There’s a reason people call them the Bogies

The Logie Award nominations for 2024 came out the other day and honestly, it’s hard to work up any feelings towards them. But we feel like that about many things related to Australian television and comedy these days.

The 2024 Logie Awards nominations are what you’d expect them to be after the last 12 months of television: some of the better or more interesting comedies get nominations, but it’s the comedy-adjacent shows and personalities who dominate. If you’ve got time, you could cast a vote for comedian-hosted shows like War on Waste, Lego Masters Australia, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Gruen or Hard Quiz; the latter two shows are even nominated in the Best Comedy Entertainment Program category.

Also up for Best Comedy Entertainment Program are programs that lean a bit more into the whole “comedy” thing, like Have You Been Paying Attention? or Thank God You’re Here. But given that the final two nominations for this award are The Weekly with Charlie Pickering and The Yearly with Charlie Pickering, we’re guessing the organisers have been quite liberal in their definition of “entertainment”.

Nominated for the Best Scripted Comedy Program category are Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney’s comedy noir murder mystery Deadloch, depressing post-suicide comedy/drama In Limbo, depressing revival Mother and Son, Population 11, a Stan comedy which The Guardian’s Luke Buckmaster described as “a letdown” (two stars), Strife, starring Asher Keddie, which various websites list as either a drama or a comedy/drama (don’t ask us, we haven’t seen it!), and the not brilliant fifth series of Utopia. Of the six, we’d give it to Deadloch, but given this a public-voted award, we’re guessing one of the three ABC shows will win purely because more voters are likely to have watched them.

As has been the case for a few years now, there are Silver Logies for Best Lead Actress and Actor in a Comedy. And the nominations are…

Best Lead Actress in a Comedy

• Celia Pacquola, Utopia
• Danielle Walker, Gold Diggers
• Denise Scott, Mother and Son
• Kate Box, Deadloch
• Kitty Flanagan, Utopia
• Madeleine Sami, Deadloch

Best Lead Actor in a Comedy

• Ben Feldman, Population 11
• Bob Morley, In Limbo
• Lincoln Younes, C*A*U*G*H*T
• Matt Okine, Mother and Son
• Rob Sitch, Utopia
• Ryan Corr, In Limbo

We like to think Lincoln Younes will take out Best Lead Actor, but has anyone apart from us actually seen C*A*U*G*H*T?

As for the Gold Logie, Andy Lee, host of The Hundred and Julia Morris, co-host of I’m A Celebrity… are nominated along with occasional guest on The Weekly… Tony Armstrong. On the plus side, Sam Pang is hosting again, so even if some questionable people come away with awards, there should be a few laughs throughout the ceremony.