The Project cast weren’t overly impressed by their guest, Tom Gleeson, on last night’s show.
As is tradition after taking home the Gold Logie, the winner does the media rounds talking about their success at the awards ceremony.
But while Gleeson’s controversial campaign won over audiences in their lounge rooms, it left a room of about 600 TV colleagues pretty unimpressed.
Here’s a snippet of Gleeson’s acceptance speech. Post continues after video.
“A lot of the subtext of [your] whole campaign was to undermine people who worked really hard in their careers on TV for a long time who maybe did want to win it, which is fair enough that they might want to win it given what they’d been through in their careers.
“Do you have any sympathy for those people or that argument?” Waleed Aly asked Gleeson.
“I disagree with what you’re saying,” Gleeson replied.
“What I was having a go at was actually the way the awards are put together. I mean it’s a popular vote so you can garner votes however you want. I just chose to do it in a funny way.”
Gleeson started the ceremony on Sunday night by ribbing everyone in the crowd in a Hard Chat style monologue.
After winning the Gold at the end of the night he told the crowd, “For me it represents a joke but I love jokes. I really enjoy them. I really think we should all lighten the f**k up”.
Gleeson ran a smear campaign against his fellow nominees in the weeks leading up the Logies, determined to drum up votes for himself and prove that the Logies were just a popularity contest.
It worked.
Aly, Amanda Keller (The Living Room), Costa Georgiadis (Gardening Australia), Rodger Corser (Doctor, Doctor), Eve Morey (Neighbours), and Sunrise weather presenter Sam Mac were also all nominated.
"Do you know what would have been more concerning? If I campaigned for this award sincerely. That would have been worse," Gleeson told the crowd after accepting his prize.
"Turns out I'm just really good at manipulating the media to do things for me. So maybe I do deserve this award."
Aly (who has won the Gold before) told Gleeson that to many in the room, his speech came across as though he was having a go at anyone who might have been taking the nominations seriously.
"Here I am thinking of Amanda Keller's situation, for someone who's actually worked really hard in the industry, that was a very difficult thing for them to be confronted with," he said.
"I was talking to Amanda at the airport and she has a sense of humour. She'd actually be offended by the idea that I'd feel sorry for her," Gleeson replied.
"She was finding it funny," he added.
But a few weeks ago while speaking to Mamamia's No Filter podcast, Keller was finding it anything but funny.
"Tom's like the school sniper the school bully picking us all off," she told the podcast.
"People have always laughed at the Logies. But at the same time, they are all we have for television awards," she said. “If the public vote for you, that’s a big deal and I wish people would let it be a big deal," she added.
Here's Amanda on No Filter. Post continues after podcast.
The Logies are the only 'awards' night Australian TV gets. So for a lot of the industry, they mean something.
Even Gleeson's wife told him he should have quit while he was ahead.
"I was talking to my wife about it, she said the high point was when I told everyone to lighten up. She said you had the room then, but unfortunately that was halfway through the speech and I continued to blather on. It would have been better if I just stopped then," he told The Project.
But despite the backlash Gleeson received for his controversial campaign and win, there are plenty of people heralding him as the best thing that's ever happened to the awards night.
Top Comments
Just highlights how stupid it is to have these things put up for public vote. A real awards show would have these people being awarded by their peers, and I think it would raise the bar for what constitutes TV in this country, because its woeful.
It was not always like this. The Logies were around long before the internet or social media was even a spot on the horizon.
Families would camp in front of the TV with a twisted coat-hanger antenna to see the result on a tiny black and white TV. It meant something then.
I have to admit it does seem antiquated in the current climate and is open to manipuation and no doubt sounds pre-historic now
Yeah, and before you could vote on the internet, you had to submit paper votes through snail mail that you'd get if you bought a copy of TV Week. Little doubt the publicist offices of Daryl Somers, Bert Newton and Ray Martin were busy bulk-buying copies in the 1980s and early 90's, that were subsequently submitted on behalf of the "fans". It was manipulated then, as it is now.
Yes, I know. I was around before the internet. I remember when No Idea would put their ads on the TV, begging people to buy their swill so they could vote for their favourite TV stars. Not that much different than now, it's just easier to vote and people are more cynical these days, less and less people care about soapie and reality tv stars getting awards for poor acting and terrible content.
Agreed. But I was thinking more about the changes due to social media and how it's manipulated which is not the same as rigging polls.
Tom Gleeson won because of this, it became a running internet gag to see if we can make this happen, much like the public vote to name a new Ferry gained traction in the UK and on the web to name it Boaty McBoat Face went viral.
Let’s be honest, Australian tv is pretty much a joke these days.
I think there’s some hope. Australian shows I’ve really enjoyed recently include The Letdown and Playing for keeps. Great writing, great acting, interesting storylines. They just don’t get the PR that soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours do.
Just not my thing , as for the home and away and the like , I’ll leave it there , each too there own eh , cheers, John.