Sam Pang set to return for the third time to host The Logie Awards 2025
TV funnyman Sam Pang is heading back to host The Logie Awards in August.
This will be the third time in three years that the 51-year-old comedian has taken on the anchor role for TV's Night of Nights.
Sam's cheeky and irreverent comedy as host last year and in 2023 proved to be a big hit with audiences and TV's A-list as well as a major ratings winner for Seven.
'It's been an honour to host the last two years and I'm looking forward to again celebrating the talented people and amazing shows that combine to make the Australian television industry something everyone can be proud of,' Sam told The Herald Sun on Sunday.
'I am very excited to return for another Logies and would like to thank 7 for asking me back.'
From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.
This year's lucky Logie nominees will be announced on June 16.
Sam is expected to unleash another take-no-prisoners monologue as host when the Logies ceremony kicks off at the Star Sydney on August 3.
The beloved comedian left viewers in stitches with a cutting series of one liners when he took to the stage last year.
He was widely praised for his presenting - and roasting of celebrities - for the 2023 event and he certainly did not fail to disappoint as viewers applauded his 'fearless' monologue which saw him boldly take aim at Channel Seven.
Sam didn't hold back as he savagely roasted Seven for their spate of recent scandals, such as the Bruce Lehrmann-Spotlight scandal, despite the fact the Logies were airing on the network.
He also hit out at Network 10 and Married At First Sight in his take-no-prisoners monologue, before making jokes at the expense of Adam Lambert and LeAnn Rimes.
Sam opened his monologue by savagely taking aim at Seven, referencing their recent scandals as the crowds reacted with shocked gasps.
'Firstly, Channel 7, well, I'm just letting you all know I'm going to say whatever I want tonight,' he said as he kicked things off.
'I stand before you safe in the knowledge that whatever I say, this network will defend me in court, and with their impeccable record in defamation cases over the last 12 months I reckon I'll be fine.'
Amid a string of jobs being cut at Seven, Sam then joked that he wasn't getting paid by the network for his hosting gig and said they would instead be paying his rent.
'Full disclosure - I'm not getting paid by Channel Seven tonight. Instead, for the next 12 months, they're paying my rent,' he quipped. Which is handy as they'll know what address to send the Thai masseuse to.'
Sam then left the crowds in stitches with his MAFS joke as he quipped: 'Reality shows continue to thrive. One of the biggest shows sees contestants thrown together, isolated and willingly eating testicles and sometimes anus. That's right, Married At First Sight continues to go from strength to strength.'
Sam's return comes after his first Logies as host scored an impressive 877,000 viewers in the TV ratings.
The 2024 Logies broadcast, meanwhile, was another massive hit for Seven
According to Sunday night's OzTam ratings, the awards show was the most popular program on free-to-air with a huge national reach of 3,351,000, with a national audience of 1,338,00.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
38 minutes ago
- The Sun
My mum abandoned me and gave me to a cult – we were fed LSD, beaten, bleached & waterboarded to keep us under control
BEN Shenton was just 18 months old when his mother gave him up to a well-spoken blonde woman who swore she'd give him the best life possible. Little did she know her decision would put Ben through years of abuse at the hands of a woman who believed she was Jesus Christ reborn. 9 9 9 Images of Ben show a happy young boy, but the reality was entirely different - as the youngster was forced to become part of a notorious cult known as 'The Family'. Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who Ben would grow up to know as his mother, became the leader of the cult based in Australia, which drugged and beat him. He had no idea of his life before Anne, as she went to great lengths to keep his adoption a secret, even bleaching his hair platinum blond like hers and his new 'siblings'. Despite abusing more than 20 children, including Ben, Anne and her husband and cult co-leader, Bill Hamilton-Byrne, never faced justice. Now, over four decades on from the abuse, Ben shares his story of growing up in the "Kai Lama" compound, where children were locked in with barbed wire and tortured. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Anne first started out as a yoga teacher before turning to a more 'spiritual life' and eventually believing she was Jesus Christ reincarnated. She was born with the name Evelyn and had three marriages in total - the first coming to an end when her husband died in a car crash, which led to her 'spiritual awakening.' She met English physicist Dr Raynor Johnson in 1963 and the following year, they set up a group dedicated to spreading a surreal combination of Christianity and Hinduism, with Hamilton-Byrne at its centre. Her final husband, Bill, became the person who led the doomsday cult with her in the 1960s, when the world faced existential threats like nuclear warfare, the Vietnam War and the spread of communism. Anne was able to rope people into the cult through yoga lessons, meetings at her house once a week, and then three times a week, until she built the compound on land near her house for them to move into. Inside a 'mind-controlling' CULT which 'forced mum and daughter to hit each other' and chose Fiji as the 'promised land' Anne came across as beautiful, well-spoken and nurturing, so it's no surprise Ben's mum was easily convinced he'd have a better life with her. Ben said Anne manipulated his mother into giving him up in 1970, convincing her that 'only she could give me the best life possible'. The pair consistently preyed on vulnerable people like Ben's mum, Joy, who had suffered a back injury and felt she could not look after him anymore. They also started recruiting people into their cult by approaching patients from Newhaven Hospital in Kew, a private psychiatric facility run and operated by various members of The Family, who targeted vulnerable patients, subjecting them to heavy doses of LSD and electroshock therapy. She and husband Hamilton-Byrne took children through illegal adoptions, allowing the cult to grow in numbers before imprisoning them in a strict home-schooling environment at a rural property near Eildon in Victoria. 