Karl Stefanovic leaves 'Mr Nice Guy' image behind as he speaks out about Gold Logie rivals

When it comes to campaigning for the Gold Logie, Karl Stefanovic is tired of playing 'Mr Nice Guy' and has adopted a spectacular smear campaign.

Although I was expecting the classic "it's just an honour to be nominated" tactic, the Today host joined me for a chat which, as often happens when chatting with Karl, went in a direction I didn't quite envisage. 

Karl, it seemed, had decided it was time to stain the reputation of his rival Nine nominee and all-round good guy, Hamish Blake.  

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"To be honest with you, I don't really trust Hamish as far as I can kick him," he jokes. "He can be very, very competitive. He's very competitive with me anywhere, anytime."

But with online voting open for the Logies, the competition between the Nine personality friends and now quasi-rivals is heating up.

With 269,000 social media followers compared to Hamish's 1.3 million, Karl has discovered he seems to be at a true disadvantage. 

Rather than admit defeat, Karl takes a sharp intake of breath. 

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"The thing is, Shelly, at least my followers are real," he says. "His are all Russian bots." 

As is an annual tradition, Hamish recently created a magnificent Avatar-themed cake for his boy Sonny's 8th birthday. More than 72,740 people liked it on Instagram – a feat Karl sees as ammunition he can use.

"Again, it's all part of this whole Hamish concocted life. There's nothing real about it," Karl says. "I don't want to say too much, but I hear that Matt Moran was there and he actually paid Matt a decent amount of money, to make the cake look better. 

"Everyone needs to be careful. Any prime-time television is smoke and mirrors. Whereas breakfast TV is the only real television."

Things took a turn for the worse when we discussed Home and Away favourite Ray 'flamin galah' Meagher. 

I thought it might be something mild like "Ray cheats at Canasta", but Karl revealed a much darker secret. "I don't want to be disparaging, but I'm pretty sure Ray Meagher is a serial killer," he whispered while laughing about the popular actor.  

"He looks like the nice guy who lives next door. He'd be the neighbour who will water your plants and cut the grass when you're away. But I wouldn't be surprised that there's weird stuff going on in his dungeon. You know with the real heavy kind of leather.  He has got a gimp room for sure."

It will be the shock of the night if the Logies anti-hero Tom Gleeson wins for the second time in a row.

"I've said this before, but Tom Gleeson is a proper wanker," he laughs. "I mean no one thinks he writes his own stuff. Hard Quiz is a very clever show, but no one thinks he puts that together himself. 

"He goes around the country doing stand-up and pretending he writes all his own material.  Well, he was found out a couple years ago at the Logies when he delivered that acceptance speech written by someone at the ABC who was off their chops!

"That went down like a lead balloon. The only person who thinks he's going to win is Gleeson himself because he's up himself."

I was ready to get stuck into the other nominees like Julia Morris, Melissa Leong and Sonia Kruger. Would Karl finally confirm Sonia is a vampire and drinks the blood of the young to maintain her ageless façade?

"I'm not going to say anything disparaging about the women who have been nominated.  Other than to say that they deserve it because they are more advanced, smarter and better presenters," he says. 

I nearly dropped the phone, but he couldn't resist one mild swipe at Sonia.

"To be fair, Sonia pulls in more viewers in one night than I pull in a whole week, in some shows," Karl says. "Which is annoying."

Whatever the result, after this interview I can tell you one thing.

If Karl does win, I can't wait to hear his acceptance speech. Bring on the gold, Australia. 

Voting is now open for the 62nd TV Week Logie Awards. Vote for Karl here.