Tom Gleeson ‘axes’ himself from Hard Quiz in a bid for the Gold Logie
Host of the ABC’s popular off-beat quiz show Hard Quiz, Tom Gleeson, announced on Friday he was stepping down from the program to focus on his comedy career.
After the national broadcaster said the resignation was news to them, and revealed the program would indeed be continuing, Gleeson conceded it was all a stunt for the upcoming TV Week Logies.
In a tweet on Friday, Gleeson said he was stepping down as the host and discontinuing production to focus on performing standup. However the ABC said it another series already complete and is looking for contestants for another series.
I’ve quit #HardQuiz. pic.twitter.com/sZwNYpyyPC
— Tom Gleeson (@nonstoptom) May 24, 2019
In his tweet, Gleeson said:
I’ve decided to step down as the host of Hard Quiz and discontinue production of the show. this was not an easy decision to make and I appreciate there are many fans of the show for which I will always be grateful. the demands of hosting a show has meant I was unable to spend as much time as I would like to performing stand up. I’ve loved making Hard Quiz and I will miss it. I’d like to thank everyone who worked on the show, Thinkative TV and the ABC for their support. I’d especially like to thank all the contestants who were such great sports.
Thanks for playing HARD!
The ABC however has issued a statement saying: “Tom’s statement that he has sacked himself from Hard Quiz is news to us, particularly as we have 10 new episodes airing later this year. Sounds like Tom needs to have a good old HARD chat with himself.”
The show, which was regularly the ABC’s top rating program in 2018, often beat its commercial rivals in the evening’s entertainment slots.
First produced by Charlie Pickering’s Thinkative TV in 2016, the show finished its fourth season in April with the fifth series due to run later this year.
Gleeson has now been revealed as a finalist for the Gold Logie – which purports to reward the most popular Australian television personality – alongside Amanda Keller, Waleed Aly, Rodger Corser, Eve Morey, Sam Mac and Costa Georgiadis.
His alleged ‘stepping down’, is an attempt to win the gong, based on the fact Grant Denyer won the award last year off the back of his television show Family Feud being cancelled.
Gleeson campaigned hard for Denyer, with the focus of the gag being winning Australia’s top television gong without an actual program on the air, would make a mockery of the award program.
Gleeson, it seems, it hoping to recreate the magic with his own axing.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect new information
Is this maybe a stunt connected somehow (not sure how though) to The Logies? Don’t they get announced this week?
Something to do with Denyer winning the gold despite having no show?
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Exactly this. He tweeted as much over the weekend.
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