EXCLUSIVE:
Major changes to Logie Award nominations are proceeding this year, after a 2 year break.
TV Week originally flagged changes prior to the pandemic following feedback from the industry and media articles that questioned whether some nominees were worthy.
Since that time events company Rizer has taken charge of managing the event and fine-tuned those plans.
In the past, networks submitted lengthy lists for categories which the public then whittled down to final nominees.
This year networks were invited to submit 6 names for each Popular and Most Outstanding categories -and 7 nominees for Gold Logie. Nominees are determined by combining scores from Industry judges across set criteria as well as TV Ratings (28-day Consolidated viewing figures). Plans to incorporate social media performance have been ditched.
A spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Firstly, we adopted the Award Force online submission and judging platform, used internationally by hundreds of Award programs and tens of respected TV Award shows. This really helped with streamlining the scoring process for judges and the application of the ratings methodology, which the platform is well set up to do.
“Secondly, we revised the number of submissions by networks from (the proposed) 5 to 6 candidates, so this is consistent across both Popular and Outstanding categories.
“Lastly, we slightly simplified the judging process for the Popular categories.”
The judges scores and ratings are then weighted accordingly within Award Force software and then combined to produce an overall score per submission.
The top 6 -7 for Gold- become 2022 nominees for the broadcast period January 1 2021 – March 30 2022.
Nominees will be announced at an industry event on Sunday May 15 as 5 week voting period opens. As always, the public will choose the Popular winners, including the Gold.
Like all awards shows, the Logie Awards have evolved and embraced change across their 6+ decades.
However is the inclusion of OzTAM ratings for Popular categories at odds with Streaming platforms, such as Stan, Netflix, Prime Video and Paramount+?
“Unfortunately streamers won’t supply viewing numbers with their submissions. This obviously puts them at a disadvantage against others that can provide data for all criteria,” the spokesperson continued.
“We may however see select instances where submissions from streamers have scored incredibly highly in criteria assessed by industry judges, that when ranked against the combined scores of all data of other submissions, may result in a nomination in a Popular category.
There are also questions around ratings for shows outside of primetime, or on multichannels. Neighbours for instance rates a lot lower than Home & Away.
“If ratings are less for one show than they are for another, it doesn’t mean it has no chance of being nominated. The ratings are just one part of the assessment criteria for determining ‘popular.’”
Nine will screen the TV Week Logie Awards on Sunday June 19. Voting begins on May 15 when nominees are announced.