If Larry Emdur hadn’t made a public promise to get his bottom tattooed live on The Morning Show if he won the TV WEEK Gold Logie, he would have still got a tattoo somewhere on his body to remember the night.
“I’ve got a bunch of other tattoos and they’re all very special to me, so this is in keeping with that,” Larry, 59, tells TV WEEK. “This is the most special moment of my career, so I would mark this event with a tattoo anyway.”
Larry’s TV career is a long one, having begun in the 1980s, but this year was the first year that he was nominated for a Logie of any kind. He won two, walking away with the Bert Newton Award for Most Popular Presenter along with the Gold.
Larry, who hosts The Chase Australia as well as co-hosting The Morning Show, reveals that he and Bert’s widow Patti were exchanging texts in the week before the Logies.
“When I was growing up Bert Newton was my idol and Patti has always known that,” he explains. “She texted me ‘good luck’, and I said, ‘You’ve got no idea what this would mean to me to win an award with Bert’s name on it.’”
As for the Gold, Larry knows that his dad Dave, who passed away in 2004, would have been “really, really thrilled” with the win.
“In his latter years, when he was quite ill, all he did was watch TV. He’d always comment on my TV shows and critique everything. He’d say, ‘I wouldn’t wear that tie with that jacket,’ and, ‘You shouldn’t have said that.’ So this would mean the world to him.”
Larry Emdur received TV’s top honour at the 64th TV WEEK Logie Awards held in Sydney on 18 August 2024.
Despite his win, the 59-year-old tells TV WEEK he doesn’t see himself as a prime-time superstar.
“I just sit on the couch and chat to people and then ask some questions in the afternoons,” he says.
In his four decades in the industry, Larry has been through some tough times. He calls himself “the most axed guy on TV” – and he’s not joking.
“I mean, some of the shows I’ve done have gone for a month,” he points out.
“A couple of shows have gone for two episodes, which was fine when I was young and single and I’d get sacked and go to Bali for three months, surfing. But then when you’ve got a wife and a mortgage and kids at school…”
Larry, who has two children, Jye and Tia, with his wife Sylvie, says he and Sylvie are “survivors in the business”.
“So many, many times over this 40 years have I gone, ‘I need to do something else.’ And bless, she’s been right there by my side, very supportive.”
Larry, who was voted Gold Logie winner over Andy Lee, Asher Keddie, Tony Armstrong, Julia Morris, Robert Irwin and Sonia Kruger, has been co-hosting The Morning Show with Kylie Gillies for 17 years and fronting The Chase Australia for three years.
He says his job is “exciting and it’s fun and it’s different every day”.
“I love this business so much. I love TV so much. I never wanted to do anything else.”
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