LEGO Masters Australia host wins prestigious media award
Posted by FlagsNZ,
This is likely to be considered old news for people who follow Australasian LEGO Masters TV shows.
However, the host of LEGO Masters Australia won a prestigious media award late in June. So I asked my friend Ryan Evans to write an article describing this event.
Ryan Evans was a finalist in Season Three of LEGO Masters Australia and attended the award ceremony along with the Season Three finalists.
Read on as Ryan describes that night.
Hamish Blake - From Hamish and Andy to LEGO Masters Australia
Who would have thought that that crazy, funny guy, who was one half of the Hamish and Andy radio show, would one day not only become the host of the reimagined television show about LEGO but would turn it into a rating success and now award-winning show?
Image: The Brickman
LEGO Masters has been a refreshing example of reality TV on Australian television. Many shows are fraught with argumentative contestants, manufactured drama and a deliberate effort from the editors and producers to air human interaction at its worst. Not so for LEGO Masters. Still competitive, but with a collection of people that would prefer to support each other and let their builds win on their own merit. It’s a special kind of show that Australian families have embraced enthusiastically and consistently labelled as the one show they can all watch together.
I’ve always enjoyed Hamish Blake’s clever, dry humour and have admired his ability to grow in an industry that can quickly forget what they loved last year. He’s found ways to reinvent himself and keep his zany presenting style at the fore, and I have to admit, I wasn’t alone in celebration when he was announced as the host of a show about my hobby!
I won’t go on about the three years of applying and finally getting my chance to be on the show and meeting Hamish, nor will I go on about how friendly, kind, funny and yet amazingly professional he was on set. What I will say is that it was an honour to share the floor with such a fantastic guy who was very generous with his time, and it was great to see how much a part of the show he was – not just a host who swanned in to make time calls and leave.
Logie Awards
(Officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies)
The Logies is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by magazine TV Week.
So, the Logies … For those that don’t know what one is, it’s a television awards show where weird little statues that are surprisingly heavy are handed out after a relatively lengthy public voting process. Think the Emmys or Golden Globes awards… The night starts at about 7:30pm and drags on until 11:30pm, by which time the majority of the room has enjoyed many a beverage and is quite ready for either bed or the after party. The 2022 Logies was the first we’d had in 3 years due to COVID restrictions, so the vibe of the night was more electric than usual (well, so I’m told… it was the first and likely last I’ll ever get to attend!). Much to our surprise, Channel 9 generously invited us, the six finalists from Season 3, up to the Gold Coast to walk the red carpet, rub shoulders with the TV elite, and attend a watch party upstairs (in the same building, but not in THE room) and then partake in the joy that was the after-party. We felt pretty stoked to be there but rather out of place too. More than one of us was asked to hold a camera to take a photo of a fan with someone far more famous than us, but that just added to the buzz of the night. So after a truly surreal experience of walking the red carpet, we were ushered upstairs to begin watching.
Most Outstanding Entertainment or Comedy Award
The first award of the night, the industry award for Most Outstanding Entertainment or Comedy, came up, and to our surprise, it went to LEGO Masters! The room blew up as we shared the space with other Channel 9 reality contestants. Suddenly, the energy around us changed… we were no longer the lucky nobodies who got an invite almost by accident… we were WINNERS! Hamish and Brickman accepted the award and, in true Hamish style, thanked the cast and crew for, without our ability to produce unbelievable models under pressure, there would be no show to watch. Upstairs, we were all smiles. From that point on, the Logies was a blast. People we revered congratulated us on our win, which genuinely took our experience differently.
Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television
A short time later, Hamish won the award for the most popular presenter. We all pondered which appeared oddly similar to the nominations for the gold (4 of them were!), so it seemed a fait accompli that Hamish would take out the gold, but as always, you should never count your chickens before they hatch. But, as expected, Hamish DID take out the significant award for the night, and his acceptance speech was equally funny and sincere, again with a nod to his LEGO family. Interestingly, this isn’t Hamish’s first Gold Logie – the first he received 10 years ago.
Image: 9 News
During the after party(ies), my oh my, did I meet some fantastic people. And not only did I meet them, but we also had some amazing conversations. With any luck, maybe some of us will get to be an extra on Neighbours or something…. Oh wait, that got cancelled! After mingling with many people at the ceremony, we kicked on at the Channel 9 afterparty. I won’t go into the details, but the room was alive. We’d done well, and it didn’t matter if you were a presenter, a contestant or someone from publicity – we were all equals, and we were all just happy to be there!
Hamish was in high demand, but he made a point of coming over to us and sharing the celebration of winning 3 Logies and attributing a lot of that to us, which was incredible. Like him or not, no one can argue that this guy has done amazing things in Australian television and is one very significant part of why LEGO Masters has been a success here in Australia and, arguably, has become one of the most copied formats globally.
Well done, Hamish, and a little extra shout out to the man with the vision – David McDonald, Executive Producer – for without his ideas about reinventing the series and executing them, there would be no show and no awards.
LEGO Masters Australia
For more information on LEGO Masters Australia, visit The Brickman website.
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17 comments on this article
I don’t see this ever happening in the US, just because of how small our version is compared to the likes of Survivor and The Amazing Race. And for the record, it was pointed out that Will, Jamie, and Amy had to be on set the entire time, with cameras rolling, because you can’t anticipate when you’ll need a reaction shot. Several models over the two US seasons have had large sections collapse during the build phase, and most of those were caught on camera. I believe all of them immediately cut to reaction shots from the host and judges. The other issue is they need to be able to edit down hours of footage to find the best interaction clips to keep for the episode, so you don’t want to budget for ten minutes of host/cast interactions and end up with five of those minutes involving jokes that failed to land or which might be considered offensive. That sort of thing is why they install floors in cutting rooms. So, I would be very surprised to hear that any host from any LEGO Masters show is only in the room to announce the time, though that is certainly what a lot of viewers seem to think.
