At Sunday’s Teen Choice Awards I was surprised to see that so many winning acts were there to accept their award. (Except for the bands One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer. 5SOS had the foresight to tape an acceptance speech from a shower room while wearing only towels.) There may be a very good reason for that. Not surprisingly at all, several nominees have revealed that the winners knew at least six days ahead of time that they were going to win. That means that most of the online voting in the interim leading up to the show doesn’t count. Of course the fine print on the Teen Choice Awards website indicates that the final winners are determined by producers. This lead the hashtag #TeensDontHaveAChoiceAwards to start trending on Twitter.
People are furious after discovering that Fox’s Teen Choice awards are rigged.
Fans picked up on the fine print in Sunday’s telecast, which read:
Winners for the Teen Choice Awards are determined using the votes cast on Teenchoiceawards.com. Votes are tabulated electronically and winners are determined based on the nominees in each category with the highest number of eligible votes. Teenasaurus Rox reserves the right to choose the winner from the top four vote getters. The Olay Fresh Effects Breakout Star Award and Ultimate Choice Award were both chosen by Teenasaurus Rox.
The rules are also printed on the Teen Choice Awards website, but the kid-friendly awards show has always given off the impression that fan votes determine the winners. In reality, winners are chosen and notified ahead of time to ensure celebrities like the Kardashians attend the show.
After angry Vine stars tweeted their frustration, #TeensDontHaveAChoiceAwards became the top Twitter trending topic during the broadcast.
Vine celebrity Cameron Dallas, who has 3.11 million Twitter followers, exposed the show by tweeting (and then deleting):
“He already knew he was going to win that’s why he didn’t promote and that’s why he didn’t seem surprised.
“It’s funny how they told me I won the viner award 6 days before the voting ended and made the runners up still tweet to vote for them.”
Dallas, who won “Choice Viner,” was upset he lost “Choice Web Star: Male” to YouTube personality Tyler Oakley.
Fellow Vine sensation Matthew Espinosa tweeted to his nearly 2 million followers: “Basically they picked the people almost 6 days before voting was done and used all of us for promotion.” But he was quick to add, “Idc about all the drama tonight. Why don’t we tell each other why we’re happy! #ImHappyBecause you all make me smile every day.”
Fans, meanwhile, were outraged.
I guess we know now how Keeping Up With The Kardashians won for Choice Reality Show against Cosmos, Dance Moms, Real Husbands of Hollywood and Total Divas. How they can put KUWTK in the same category as Cosmos is beyond me.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I don’t follow teen pop culture as much as I should and I don’t have a teen at home, but I understand the extreme frustration that these kids must feel. The Teen Choice Awards website gives the impression that the votes count, and includes taglines like “Your Choice,” “Your Voice” and “Vote Every Day.” Imagine if it came out that American Idol was rigged. The whole premise of Teen Choice is that the teens chose their favorite acts. Even though it seems obvious to some of us watching from the sidelines that the show is pre-determined, it’s got to be disappointing for young fans to learn that their votes don’t count.
On the other side I do understand that producers want the winners to show up, but it does seem very unfair to teens. The awards are supposed to be determined by teens, and that’s not really happening.
Here are some of the tweets that stood out for me.
A representation of how every fandom feels about this: #TeensDontHaveAChoiceAwards pic.twitter.com/sxSvZ0g6Yd
— ー (@HopelesslyAri) August 11, 2014
the fact that they make us think we have a part in helping our idols win is sickening #TeensDontHaveAChoiceAwards pic.twitter.com/9wGszIld7r
— amy ◡̈ (@aweestyles) August 11, 2014
so basically the last 6 days we voted our asses off for our favs & they didn’t even count #TeensDontHaveAChoiceAwards pic.twitter.com/IZuzZTv4mZ
— kmeezy (@mahoneisbabe) August 11, 2014
photo credit: WENN.com
This is a surprise?
Right? I thought everybody knew lol.
What the?!??!!!?!? Awards shows are fixed?!??!?!
Why… the outrage….
(and so forth)
#FirstWorldProblems
So I guess my question is Who Cares?
They’re not really representative of anything, regardless of what they’re called or pretense. I mean, come on, at some level everyone know it’s completely contrived. Except for teens, apparently.
They probably could have done a better job hiding that fact from the voting teens, just to keep up the fantasy. Let them have their fun. Then once they get old enough to figure out that the Globes and Oscars are a complete wank, they won’t be so upset.
Now can they please expose if any band members from One Direction is gay? That’ll really tear their hearts out!!!! 🙂
I feel bad for the teens but I could have told them this too. They pick the people who pay them to get press, etc. and it makes those like the Kardashians still seem to be hugely popular when they are not.
I think this happens in a lot of awards shows,or more than we could ever imagine. Look at the BET or MTV Awards its pretty obvious the A-list acts show up only if they will pick up an award.
Yeah, all of the awards shows from the Grammys to the Oscars to…this hot mess want to maintain the illusion that handing out statues is this big talent-based process in which voters come together in the spirit of democracy to bestow honors upon the most deserving and ingenious recipients. In fact, it’s as democracy based as our ego driven, big-money and VIP friendship fuelled electoral process. Whatever.
