The TV WEEK Logies are a night of glitz, glamour and celebration for the Australian television industry. On so many counts, it’s a night I get behind wholeheartedly, but it’s hard to watch the event without it serving as a reminder of the lack of diversity we still see on Aussie screens. Most notably in the coveted Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Television category.
This year, an incredibly talented group (of mostly women) were nominated for Gold: Ally Langdon, Julia Morris, Lynne McGranger, Sonia Kruger, Hamish Blake, Poh Ling Yeow and Lisa Millar. At the end of the night, it was Home And Away legend Lynne McGranger who walked away with the shiny gold trophy after a 33-year stint playing her beloved character Irene Roberts on the soap.
By all accounts, Lynne deserves the prestigious Gold Logie. However, I can’t help but reflect on the fact that no woman of colour has ever had the honour of winning gold.
Last night’s awards marked the 65th Logies in history.
In 2016 — 57 years after the Logies began — Waleed Aly was the first person of colour to win Gold. Since then, other talented POC have been nominated, such as Tony Armstrong, Mark Coles Smith, Melissa Leong and Deborah Mailman. However, they sadly missed out.
While other Silver and regular Logie awards have been snapped up by people of colour, the gold carries more significance because of the voting system and what it represents.
You see, the way it works is that the nominees are chosen by industry judges and put to the public. The public then gets a month or two (even right up until the end of the Channel Seven Logies broadcast!) to cast their votes for their favourite television personality.
And, if the Gold Logie winner each year is anything to go by, the Australian public certainly has a collective bias towards white people.
Obviously, the Australian public isn’t the only one to blame. The Aussie television industry has significantly lacked diversity for decades. And, while we’re slowly seeing more representation in the content we consume every year, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
After all, representation matters, it’s powerful, and it’s needed to inspire and break down barriers.
Although she didn’t win gold, MasterChef golden gal, Poh Ling Yeow, landed a nomination in the selective category after more than 15 years on our screens.
She admits she was flabbergasted by the nomination.
“I was really, really shocked,” Poh told PEDESTRIAN.TV on the Logies red carpet at The Star, Sydney.
“I was completely shocked and incredibly honoured. It’s the night of nights, you know? So to be a nominee for the last award, it’s very special.”
Poh spoke about the need for diversity on screens in an interview with B&T earlier this week.
“Even as a 51-year-old, I still really yearn to see media content that has people who look like me in it,” she said.
“The thing that I struggled with most growing up was feeling that I looked different. I had confidence in other areas, but that one thing became so massive in my head that it squashed all these parts of me that should have been flourishing.
“It was such a chip on my shoulder. We can’t underestimate how powerful imprinting is from a young age.”
Again, I want to stress that all the gold nominees are brilliant at what they do, and Lynne deserves her flowers. But, I think we can all agree it’s time the industry and the Australian public did more to recognise the talent of the incredible POC women we have on our screens and make sure they feel like they have a welcome seat at the table.
The first step? Voting for the POC you love in industry-wide awards.
The post Just A Reminder: A Woman Of Colour Has Never Won The Gold Logie appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
