The People Choice Awards were created by the American producer Bob Stivers. The inaugural show took place on March 3, 1975. The first laureates included Barbra Streisand as Favorite Film Actress, John Wayne as Favorite Film Actor, and George Roy Hill’s film The Sting as Favorite Picture. The hosts were Army Archerd and Richard Crenna. In 1982, the show’s only sponsor Procter & Gamble bought the show from Stivers and has been producing it ever since.
The awards were originally based on results from Gallup polls. Gallup is an American company known for its public opinion polls. Each year, it took a survey of different award categories. The scope was unlimited – the poll participants could choose any actor, actress, movie, television program, artist or band they liked. The results of the previous year’s survey were announced during the annual People’s Choice Awards Ceremony. Since all surveys have the margin of error, awards often had ties in at least one category. In such cases, Gallup couldn’t choose a single winner because the voting was too close.
In 2004, Gallup polls were replaced with Internet voting. The switch to online voting required to select nominees for voters to choose from. The nominees for the 31st PCAs were selected by a panel of pop culture fans, the show’s production team and editors at the Entertainment Weekly magazine (EW). The nominees for the subsequent votes were determined by media research companies such as Knowledge Networks and Visible Measures. There are over 60 award categories divided into four big groups: Movies, Television, Music, Digital.
The People’s Choice Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles every January and broadcast live on CBS. It is hosted by one or more celebrities. Previous hosts include Jane Lynch, Allison Janney, Anna Faris, Kat Dennings, Queen Latifah, Craig Ferguson, Charlie Sheen, and others.
Photo: peopleschoice.com
