Adam Hills, he of the perpetually amused demeanour and Spicks & Specks hosting duties, was one of the few surprise - in a good way - nominees for this year's Gold Logie. And when we say "surprise", naturally we meant it in a "probably won't win and is lucky just to get a table at the Logies" kind of way. No disrespect or nuffin', it's just that Gold Logie land is generally the realm of the Colgate-smiling soapie star.

That could all be about to change, however, with the news that Hills' Logies odds have shortened considerably, according to one bookmaker, to second favourite!

A mystery punter has sent Hills's odds plummeting from $41 to $8 with Lasseters Sportsbook.

While Hills suspects that Melbourne comedy duo Hamish Blake and Andy Lee are behind the plunge, he said he would be over the moon if the backer was a fan.

Hills said he was bemused by the punter's show of faith and would not do anything to dim his chances.

"My number one aim is to try not to disgrace myself in the media between now and the awards," he said. "I think I'll be shaking a lot of hands and kissing a lot of babies."

Go Adam! Go ABC! Hooray for semi-intelligent programming getting a Logies nod in the first place!

It remains to be seen whether Hills will actually cash in these odds, but the Logies is close to Defamer Australia's favourite annual awards ceremony, so we look forward to tuning in with a glass or fifteen of Passion Pop and cheering the night away.

Not only has Chris Lilley managed to hit the ARIA charts with his 'Naughty Girl' masterpiece - sure, down to #12 this week but we still suspect he's got more of a chart future than the poor Young Divas these days - but he's now one of the contenders for the coveted little gold man at the Australian showbiz glittering night of nights, the Logies!

It's a battle of the golden girls and some of the small screen's favourite hosts for this year's Gold Logie, Australian television's biggest award.

ABC Television's Andrew Denton, Chris Lilley and Adam Hills, and Ten's Rove McManus will vie against former winners Kate Ritchie and Lisa McCune for this year's Gold Logie for Australia's most popular television personality.

Neighbours star Natalie Blair and All Saints veteran John Howard round out the nominees.

Will he win it? The competition is indeed tough. The lovely Adam Hills is certainly adored by Spicks and Specks fans (and lord knows, the sell out live show the Spicks team toured around the country not that long ago proved there are huuuuuuuge numbers of folk who go weak at the knees for Adam's affable charms) but are Spicks enthusiasts TV Week readers? Kate Ritchie has obviously won the nation's heart after clocking in over 20 years at Home & Away, and she's also now a radio star, so she's a strong contender. But Rove McManus is an almost - almost - unstoppable Gold Logie winning force most years... although Lisa McCune may "bring it" once more. The John Howard it's okay to like strikes us as John Wood v2.o (which means we don't think he's in with a chance), and we'd like to think Natalie Blair is an outsider for this award, but you never know, people are strange - especially those who vote for the Logies.

In short - we'd like to see Chris Lilley win, we'd be pleasantly surprised if Adam Hills pulled it off, we'd expect to see Kate Ritchie, Rove McManus or Lisa McCune delivering a thank you speech, and we'd fall over in shock if John Howard, Andrew Denton or Natalie Blair sauntered off stage clutching the Gold.

In news that will delight mums nationwide, Adam "Nice" Hills and his streetwise crew will be taking so-light-it's-weightless light entertainment music trivia show Spicks And Specks on the road.

Host Adam Hills, and panel members Alan Brough and Myf Warhurst will take the show, dubbed the Spicks and Speck-tacular, to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle and Perth from November to January.

The show boasts ramped up versions of some of the program's most popular games, including a bigger bike for the Malvern Stars On 45 segment and a new take on the Substitute section, where people sing well-known songs with substitute lyrics taken from obscure texts.

However, those details are not the ones that got us particularly excited upon reading this particular announcement...

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How on earth do we begin wrapping up an awards ceremony as ridiculously extravagant and gripping as The Logies? With great haste, little introduction, and by using an excessive amount of bold capitalised font to appropriately convey our over-excited perspective on the evening. Let's roll.

BIGGEST SHOCK OF THE EVENING! When the award for Most Outstanding Children's TV Program went to the Umbilical Brothers, we were gutted to discover the two are not in fact brothers, and it's not as if it's a case that they both coincidentally share the same surname of Umbilical. They're totally unrelated, and their names are Shane Dundas and David Collins. We feel like we've been lied to all our lives. On the upside, their onstage antics (peace signs behind the head of their producer, the odd popping sound) proved once and for all their special brand of comedy will never age, but rather stay as fresh and relevant as ever. Ahem.

More after the jump...

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