In the Great Outside, Golden Globe nominations are considered forerunners to the Oscars. Closer to home, the last batch of statistics indicating viewership are similarly correlated to the next media-related awards, whichever they may be. In this case, they were the Vodafone Malta Television Awards. But unlike what usually happens in the former, ours did not match. Some of the top places in one entity did not even place in the other.

The awards night happened on Saturday, February 27. But on Sunday morning, my e-mail boxes and my mobile telephone were fit to burst with comments, recriminations, virtual yelps of joy, praises, and other emotive missives.

I could not help noticing that almost all the artists for whom this was not a first win were more lenient in their treatment of others; perhaps basking in the glory of the previous ones had mellowed them. It was only one person who made a disparaging remark mentioning the aforementioned Oscars.

It was great to see that yet again, local stations - TVM, One TV, Net TV, Education 22 and Favourite Channel - united to broadcast the event live. The public could enter into the spirit of the night by listening to the warming-up Red Capet interviews conducted by Celaine and Kris; the main event was compered by Claire and Carlo, consolidating his reappearance following his sabbatical. Incidentally, Borg Bonaci really ought to ask his Kontra l-Ħin contestants to say numbers in Maltese, because they sound ridiculous when they speak in the vernacular and then pepper it with English numerals.

It would be all too easy to wax lyrical about the line-up of guest performers, and to remark upon whether or not all the 40 awards went to people who truly deserved them. After all, we do tend to have our favourites, and we expect them to win because in our eyes they are 'the best'. For instance, I was astounded that Norma Saliba was not even nominated in her category. But at least everyone appears to have agreed that Norman Hamilton did merit the Charles Arrigo Lifetime Achievement Award.

There have been grumbles galore about the results, as well as Jason Micallef's over-the-top acceptance speech in what was admittedly an emotional moment for him. It has been pointed out that the awards won by One TV, which went on to make it L-Istazzjon tas-Sena, were not across the board, but centred mostly on La Farfalla. Some people asked why a show that is aired simultaneously on two stations was credited to only one of them; and whether or not a station that subsidised a series ought not to have first claim on a programme.

I feel that in order to avoid disagreeable situations with other contestants, certain programmes were submitted in one category when they would clearly have fitted the mould of another far better. For example, I would have said that Scrooge was more 'Drama', albeit it was submitted in the 'One-Off' category. As for Mixage being a 'Weekly Magazine Programme', the mind boggles. I would have said it was 'Lifestyle'.

It is not only people who are not involved in drama who think that this sector captures way too many awards. If there are awards for either gender, why does this not happen in newscasting and programme presenting?

One of the very few rational statements I received came from organiser Joyce Grech, with Tony Parnis of The Malta International Television Short Film Festival:

"[Ours] was an innovative programme that we pitched to PBS, and it was broadcast on TVM. During that week the same programme was shown on E22 as is the case with many productions. We are very proud that the programme won the Best Cultural Programme."

I asked Noelene Miggiani, director of Mermaid Media Entertainment Ltd, about the impasse. She told me that the official complaint from PBS, together with relevant documentation and information has already been passed to an independent body of highly regarded arbiters.

Michael Vella Haber of One Productions remains unfazed:

"I cannot but express my satisfaction at the results One TV attained, as they reflect the efforts of the One team. We had declared four years ago that we would strive to make a difference in the broadcasting sector, and although as a private station we had limited resources, be they financial or technical, we would strive to take local productions and transmissions to the next level."

- Is it possible that no one noticed that on March 1, the chapters of the novelette being read by Twanny Scalpello on Radju Malta, had already been broadcast? Or is this a case of another programme with no listeners, of which I am one?

- There are two adverts which have not been proofread currently being broadcast on Radju Malta. One of them refers to a "they" without specifically mentioning the age-band of the people involved, probably because it was originally the same script used for a television voice-over; the other inserts a noun between two adjectives, as if it were one as well.

- I have often complained that the rhythm of quizzes or game shows on Maltese stations is not fast enough to sustain the attention of anyone who is not an aficionado.

Ca$h Cab on Discovery Channel is fun. People who hail a taxi do not even know they have chosen to be contestants - until the driver informs them of the rules of the game. A couple of these include leaving if they do not want to play and being asked to leave if they give three wrong answers.

television@timesofmalta.com.