9 Using lawyers, social workers, and doctors to forgo official channels, they were able to forge birth documents and raise over a dozen children to believe they were the birth children of the Hamilton-Byrnes. When children were born inside the compound to cult members, they were raised to believe their birth mothers were instead among a handful of 'aunts', who gave out brutal punishments for whatever they saw fit. PICTURE PERFECT FAMILY From the outside, the family looked picture-perfect as they lived on their compound in Victoria, Australia. Life at Kai Lama seemed healthy and even advanced for its years; it featured yoga, exercise, vegetarian meals, meditation and education. Ben lived on the remote property and was raised alongside dozens of other children for 13 years and recalls living with 28 other kids at one point. "Growing up, it was Anne and Bill, they were mum and dad; and then there were foster kids, and they were kids of other sect members, who would either come up on weekends or stay there for stints of a couple of years," Ben, told the BBC. "The greatest amount of kids at any given stage was 28," he added. Anne and Bill brought up the children as their own, even dressing them in matching outfits and dying their hair bleach blond to appear like a real family. I loved them in their little smocks and jeans and the long hair and ribbons. Anne Hamilton-Byrne cult leader "We were her children. We were different ages. We'd line up von Trapp style (like) The Sound of Music, which we'd watch, dressed in outfits that matched and that was just what we were asked to do," he told the True Crimes Conversation podcast. "You look back on that and you see it's choreographed. "It crafted a belief that she had these children, which she didn't. We were all either adopted or handed over." In an interview years after the children were finally taken from her, Anne said: 'I wanted them to look like brothers and sisters - I must admit this. 'I loved them in their little smocks and jeans and the long hair and ribbons. It was beautiful - it was lovely to see.' Asked why she imprisoned 28 children over two decades, she responded: 'I love children.' 9 9 UNDER WRAPS But in reality, the children were subjected to years of beatings, mind games, isolation, and forced to take drugs by the cult leader, who had convinced more than 500 people she was Jesus Christ. The couple had convinced their followers they were making a 'master race' while teaching a mixture of Christianity and Hinduism. Ben recalls one form of torture Anne liked to perform on the children was waterboarding. It's a method of torture that creates such horrific psychological pain that its use has even been banned in the US military. "We were all lined up. We were belted. Our head held under the bucket of water, interrogated," he said. "Held there until you thought you were suffocating, brought back out again. "Horrendous experience. It caused nightmares. "These things shape your personality." Ben recalls seeing his siblings being beaten with a belt, and says they were given LSD 'as part of an initiation ritual.' 'I was watching her being belted with a buckle and she's being beaten to the point where she's wriggling out of her clothes,' he said of his sister, Sarah. 'Hearing her body smash across the balustrades - it was horrendous to know they had the power to do that and would do it,' he told the MailOnline. She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative. Ben Shenton Ben says Anne's most effective tactic was to keep the children from forming bonds with each other to keep them all in line. To weed out misdeeds in the children, Anne would perform group interrogations by beating them until someone came clean. Ben said he stayed compliant to avoid punishment. "This was the evil genius of her. She understood that if she could separate us, isolate us, make it so that we couldn't build relationships with one another and punish us, then she could control us," he said. "Anyone who's lived under domestic violence will know the living with fear, the walking on eggshells, the currying favour of those in authority, or the absolute rejection of them, the hatred of them, the love-hate relationship. "It's domestic abuse on steroids," he said. Now, Ben believes Anne was a sociopath or psychopath. "She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative," he said. 'The Family' Cult Timeline 1968 The Family begins to 'adopt' and acquire children to create a 'master race'. 1974 An official school is set up for the 'master race' children at the Lake Eildon property. 1978 Anne Hamilton marries William (Bill) Byrne and they take the surname Hamilton-Byrne. 1983 Police visit the Lake Eildon property to search for a missing girl. She is not found on the property. 1987 (14 August) Combined police raid on sect property at Lake Eildon. Anne is overseas. Bill is present at the raid but is not charged. The children are removed from the sect and placed into care. 1987 (Oct/Nov) Bill flees to Hawaii to meet Anne. 1987 (12 December) Detective Lex de Man is called to investigate. He learns about The Family. 1989 (about June) Lex de Man writes a report recommending Victoria Police commence a criminal investigation into The Family. 1989 (11 December) Operation Forest Task Force commences. 1993 (4 June) Anne and Bill are arrested in the Catskill Mountains, Upstate New York. 1993 (17 August) Anne and Bill are extradited to Australia. 