’s call for the awards to be scrapped, and columnist Jim Schembri likening the event to “cheap dinner theatre.”

She writes: Now into its 52nd year, the Logie Awards is a magazine promotion that has become, by default, the event at which our TV industry tries to celebrate its achievements.

But it’s a sorry state of affairs when these accomplishments are arbitrated by a soap-oriented fan magazine that has watched its readership decline for decades.

In its heyday of the late-’80s, TV Week sold 843,138 copies a week; in 2001, it was down to 281,169. Recent statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulations put the figure at 210,467.

Before the advent of online voting, some industry insiders believed that the Logies’ popular vote categories were decided by as few as 1per cent of readers – those who bothered to clip coupons from the magazine and send them in.

If that was a reasonable estimate, today’s winners could be decided by as few as 2100 votes.

Definitely worth a look if you are engaged in this debate.

You can read more at The Age.

And in the interests of balance, Bert Newton also wrote a sentimental piece about hosting the Logies for the Herald Sun:

The Logies in the era when I first hosted was a very different show to what it is today. All those years, the compere was on stage the whole night – up to 3 1/2 hours – and presented all the Logies.

It’s not like that any more and that’s why I decided to host this year’s telecast.

The host still has to impress, but there’s not quite as much work involved. I try not to feel nervous about hosting the Logies. I try to take the attitude that the worst thing they (critics) can do is shoot you.

Even without walking on stage, I know the sort of things critics could say. Am I too old to do it? He was OK yesterday, but not right today. But if you allowed yourself to harbour those sort of feelings you’d lose all confidence and never work.

He will do a smashing job on Sunday, I’m sure.

You can read the rest of that one here.

13 Responses

  1. I may have a point or two about the circulation decrease:

    Back when TV Week was getting nearly a million readers a week, TV Week was alone in the marketplace, after absorbing it’s main competitors. It took the introduction of Sunday paper TV inserts to really eat into TV Week’s circulation, as the inserts came free with the Sunday paper, which cost (and still does) a lot less than buying TV Week each week.

    Now we have this situation, where TV Week is a “shell” of what it once was, with a audience craving for more information on their favorite programs than ever before. (That’s also the reason websites like TV Tonight have prospered in the last few years, as they cater for the greater TV news market, and have grown with each click, and is a lot more user-friendly than TV Week.)

    I really hope PBL is thinking of developing a iPad/iPhone/iPod touch friendly version of TV Week’s website, as well as a iPad version of the magazine.

  2. As normal no matter what the story there is always alot of negative comments,because that’s how things are like on this site,everyone gets a say.So there are always people unhappy.The Logies are a great program and won’t be going anywhere they rate very well each year.Remember those other couple of award shows that popped up during the years to take on the Logies.They were very poor attempts and where are they now.They no longer exist

  3. Yawn. Logies bashing is so easy. There is nothing stopping anybody else creating their own award show, why should TV Week apologise for running the awards they have run for over 50 years? Yes, it’s voted for by readers. It always has been. That was the point of them. Peer-voted awards were added after years of criticism, and that’s not good enough?
    Pointing out that TV Weeks sales have slowed since the ’80s is ridiculous – all magazines have dropped massively in the last decade, and its sales still make it one of the highest selling in the country.
    Viewers and TV Week’s support of local TV since year dot have made the Logies what they are, and the snobs in the peanut gallery can put up or shut up.

  4. @mac, you used to have to get a copy of TV Week to vote but since they opened online voting in the last few years you didn’t need to buy a copy.

  6. Mydoona, we also have the AFI Awards, which award both movies and television. And the ASTRA Awards which are for programs on subscription television.

    What would be best is if the AFI Awards expanded their television awards a little – they have the credibility but not as many opportunities for awards (i.e. all their tv awards are based around “drama” or “miniseries” only – neglecting a whole area of genres)

  10. Hey America has ‘The Emmys’, ‘People’s choice Awards’, ‘Academy Awards’, and many other ‘awards’ shows….we have One….the Logies, take it away and how will Australia’s TV talent win any awards?

  11. As most people get their weekly TV guide with their Sunday newspaper, when a poor selling print magazine, that’d otherwise get ditched for poor sales, exists basically for the Logies, it does create a hypocritical conflict of interest, with the company (CMC) owning the TV network the Logies are on, also owning the magazine. The Golden Globe awards in the US, are also considered just as much of a total joke, for also having no credibility.

  12. Sadly I’ve got to clip my toenails on Logies Night so I won’t be able to watch it. Amazing how my toenail-clipping-night coincides with Logies Night every year!
    My bad luck I guess.
    But I’m looking forward to reading critical blogs on this website next week from people who have watched the show despite knowing it was going to be crap. How much happier will they be if they indulge in some foot hygiene instead.

  13. Re Bert – I think he will do a great job, in one of the most scrutinised roles on tv. It feels like the knives are out for the awards, especially comments i have recently read from many people on this site. Re the overhaul, I actually think that the popular awards have always been an issue, going right back to the seventies and eighties – they are never going to be representative – it would require a voting system across all networks, free to air and subscription to guarantee fairness and equanimity for the process. The peer voted categories, the ones I take seriously navigate a dififcult line every year, as they are small panels of handpicked judges to view the submitted works. I have followed the Logies since the 1970’s and they do adapt and attempt to reflect the breadth of the industry.

    Watching SBS, Foxtel productions win in recent years has been a turning point.
    I do not say the Logies are perfect, far from it – but it is a celebration of our locally made shows and it honours excellence. The fact that every year it is one of the highest ratied programs says that Australians continue to support it in some way.
    For those who pan it, simply don’t watch it. There’s enough negative nellies out there! My tip – Rafters to sweep and Masterchef, Generation and ABC news to come out on top.

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