Neighbours star furious over Logies snub
Ryan Moloney – who has played Jarrod “Toadie” Rebecchi on Neighbours since 1995 – held nothing back as he blasted the treatment of the cast from the long-running show at the recent Logie Awards.
Taking to 2Day FM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin breakfasts’ show, Moloney ripped into the awards ceremony’s efforts in acknowledging Neighbours is about to come to an end.
He argued those in the "In Memoriam" segment got a better run than they did.
Moloney launched a hearty rant against the award show organisers for seating the team “behind the cameras” on Sunday night, and having former cast members Daniel MacPherson and Natalie Bassingthwaighte represent the cast on stage, rather than actors who have been part of the show for decades.
“We turned up, and we did our mandatory three-hour talking to people on the red carpet... When we got in the room we ended up being split up and stuck on two different tables, it was horrible!” Moloney said on air.
“Our table was actually even stuck behind the cameras, we couldn’t even see the stage... So we figured we weren’t going to get a gig then,” he added.
Moloney said he found the package of snippets from the show that played during the ceremony “incredibly disappointing.”
Elsewhere, he suggested having Bassingthwaighte and MacPherson represent the cast on stage was an affront to the show’s veteran stars, given they were both only part of the cast for four years.
“Daniel and Nat are just absolutely gorgeous people and absolutely nothing against them, but we’ve got people who have been on TV for nearly 30 years each, and I think probably the least they could do is get us to say something … I mean we’re in the bloody Hall of Fame, that’s not how you treat a show that’s in the Hall of Fame. I mean good luck to the Logies really,” he fumed.
His rampage didn’t stop there: “If it’s any indication, the In Memoriam section … I mean half the people in that have worked on Neighbours … They got a better guernsey than we did.”
He said that actors from the show’s rival Channel 7 soap, Home and Away, even noticed the snub, approaching the table to offer their sympathy later in the night.
“The cast of Home and Away came up afterwards and said how sorry they were that we got (snubbed),” he said.
In March, it was announced to devastated fans that Neighbours was coming to an end. The soap drew around 1.5 million UK viewers daily and up to 170,000 metro viewers in Australia.
The finale, which will feature special guest appearances from Guy Pearce, Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, is expected to air in August, truly marking the end of an era.