New Zealand's favourite health official has praised his TV Personality of the Year competition, saying he has "low expectations" of winning given who he's up against.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield was nominated for the award thanks to his calm and mild-mannered presence at the COVID-19 daily briefings.
Other nominees include the AM Show's Aziz Al Sa'afin, Newshub's national correspondent Patrick Gower and political editor Tova O'Brien.
In an interview with The AM Show on Thursday Bloomfield said he did a bit of research into who he's competing against.
"You know, Paddy Gower, Tova O'Brien, Hillary Barry - there's some pretty amazing names there so no expectations [of a win]."
He went on to praise Gower especially for his "courageous" coverage of the US elections.
"I was just listening to Paddy before - I can't believe he's gone over to the US, and your team there- it's a really courageous effort to go, given the uncertainty over there."
Gower is in the US to cover the historical election - despite the risk of COVID-19 given the huge case numbers.
Bloomfield said while the nomination was a "huge curveball" so was the rest of 2020.
"It's all just a little bit of fun really."
