Who was the most popular personality on Australian television in 2008?

The list of nominees for the major award for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards has found itself inadvertently promoted in advance of the awards’ launch party scheduled for today.

The Nine Network yesterday (Sunday) ran advertisements for the special edition of TV Week, due out today, promoting the list of nominees.  The ad was pulled after a couple of screenings but the cat was already out of the bag.

So, in no particular order, these are the nominees for the TV Week Gold Logie:

Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters)
Kate Ritchie (Home And Away)
Simmone Jade MacKinnon (McLeod’s Daughters)
Ian Smith (Neighbours)
Adam Hills (pictured. Spicks And Specks)
Andrew Denton (Enough Rope With Andrew Denton)
Natalie Bassingthwaighte (So You Think You Can Dance)
Rove McManus (Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader, Rove)

The list contains a couple of curious names – particularly Kate Ritchie, whose only TV appearances last year were restricted to a couple of months in soapie Home And Away, and Simmone Jade MacKinnon, a barely familiar name from a series that the Nine Network barely ran last year before hiding the episodes away in an obscure timeslot over summer.  It could be easy to say that nominees such as these add fuel to the long-running speculation that the popular-voted categories are steered by over-zealous network publicity agents.  Though, why would Seven want to push Kate Ritchie’s profile from Home And Away when this year she’s been more famous for Nine’s Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities?  And why would Nine push for MacKinnon given the network’s lack lustre treatment of McLeod’s Daughters last year, which has been cancelled anyway.

Ian Smith is an obviously sentimental nomination from the public given his recent departure from Neighbours after over twenty years although his appearances in the show during 2008 were staggered as he actually left the program as a full-time cast member during 2007.

Adam Hills and Andrew Denton (pictured) presided over two of ABC’s most popular shows of last year.  Both were also nominated for the gold last year.

Former Neighbours star and member of the Rogue Traders, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, is host of So You Think You Can Dance which returned huge ratings for the Ten Network for its debut series last year.

Rove McManus has already won the Gold Logie three times now.  His Sunday night show had mixed but decent ratings results last year.

Rebecca Gibney, as one of the principle cast members of the ratings hit Packed To The Rafters and a long-running favourite with viewers over the years, must be a favourite to take the award this year.

Nominees for the other publicly-voted award categories will be announced at today’s launch function and will appear in this week’s TV Week.

The TV Week Logie Awards will be held in Melbourne on 3 May, hosted by Gretel Killeen and telecast across the Nine Network.

Source: Herald Sun