There are “reality” shows out there that are like that. My LUG participated in an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and if I understood things right, as soon as the on-screen “talent” had a good take of the bullhorn greeting in the can, and had kicked off the demo phase, they were on a plane to another house to prep for a future episode while their production assistants did all the on-site work. Then on the last day, they’d fly back and film a bunch of shots taking credit for all the work that had taken place while they were gone. And by the time the next house was ready for demolition, they’d have all the blueprints, building and filming permits, land secured to set up a village of contractor workshops, material acquired, an army of volunteer workers signed up, and t-shirts handed out to any fans in the area who wanted to stand across the street and cheer on cue.
Fantastic to see the Australian version of Lego Masters getting some love on this site, and narrated by Ryan no less!
Can't believe there have already been 4 seasons of LM, was very excited to see it win a Logie.
Great article, very interesting to read about some of the stuff that went on.
I'm biased, but I do think we have the best Lego Masters series out there.
Our contestants and host are down to Earth without being OTT, Brickman is a gem and it's a slick and enjoyable production.
@chrisaw said:
"I'm biased, but I do think we have the best Lego Masters series out there.
Our contestants and host are down to Earth without being OTT, Brickman is a gem and it's a slick and enjoyable production."
Strongly agree. And don't forget Hamish is a fantastic host.
Really glad to see the Australian series get some well deserved love here.
Man, Hamish is in a league of his own when it comes to presenting. He seriously is THAT good and the chemistry between him and Ryan takes it to an even higher level. I love Hamish his yearly "midnight birthday cake marathon" on Instagram where he makes his daughters bithday cake in typical Hamish fashion. Well deserved award!
I think this is the first time in history that the Logies have been described as "prestigious", though.
YOOOOOOOO
It would be great if an Austrlian Brickset user could cover the next season, as was done for the US and NZ version.
@chrisaw said:
"I'm biased, but I do think we have the best Lego Masters series out there.
Our contestants and host are down to Earth without being OTT, Brickman is a gem and it's a slick and enjoyable production."
I've seen three versions (the UK one, USA and Australia) and of those I think the Aussie one is the best.
The UK was great (and the first, I think) but very different. It was very British, quirky and on a much lower budget. And including kids would have put some limitations on the length of challenges, but I'm sure it was inspiring to kids to see KFOLs on screen.
The USA one was just too 'reality' for me. Over the top hype and that sort of thing. I think the Aussie one had a good balance.
Aussie Aussie Aussie!! Thanks for covering this! (It's rare Australia even gets mentioned anywhere).
I'm really happy Lego Masters Australia got awarded. I do believe ours is the best, for a variety of reasons but also the amount of people from other countries (some of which have their own Lego Masters) saying ours is the best.
Ryan McNaught, Brickman is such an awesome guy. I've met him myself once, I was fairly young at the time but he was very down to earth, approachable, helpful, just a really good person. This is reflected in his judging. He always tries to help teams and very rarely (if ever) says anything negative (like he will criticise a build if something's not right, but it's never a criticism of the person). He also handles...difficult personalities...very well.
I am perpetually puzzled by why Hamish is so popular though. I have nothing against the guy personally but I hate him hosting. He just says random annoying stuff all the time and doesn't let the teams build. Sometimes it feels like the show is all about him instead of the Lego. That's why I liked Scotty from The Block, he really embraced Lego on the show and made it about the Lego, not him as a celebrity. The thing that really irritates me about Hamish is that he doesn't let Brickman do his job. Sooo many times Brickman is giving really interesting and valuable feedback on a build and then Hamish just butts in with some dumb comment that's rarely even related to Lego, that isn't funny and no one cares about. Lately he's even been taking over commenting on the Lego.
Great write-up, FlagsNZ!
Yes, the Aussie show IS the best, from all I’ve read and seen!
Kudos to Hamish, Brickman, all the funny / crazy & talented contestants, and all the crew!
Keep up the great work, for hopefully many seasons to come!
I think the thing about Hamish is that even when he is being over the top with an antic or corny with the comments, it seems to come across almost as charming as opposed to forced. Out of all the versions I've seen so far, have enjoyed the Australian one the best, though I do think the NZ one will be better in the second season as their host was new to hosting and Hamish has been doing it on Radio an TV specials for the better part of 20yrs!
Great to see the excellent Lego Masters Australia get the recognition it deserves. So much better than the unwatchable "Will Arnett Show".
Looking forward to series 3 and 4 hopefully getting an airing in the UK before too long.
I would hardly call the award in question "prestigious" given that its basically a popularity contest voted for by the public (rather than being picked by industry experts in the way that, say, the Emmy Awards are)
@Zordboy said:
"I think this is the first time in history that the Logies have been described as "prestigious", though."
Hahaha! It's true that it doesn't have the same clout a golden globe has, but it's still a pretty big deal. Having been there, I can say it's quite the fanfair, and it's the 'best we've got' as far as TV awards ceremonies.
Finally, Brickset covers Aussie LEGO masters. Hamish definitely deserves the award.
Interestingly, the award we won (Lego Masters) was an industry vote - not a public vote. And whilst I hear you on the prestigious front, it's still the best we've got as far as TV award ceremonies...