Pike, who works for Nine News, and Donald, who runs the promo department at Seven, have been recognised by TV Blackbox and their colleagues alike.
Michelle Pike and Graham Donald have jointly received the Industry Worker of the Year award at the TV Blackbox Awards.
Rob McKnight announced the winners during this week’s TV Blackbox podcast.
The full list of nominees in the Industry Worker of the Year category were:
- Brendan Donohoe (Nine News)
- Paul Walker (Seven News)
- Michelle Pike (Nine News)
- Lauren Poole (Studio 10)
- Graham Donald (Seven)
- Bevan Lee (Back To The Rafters – Amazon Prime)
- Lucy Addario (Series Producer, Home and Away – Seven)
Despite all nominees being hard-working and instrumental members of the television industry, Rob McKnight said the award was jointly given out to Pike and Donald for, “their contribution to the industry year-in-year-out,” truly making a difference.
Nine News Sydney presenter, Peter Overton, introduced Michelle Pike as one of the recipients, saying:
“Television awards presentations usually concentrate on the people in front of the camera – whether it’s those delivering news and current affairs, drama, Reality TV, and so on – but there’s a big engine room behind all of those productions.”
About Pike’s role for Nine News, Overton said:
“She gets us all around the world, when we can travel of course, whether it’s the logistics of moving equipment to an event like the Olympic games, keeping us VISA’d up, keeping our passports up to date, just keeping us on the move, hassle free.
“[Pike] is a great contributor to the success of Nine News in Sydney, [she’s] is our production manager, our executive assistant to our National news director, and our Sydney news director, a terrific person to have in any newsroom, and in Nine News Sydney we are so lucky to have our TV Industry Worker of the Year recipient – Michelle Pike.”
McKnight then introduced the fellow recipient of the award this year, Graham Donald, and said:
“I worked for Graham for many years at Seven. I’m sure he would be very surprised to hear I’ve picked him as a winner of this award – but his passion and belief in Seven is palpable. Not only does he believe in the product, he helps sell it to viewers.
“I’ve always said it is the job of the promo to get viewers there for episode one, then it’s up to the show to keep them there. Graham has shown many times he can get viewers to a show… and he has been a major contributor to the success of Seven.
“Congratulations Graham Donald and Michelle Pike – joint winners for our TV Industry Worker of the Year.”
To hear the entire segment about the TV Industry Worker of the Year award, where all seven nominees are commended on their incredible contributions to the television industry, listen to the latest edition of the TV Blackbox podcast.
And you can check out the full online broadcast of the TV Blackbox Awards event, hosted by Rob McKnight and inclusive of some special TV guests, from last Sunday, November 28, below.
Tony Fox must be a shoe in for next year. TV presenter, producer, graphic artist, station manager. No one has made more of a contribution to our industry or has the skills he has especially in Tasmania and what he has taken interstate.