TV Week cancels 2020 Logie Awards

There will be no glamorous TV Week Logie Awards souvenir issue from TV Week this year —  like this one from 1982.

Bauer Media, publisher of TV Week, has announced that it has cancelled the TV Week Logie Awards for 2020, due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Bauer had previously announced that the glittery presentation scheduled for The Star Gold Coast on 28 June had been cancelled, but was exploring alternative options for presenting the awards ahead of the plan to open public voting for the awards from 24 May.

Fiona Connolly from Bauer has said in a statement: “We have spent the last few weeks discussing with our event partners what the TV Week Logie Awards could look like in 2020 while adhering to Government restrictions and working around the challenges of COVID-19.

“All parties agree the most positive outcome is to not hold the TV Week Logies, including public voting, in 2020, but to stage an even bigger event on the Gold Coast in 2021.”

It is the first time in Logies history that the entire awards process has been cancelled, although in 1963 the Logies presentation was cancelled when its star overseas guest Tony Hancock fell ill at the last minute. With the winners’ names already going to print, TV Week instead held smaller presentations in each city later that year to hand out the awards.

Since the Logies announcement, in response to coronavirus, Bauer has also suspended print publication of various titles, stood down 50 employees and made 70 staff redundant. At this stage the only titles reported to being suspended are Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, OK! and NW.

Bauer is also in the closing stages of securing the purchase of rival publishers Pacific Magazines, whose mastheads include New Idea, That’s Life, Better Homes And Gardens and Who, in a deal worth $40 million.

Source: Now To Love, Sydney Morning Herald