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‘They cancelled me’: Why Shaun Micallef never hosted a second Logies
This Sunday, Sam Pang hosts his second Logies in a row - an honour that was never bestowed on Shaun Micallef, despite his 2001 hosting appearance going down in legend. Micallef spoke to Mumbrella during the week, and explained why he was 'one and done'.
“Strangely enough, they did ask me to do the second year,” Micallef recalls, after his first hosting job.
“And then they cancelled me and brought in Wendy [Harmer].”
Ah, Wendy Harmer. Having the unenviable job of following not only Shaun Micallef, but two years of Andrew Denton before this, Harmer’s attempt at carrying along the ‘edgier’ tone of recent ceremonies famously bombed – and she was widely pilloried.
There was a 34% drop in ratings, The Age opened its review of the ceremony with the declarative “I do not like Wendy Harmer’s style of comedy”, and ‘showbiz commentator’ Peter Ford called her “an ageing, unfunny shrew”, back when such ‘reviews’ were printed, read, and then forgotten.
Harmer’s own verdict the morning after, on 3AW: “I think there wasn’t a general air of bonhomie there, that there was quite an unfriendly room.”
In 2010, she was still bemoaning the event in interviews in 2012, on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, she published her entire Logies hosting script online, under the headline: “When Wendy Hit A Logies Iceberg”.
If only the Logies producers had stuck with Micallef.
“That was interesting because they said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’d like you to do it again,'” he tells Mumbrella of the 2002 hosting role. “I said, ‘Oh, yeah, sure, I’m happy to do it again.’ Because if you do it once – and that’s it — it looks like you’ve failed. So I said, ‘Yes, I’m very happy to do it.’
“But then like a month later they rang and said, ‘Oh, we’re going in a different direction and decided to go with Wendy.'”
Micallef wasn’t given a reason from the network (Nine) and doesn’t believe it was based on his performance.
“I think generally it worked, I think, from my memory of it. But then what do I know? But, for me, it worked, and obviously somebody wanted me to do it again.”
“There was a talk of Wendy doing some sort of midday show or something for Nine,” Micallef recalls. “Maybe they thought it would be a good vehicle to feature her and launch her on the network, which indeed it was for me.
“I like Wendy very much, and she’s a great host, and she’s actually probably better at it than me. She’s done The Big Gig — my first job was writing for The Big Gig,” he said, referring to the ABC sketch comedy series that ran between 1989 and 1992. “So, I felt I was in good company. It’s a good sandwich. Denton and Wendy are the bread, and I was in the middle there. I got a chance to shine at the Logies for one year in 2001.”
Micallef has since been asked to host again, but has declined the offer.
“It just felt like, no, you do two in a row or you don’t do it again, I think.”
Having said, Micallef is willing to leave the door slightly ajar, impractical as his plan may turn out to be.
“The only thing that would lure me back would be if I’m winning – you know the award they give you when you’re dead? I’ll turn up for that one.”
Shaun Micallef’s Eve Of Destruction airs on Wednesday nights on the ABC. The TV Week Logies air on Sunday night, August 18, on Seven. Listen to the full interview with Shaun on the latest Mumbrellacast.
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