The Teen Choice Awards were an annual awards show that aired on the Fox television network between 1999 and 2019. The awards honored the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United States, aged 13 and over, through various social media sites; primarily Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.[1]
The awards show has been on an indefinite hiatus since the 2019 edition.
History
Executive producers, Bob Bain and Michael Burg, came together to create an award show geared toward a teen demographic, somewhat older than that of the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, but similar to that of MTV. The format of the show has remained the same over the years, awarding the achievements of those in the entertainment and athletic industries with non-traditional categories fixed into the ceremony.
Ballots were once used in teen-oriented magazines, where readers were to purchase and tear out their ballot. Votes could also be cast online through the fox.com website. In 2008, Fox and the show's producers created Teenchoiceawards.com as the official website for the Teen Choice Awards. In 2009, the number of votes cast was in excess of 83 million. Votes are now cast online through Twitter, FOX.com, and the FOX NOW app. In 2016, more than 37 million votes were cast.[2]
Since the ceremony's inception, the show has given out genuine custom-made surfboards to individual winners. The surfboard was chosen as the award because it represents the freedom of the summer vacation for teens.[3] In 2009, Hugh Jackman, upon winning his first one, said that he was no longer the only Australian without a surfboard.[4]
Categories
These were the categories that were presented at the teen choice awards from 1999 to 2019. This list also includes categories that were renamed, split, or grouped.
Choice Music: Breakout Group, Choice Love Song (5), Choice Summer Music Star: Group (2), Choice Music Group (3), Choice Single: Group (3), Choice Summer Tour (3), Choice Social Media King, Choice Twit, Choice Break-Up Song, Choice Fanatic Fans, Choice Male Hottie (2), Choice Music: Song: Group, Choice Music: Male Group, Choice Selfie Taker, Choice Party Song, Choice Fandom
Choice Male Artist (5), Choice Summer Music Star Male (2), Choice Music: Pop Album, Choice Music: Breakout Artist Male, Choice Male Hottie, Choice Red Carpet Fashion Icon: Male, Choice TV: Villain, Choice Twit (2), Choice Single: Male Artist (3), Choice Twitter Personality, Choice Break-Up Song, Choice Social Media King, Choice Music: Latin Song, Choice Summer Song, Choice Music: R&B/Hip-Hop Song
Choice Reality Hunk, Choice Reality/Variety TV Star: Male (2), Choice TV Actor, Choice TV Personality (2), Choice TV Male Personality, Choice TV Actor: Comedy (2), Choice Movie Rockstar Moment, Choice Movie Actor: Comedy, Choice Movie Actor: Romantic Comedy (3), Ultimate Choice Award
Choice Male Actor: Comedy (3), Choice Movie Actor: Drama (2), Choice Movie Actor: Romance, Choice Movie Actor: Music/Dance, Choice Male Hottie, Choice Rockstar Moment, Choice Breakout TV Star, Choice Collaboration, Choice TV Chemistry, Choice Movie Ship, Choice Male Red Carpet Fashion Icon
Choice Summer Song (2), Choice Music Group: Female, Choice Female Hottie, Choice Social Media Queen, Choice Song: Movie or TV, Choice Music Group, Choice Song: Group, Choice Summer Group, Choice Fandom
In 2008, Dosomething.org sponsored the Do Something Award—which recognized young people. Nine nominees—who saw a problem in the world and then tackled it—each won $10,000 for their cause. The winner received $100,000. The Do Something Award (formerly the BR!CK Awards) is a program of Do Something, a New York-based non-profit that reaches[clarification needed] about 11.5 million young people annually. The award was not presented in 2009. It was replaced with "Choice Celebrity Activist", which was won by Hayden Panettiere.
Controversy
On August 11, 2014, after losing his category, Vine star Cameron Dallas tweeted that the awards ceremony was "rigged", saying that he had been informed six days prior to the actual event that he had won the award, and the runners-up were told to still try to solicit votes from their followers, even though the results had already been decided. He also tweeted "So I found out that the Teen Choice Awards were rigged and used powerful internet people for marketing. I'm sad now. Television is stupid" before deleting the tweets, saying he "should have taken the high road", but he "didn't like the fact that [his fans] were being lied to".[14] Soon after Dallas' initial tweets, Vine star Carter Reynolds stated that the Teen Choice Awards had "used everyone for promotion", using the hashtag "#TeensDontHaveAChoiceAwards", which soon began trending by fans who noticed the disclaimer at the end of the show saying that the producers reserved the right to choose the winners.[15]
In earlier years of the show, the voting rules page stated "Teenasaurus Rox reserves the right to choose the winner from the top four vote generators".[16][17]
In 2016, controversy started on Twitter when fans became upset when they found out that late pop singer Christina Grimmie won the award for Choice Web Star: Music but was not mentioned during the show. Many fans felt that the award show should have been dedicated to her memory or at least for a moment of recognition.[18]
Notes
^The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was nominated for 4 awards in the Summer Movie categories in 2009 and 12 awards in the standard Movie categories in 2010.
