From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The People's Choice Awards is an awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is one of the few to be based on the opinions of the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble.

The award show's creator, Bob Stivers (also the creator of Circus of the Stars), produced the first show in 1975. Stiver's first show recognized The Sting as 1974's Favorite Picture, Barbra Streisand as the year's Favorite Actress, and John Wayne as its Favorite Actor. Ratings for the annual event peaked in 1977, when the 3rd People's Choice Awards attracted 35.3 million viewers who witnessed Streisand and Wayne win again. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was that year's Favorite Picture.

Procter & Gamble, the show's first and only sponsor, bought the show from Stivers in 1982.

The award categories have varied over the years. For example, the 16th People's Choice Awards had categories including Favorite All-Around Movie (Batman), and both a Favorite Movie Actor (Tom Cruise) and a World Favorite Movie Actor (Dustin Hoffman). At the 23rd People's Choice Awards Rob Reiner was named the People's Choice Awards Honoree. More recently, the 32nd People's Choice Awards (broadcast in January 2006) included categories such as Favorite On-Screen Match-Up (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers), Favorite Leading Lady (Reese Witherspoon), Favorite Tour (U2), and an award named after a Procter & Gamble brand: Nice 'n Easy Fans Favorite Hair (Faith Hill).

Throughout the 20th century, the awards were based upon results from Gallup polls. Each year, Gallup took a survey of different categories for favorite actor, actress, movie, artist, television program or group. The scope was unlimited—the public could choose whomever or whatever it liked. The results of the annual survey were announced in the form of the People's Choice Awards.

Since polls have margins of error, many years' awards have had ties in at least one category, when Gallup declared that the voting was so close that a single winner could not be chosen. For instance, in 2003, both Spider-Man and The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring were recognized as Favorite Motion Picture.

The winners of the 31st annual awards (aired January 9, 2005) were decided by online voting rather than Gallup polls. The nominees submitted for Internet voting were selected using an unpublished process involving editors at Entertainment Weekly, the show's production team, and a panel of pop culture fans.

The nominees for the 32nd People's Choice Awards were determined by web research company Knowledge Networks, which took what it described as a "pop culture-involved sample of men and women ages 18 to 54" to come up with the nominees after being presented with a list of candidates determined by national ratings averages, box office grosses and album sales, and they had the option to write in their favorites. Again, winners were selected via Internet voting.

In 1988, Nickelodeon created the Kids Choice Awards, a kids version of the People's Choice Awards.

• People's Choice Awards voting site
• Past Winners Database from the Los Angeles Times
• Information and results at the Internet Movie Database
• Public-access prizes, a January 2006 Variety article
• 'People's Choice'? Hardly, a January 2006 article from the Los Angeles Times