Sam Pang wins Australia’s top TV prize as Magda Szubanski returns in character for surprise Logies cameo
Comedian and presenter Sam Pang has won the 2026 Gold Logie, with a surprise onstage appearance from Magda Szubanski handing him Australia’s top television p...
Comedian and presenter Sam Pang has won the 2026 Gold Logie, with a surprise onstage appearance from Magda Szubanski handing him Australia’s top television prize in a moment that drew a loud reaction from the room.
Szubanski, who had stepped back from the spotlight after a cancer diagnosis in May 2025 and has been in remission since February, returned to television in full Sharon Strzelecki mode from Kath & Kim. The crowd cheered as she shuffled out in an Australia Zoo outfit and joined host Robert Irwin for a skit before presenting Pang with the award on Sunday night.
A surprise return in character
The appearance carried extra weight. Just moments before Szubanski’s entrance, audiences had voted Kath & Kim the best Australian show of all time, giving the cameo a neatly timed burst of nostalgia. The skit between Szubanski and Irwin was widely lapped up in the room, before she announced Pang as the night’s biggest winner.
Pang beat a strong field that included Ally Langdon, Julia Morris, Lisa Millar, Poh Ling Yeow, Robert Irwin and Todd Woodbridge. It was, by most accounts, one of the toughest Gold Logie line-ups in years.
Pang’s long road to the podium
Accepting the award, Pang kept his remarks short. “I just want to say it’s a big honour,” he said. He added that after three years of being on the Logies stage, he knew what the audience wanted: brevity.
Backstage, he sounded almost stunned. Pang said he grew up watching television with his parents and never imagined he would end up on it, let alone win the Gold Logie. “It’s been a weird life,” he said, calling the moment “very, very weird” and saying he felt “very, very lucky and very, very grateful” to be part of Australian television.
Pang is known to TV audiences through Have You Been Paying Attention?, The Front Bar, Ground Up on the ABC and Sam Pang Tonight, which is due to return to Network 10 this year. He is only the second person of colour to win the Gold Logie, after Waleed Aly in 2016.
A night of milestones
The 66th TV Week Logie Awards delivered more than one headline. ABC titles Goolagong and Dog Park each picked up two awards, while actor Sam Neill won a posthumous best actor Logie for his work in The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer. His close friend Heather Mitchell accepted the award on his behalf.
Elsewhere, Deborah Mailman made history as the first Indigenous person inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame and only the sixth woman to receive the honour in more than 40 years. A Country Practice and broadcaster, presenter and advocate Andrew Denton were also inducted.
The night ended the way it began: with surprise. And with Pang holding the Gold Logie after a return from Szubanski few in the room expected.
