TV presenter Waleed Aly has shrugged off criticism of his Gold Logie nomination by saying he has simply “no words” for his haters.

The Project co-host used his solo segment ‘Something We Need To Talk About’ to react to the storm of controversy surrounding the Sunday night announcement of his nomination for Australian television’s most coveted award.

In a five-minute piece lambasting a budget and timeline blowout in the NBN, Aly briefly strayed off-track to respond to claims he was chosen simply to racially diversify the field of candidates.

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“We’ll have much slower internet which will cost about $10 billion more but we’ll get it one year sooner than Labor,” he said.

“Now, understandably, the guy who set up the company responsible for delivering the NBN is more put out about this than Karl and Lisa were when Lee Lin Chin and I were nominated for a Gold Logie.

“No words.”

A Lee Lin Chin-supported parody account tweeted in May 2015: ‘Just decided to win the gold next year, I deserve it #TVWEEKLogies’. Photo: Twitter

Aly, who is a Muslim born in Melbourne to Egyptian parents, was referring to the unprecedented backlash that erupted less than 24 hours after his Logie nomination was announced.

Lee Lin Chin, an Asian-Australian newsreader for SBS famous for her flamboyant outfits and utterly deadpan delivery style, was also nominated for the award.

The furore regarding the pair’s nomination began when Today show host Karl Stefanovic remarked on Monday that co-host Lisa Wilkinson was “too white” to be nominated for the award.

“Where is Lisa Wilkinson’s Golden Logie?” fellow Channel Nine personality Ben Fordham asked on the breakfast program.

“Lisa’s too white,” Stefanovic – who won it in 2011 – replied.

Wilkinson said: “I got a spray tan and everything, and I still didn’t make it.”

Aly’s comments on The Project on Wednesday night followed another veiled swipe at his critics earlier in the program during a light-hearted discussion of song lyrics.

Aly’s co-host Carrie Bickmore has also been nominated for this year’s Gold Logie. Photo: Channel Ten

Co-host Carrie Bickmore said: “Lyrics are never the way we talk. You don’t walk around going: ‘haters, gonna hate, hate, hate, hate'”, in reference to the Taylor Swift song.

Aly replied: “Actually I spend a lot of time saying that, but that’s separate!”

The controversy deepened on Tuesday after News Corp quoted a “well-placed TV insider” who labelled Aly’s nomination an “embarrassment” and a “complete joke”.

“What has Waleed ever done? Because he does an editorial slapping someone down every now and then, does that qualify him for a Gold Logie? And is The Project successful? No,” they told News Corp.

A later editorial declared “six reasons” the 37-year-old writer, academic, lawyer, columnist, host and musician did not deserve the coveted TV award.

Aly writes columns for News Corp’s major rival, Fairfax Media.

On the same day, The New Daily published an article in support of diversity in the heavily Caucasian-dominated history of the Gold Logie.

Discussion of Aly’s nomination dominated Australian social media on Wednesday.

Other nominees for the Gold Logie this year were: Aly’s The Project co-host Bickmore – who won Gold in 2015 – The Block’s Scott Cam, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries star Essie Davis, and Family Feud and The Great Australian Spelling Bee host Grant Denyer.

Despite the controversy, it seems Aly has plenty of supporters, including one unlikely champion.

The New Daily has approached Aly for comment.