BEST ON THE BOX
TV awards make glitzy return
Glamour is back with TV bosses plotting the return of a glitzy awards ceremony, Spy can reveal.
It was thought the annual TV gongs would be limited to an online presentation, but today organisers will announce a full live glitz and glam bash will go ahead in November.
The red carpet will be filmed live, so viewers can see their favourite stars interviewed in their finest before their big night.
“It’s one of the highlights of the year for those of us in all aspects of television,” says 2018‘s best presenter, Newshub’s Mike McRoberts.
“And it helps of course when you’ve won a couple of them.”
He thinks this year will be a special party given what NZ has been through in the past few months.
“The drama, the news, the comedy ... the outfits! I can’t wait,” he says.
The party will be a double celebration at Auckland’s Shed 10 on November 18. The NZ Television Craft Awards will be wrapped into the same event with table service for dinner.
It is further evidence of New Zealand’s enviable position in the world — the Australian equivalent, The Logies, has been cancelled this year and the world’s most famous ceremony, The Academy Awards, has been postponed.
Antonia Prebble, 2018‘s best actress, said it would be a good chance to have a get together with friends and colleagues from the industry.
“I was expecting that we wouldn’t be able to have awards this year, so to hear that they are back on is such welcome news,” she said.
“It’s a really lovely time to reflect on what has been a crazy year. And now knowing that we get to do that over a flash supper is the icing on the cake! I can’t wait”
Westside has won Best Drama for the past two years and Prebble’s onscreen husband, David de Lautour, says: “We are not only lucky to have the awards on but also to be filming the last series amid the chaos that continues to reign in the world around us.
“The fact that we are allowed to be together as a group, socially un-distanced, celebrating the evergrowing, ever-changing, ever-strong industry of television in New Zealand, seems to make it the perfect year to have an incredible event like this.”
A spokeswoman for NZ On Air, which funds the event, said it had been a “strange and challenging year”.
“Our industry has rolled with the Covid punches and shown its resilience and creativity. Roll out the red carpet”.