1993 (31 August) Anne and Bill appear in the Victorian Magistrates' Court, charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit perjury by falsely registering the births of triplets. 1994 In the County Court, Anne and Bill avoid prison and are fined $5000 each. 2001 Bill dies, leaving Anne to lead a diminishing group of followers. 2019 At 97, Anne lives in the dementia wing of a suburban Melbourne nursing home. CAUGHT IN THE ACT It wasn't until 1987 that the cult was finally searched by 100 police officers and the children were rescued. At the time, a 15-year-old Ben was doing his scheduled yoga class when police stormed in. His sister, Sarah Moore, had managed to escape the cult at 17 and headed straight to the police to tell them what was going on. Not taking any chances, police stormed the property and rescued six children, including Ben. While he was reluctant to go with them at first, he soon realised this was his path to freedom. He recalls: 'I think I got this epiphanal moment, realising this is the ticket out of here. So I just I let go, and I went with them." It was only then that Ben found out he was not their biological son and was handed over by his mother Joy, who stayed in the cult as an 'aunt'. At the time, Anne was in Hawaii while Bill stayed on the compound, but he wasn't arrested. Later, he went to New York to meet Anne before the pair were arrested and extradited back to Australia. While many of the children came forward with claims of abuse, both Anne and Bill were only charged with conspiracy to defraud and perjury by falsely registering the birth of triplets. The pair were spared jail and fined just £2,300 each for the crime. Detective Lex de Man, who investigated the case, says evidence of abuse was unable to be taken to court despite multiple victims coming forward. Detective de Man recently told The Age: 'My only regret is she was never held totally to account for the misery she caused to the former cult children. 'I have no sympathy for the woman I consider the most evil person I ever met in my police career.' LIFE NOW Ben moved into foster care when he left the cult, and while lying on his bunk bed with fresh pyjamas and a meal in his tummy, he realised he'd never go back to The Family again "I realised then I (didn't) have to do this anymore, I'm free. I don't need to go back," he said. "That, to me, was when I shut the door." Four decades on, Ben is a proud husband to Rajes and a dad to Ellie and Callum, who live in Perth, Australia. He has written a book on his time in the cult, Life Behind the Wire, and runs the organisation, Rescue The Family, to raise awareness on cult manipulation. In 2019, Anne passed away while in a Melbourne care home at the age of 98 and Ben has reconnected with his biological mother. "What Anne did was evil. She used the name of Christ to give herself validity. She used a belief system," Ben said. "Justice was not done." 9
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'Spicy' new love affair for Harriet Williams' ex after their sudden split... Plus, dramatic auction day twist for Dina and Max after they slashed the price of their Darling Point love shack: THE GROUP CHAT WITH LUCY MANLY
Welcome to The Group Chat with Lucy Manly, where Australia's most-trusted society insider shares the hottest gossip BEFORE it makes the news. Andy's new love after 'sudden' marriage split
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Married At First Sight stars reveal surprise romance as they go instagram official despite NOT marrying on show
MARRIED At First Sight stars have revealed their surprise romance after going Instagram official, despite marrying on the show. Fans of the most recent Aussie series watched as Awhina and Adrian were paired together. 5 5 However, from the moment they said 'I do' the ex-couple bickered and argued. Months on from when filming on MAFS wrapped, Awhina now appeared to confirm she's seeing her co-star. And even more so now, with Instagram official snaps shared on their socials. The pair enjoyed a cosy date night at a place named The Garden in Perth recently, and snapped some very romantic photos in the process. Both in black, they posed for a mirror selfie that saw stunning Awhina looking forwards, while Billy placed his arm around her front and she held onto it. She said: 'I'll keep this one 🤭' as the caption, sending the rumour mill into overdrive in the process. Awhina shared a string of date night snaps in the carousel, as they enjoyed small plates and red wine while dining out together. 'Adrian punching the air right now 😂,' one person responded in the comments, referencing her ex. Another person wrote: 'Yusss, I love how he is with your son. As a mum that's the ultimate most attractive attribute.' MAFS groom forced to deny cheating accusations after bride claims he had sex with another woman during show filming Someone else simply put: 'I am living for this ❤️.' The telling post comes after Awhina was spotted looking glam at a horse racing event in Perth. During the video, Englishman Billy - who starred on MAFS with his ex Sierah - makes an appearance. Awhina captioned the video: "Our exes ate a plate of meat, but who really ate?" The ex-bride's clip has sent fans into a meltdown as they flooded her with replies. One said: "Billy and Awhina, Jamie and Elliott. the experts got it wrong and should have had them paired from the start." A second said: "Experts really got this season wrong in the matches. Billy now with Awhina, Jamie with Elliot. They are all so happy now." "Can I just say when I watched mafs I literally said before the scandal that Billy and awhina were made for each other ….. Called it," said a third. Married at First Sight fans previously watched as Billy's ex Sierah had become close to Adrian during the show's partner swapping exercise. In awkward scenes, Sierah revealed that she ended up confiding in Adrian off screen. Billy felt betrayed because he had opened up to Sierah with an emotional letter about feeling rejected by his father, while she chose to open up to someone else. 5
