Beloved champ Dylan Alcott has won the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent at the 61st TV Week Logie Awards, AKA Australian television’s night of nights.
[jwplayer bGO1zRES]
The tennis player, ABC presenter, and motivational speaker delivered an inspiring speech onstage about the importance of representation.
In it, Alcott revealed he used to hate having a disability.
“One of the reasons I did hate it was when I turned on the TV, I never saw anybody like me and when I did see someone like me, it was a road safety ad where someone drink drives, has a car accident, and the next scene was someone like me whose life was over. And I was like ‘that’s not my life.’ I wanted to get a job on TV because I love sharing stories but also to show that people with disability can be talented, funny, humorous, just normal people enjoying their lives.”
Alcott went on to thank everyone in the industry, and across networks, who gave him opportunities.
“There are four and a half million people, like me, with a disability so whether it’s in education, employment, going on a date, please give them an opportunity too because there’s a lot of bloody talented people out there and I promise you, they won’t disappoint.”
.@DylanAlcott wins the Graham Kennedy award for most popular new talent! 💪 #TVWeekLogies pic.twitter.com/n8Res7zdXO
— Channel9 (@Channel9) June 30, 2019
Elsewhere, Network 10‘s Masterchef took home Most Popular Reality Series, the ABC‘s Mystery Road took the gong for Most Popular Drama series, and Deborah Mailman won Most Popular Actress for obvious reasons – she’s a goddamn national treasure.
The Voice coach Guy Sebastian performed a medley that of course included absolute banger ‘Battle Scars.’ Legends Hamish and Andy made us giggle with a behind-the-scenes look at the ~cutaway shot~ and presented the award to most Popular Entertainment program winner, Gogglebox. The Project took the gong for Current Affairs and Most Outstanding Sport went to SBS‘ wildly quality coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