Very articulate, well said. *bows*
Producers who go by the name “Teenasaurus Rox” rigged awards such as “Choice Viner” to ensure celebs like Lauren Conrad showed up to collect the elusive giant surfboard and garner ratings. Am I getting all of that correct? Is Lauren Conrad still a thing? Is The HILLS still on the air???!!!
These kids are dumb. You can look at who’s winning every year, and come to this conclusion.
And Cameron Dallas can just go ahead and shut up. He’s best friends with that Nash Grier kid who made all the homophobic remarks. It just seems like a bunch of spoiled pseudo-stars complaining about the legitimacy of a trivial awards show.
Agree. Nash Grier is a disgusting, racist, sexist, homophobic brat. I don’t understand how he has a following.
Nash Grier is a nasty piece of work. When I was reading this, I did think “AT LEAST NASH DIDNT WIN.” His friend did, but at least it wasn’t Nash.
Most vine stars suck. The only funny ones are the ones that wouldn’t go to these kinds of award shows.
So far removed from this I feel ancient instead of just 30. Was this a thing when I was a teen? Also did not have twitter to express my rebellion.
Cosmos? I was sitting there thinking to myself okay, Cosmo, Cosmopolitan drinks, some famous internet dog named Cosmos….oh no, COSMOS! And to think poor Neil didn’t “win!” 🙂
Well bless. The naivety has to be shattered at some point but this is early. It’s all an illusion that most of us grow out of.
More accurately, publicists determine the winners since it’s all about who actually shows up to this dreckfest. Which F-lister is that desperate?
Welcome to the real world kids
UM SERIOUSLY. THIS IS NOT A THING.
God’s sake….
Exactly- poor kids! Tho hardly think this is on level of finding out about Santa Claus-!!
Finding out WHAT about Santa Claus? o.O
Lea’s poses are so ridiculous. Can she please stop? I hope she goes away once Glee is cancelled.
It always makes me wonder if she is a product of a casting couch.
Its the same with People’s Choice too. The only people who show up to the awards ceremony are the people who win. Of course they get contacted ahead of time because otherwise no one would really care.
Uhhhhh hullllooooooo. ALL awards shows are rigged. Even the hoity toity shows. Nominations and awards are bought. No shock here.
Oh Please. “Vine stars”. “Vine celebrity”. This is what the world has come to? I know some teenagers don’t have a clue about the world but my goodness. To get upset over this, these kids need a smack to the back of the head. These type of “award” shows have always been pointless. Go outside, get off Vine/Tumblr, get off your cell phones & interact w/the world.
Yay high five! Get a real problem kids, or don’t watch anymore…
THIS. Couldn’t agree more.
Seriously, people, especially teens, use social media waaaay too much. Vine, Twitter, Facebook, instagram and more. I have one tumblr account and that’s it.
There’s a world outside the Internet!
it’s hardly a news…sorry kids, but EVERY year they air the fine print at the end saying exactly that. sad the producers really use those kids’ time to promote their products, movie or actor that is
One Direction won big too. Both 5SOS and 1D are touring in the US right now.
I hate to break it to you kids, but you should also know that Santa Claus is not real.
No, but srsly-this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. And I’m sure it isn’t the only awards show that does this.
Hey now @Grabbyhands.. don’t go dissing Santa! Everybody knows if you don’t believe, you don’t receive!
Okay now back on topic, this totally cracked my husband and I up, and the reaction from my 14 year old (total drama island about this) made us laugh even harder. And as you could imagine, did not sit well from her.
If I was a teen, I would feel used, manipulated and super pissed.
Remember being a teen? I was passionate about my “idols” and invested in their success.
Who won an award back then felt important. It was heartbreaking if NKOTB lost to someone during an awards ceremony.
If I was participating in an operation which was designed to make me feel like I had a voice only to find out I was a puppet, I would have been livid.
I’d be livid NOW if that happened to me.
Good for these kids. They are smart and organized enough to create change. My generation was complacent and didn’t have social media, so we sat by and accepted this.
Ok, come on now. “Change”??? really?? it’s an awards show, not the civil rights movement…
So, is it the same for the audience voting on the singing competition, like American Idol?
Do they really count the votes, or do the producers decide who will stay, and win??
I would care more if these teens organized and cared about true travesties that have occurred over the past 72-hours– that involved a teen. So much potential, this generation, and so much of it squandered over trivial concerns. I thought everyone knew these things were rigged at this point.
I knew that the winners were determined before they even showed up hence the red carpet. I didn’t know the producers were picking the winners from the biggest vote getters. Seems unfair for the kids. On the other hand are their choices any different from the producers? Twilight kept getting all the awards for years when it wasn’t warranted. Because of fans or producers knowing a good advert when they see it?
” Imagine if it came out that American Idol was rigged. ” ?????
Has anyone ever assumed that it wasn’t?
Any awards show that gives a turkey like “Divergent” a best movie award is a dead giveaway that it’s fixed.