As television's night of nights fast approaches, the award that no actor will admit to chasing, but everyone secretly wants, has moved into top gear with the announcement of the 2014 Logies nominations.

It is — largely — an unsurprising list, with the top-ratings shows and popular personalities well represented.

Noteworthy is the fact this time around the ABC and Foxtel have managed to attract a large percentage of the nominations, although how that translates to votes remains to be seen.

And as usual, there is controversy in the choices.

Some shows expected to be up for an award are missing (sadly Puberty Blues just missed the cut), likewise some personalities and actors.

Karl Stefanovic, popular enough to win gold just two years ago, isn't even nominated despite having no less a presence on screen.

And in some cases the competition looks arbitrary at best.

Most outstanding light entertainment category, for example, features four scripted comedy series and one reality TV show, which is arguably an absolute shoe-in given the fact it regularly rates at least double any of the others.

Even Josh Thomas, star of one of the aforementioned scripted comedies, Please Like Me, acknowledged on Twitter he was unlikely to win against the juggernaut that is The Voice.

"You can't make us verse Seal!" he posted, ignoring common English usage in his frustration. "That's never a fair fight."

Then in other categories, big name series stars are up against actors who, while talented, don't have anywhere near the profile, due simply to their airtime.

Veterans like Lachy Hulme, Craig McLachlan and David Wenham, for example, are nominated in the most outstanding actor category against Kirk Page, who starred in a single episode of ABC1's Redfern Now, and Thomas for Please Like Me, which aired on ABC2.

Those two categories, however, highlight the reason the Logies are and always will be unpredictable — the most outstanding categories are peer nominated and peer voted.

And there's actually a chance — even it it is remote — that those peers could rally to Thomas' cause and he could walk off with an award.

If he does pull off the coup of beating the networks at their own game — because, make no mistake, from this point on the "Vote For Us!" network promos will be coming thick and fast and the releases aimed at those who vote will be constant — it would put paid to one of the lingering complaints from those nominated, that it's just a popularity contest.

When when Karl Stefanovic won his Gold Logie in 2011, he gave a special mention in his thank you speech to the pair who had engineered a stunning campaign on his behalf — the head of Nine's publicity team and their second in command.

If Thomas takes an award, even if it's silver, it's be a moment more golden than any award to see him take to the podium and shout (as he should) "I did it! I beat Seal!"