The Teen Choice Awards, an annual event which hands out publicly-voted awards to television, film and fashion personalities, is under fire for allegedly “rigged” results.
The accusation came, somewhat unexpectedly, from one of the winners.
Vine video blogger Cameron Dallas, who won the award for most popular Vine personality, tweeted that he had been told six days prior to the event that he had won.
The tweet was later deleted but screen captures of it, and other deleted tweets, have since surfaced online.”It’s funny how they told me I won the Viner award six days before the voting ended and made the runners up still vote to tweet for them,” Dallas wrote on his Twitter account.
Another nominee, Vine video blogger Matt Espinosa, added: “Basically they picked the people almost six days before voting was done and used all of us for promotion.”
As a result of the chorus of protest which followed the tweets on social media, the hashtag #TeensDontHaveaChoiceAwards began trending worldwide on Twitter overnight.
Then protest turned to incandescent rage when a screen capture of the program’s closing credits surfaced on Twitter.
It read, in part: “Votes are tabulated electronically and winners are determined based on the nominees in each category with the highest number of eligible votes. [Production company] Teenasaurus Rox reserves the right to choose the winner from the top four vote getters.”
The brouhaha has turned an awkward spotlight on one of Hollywood’s rarely-discussed realities: that celebrities at B-tier awards events are often tipped the outcome ahead of time to ensure the winner, at least, attends.
Among the higher-profile winners were the Kardashian family and singer Taylor Swift.
The boy band One Direction also won, but did not attend. Instead, in a footnote which did not escape notice on social media, they pre-taped an acceptance speech wearing the same clothes they wore to a PR event in New York several days prior to the close of voting.
The producers have not commented on the scandal.
The event, which is held in Los Angeles, featured actresses Megan Fox and Lea Michele, singer Jennifer Lopez and reality television personality Kim Kardashian as presenters. It also featured musical performances by Demi Lovato and Jason Derulo.
It was broadcast in the US on the Fox network.
Full list of winners for the 2014 Teen Choice Awards:
VINER
Cameron Dallas
SUMMER SONG
Demi Lovato, Really Don’t Care feat. Cher Lloyd
MOVIE ACTOR – DRAMA
Ansel Elgort, The Fault in Our Stars
MOVIE BREAKOUT STAR
Ansel Elgort, The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent
TV – DRAMA
Pretty Little Liars
TV ACTOR – DRAMA
Ian Harding, Pretty Little Liars
SUMMER TV STAR – MALE
Tyler Blackburn, Pretty Little Liars
REALITY SHOW
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
MOVIE ACTOR – SCI-FI/FANTASY
Josh Hutcherson, Catching Fire
TV ACTRESS – SCI-FI/FANTASY
Nina Dobrev, The Vampire Diaries
Ad Feedback
MOVIE ACTRESS – ACTION/ADVENTURE
Shailene Woodley, Divergent
CANDIE’S STYLE ICON
Zendaya
TV ACTRESS – DRAMA
Lucy Hale, “Pretty Little Liars”
MOVIE – DRAMA
The Fault in Our Stars
CHEMISTRY
Ansel Elgort, Shailene Woodley and Nat Wolff, The Fault in Our Stars
WEB STAR – FEMALE
Bethany Mota
WEB STAR – MALE
Tyler Oakley
ULTIMATE CHOICE
Selena Gomez
MALE HOTTIE
One Direction
TWIT
One Direction
SOCIAL MEDIA KING
One Direction
MUSIC GROUP
One Direction
SUMMER TOUR
One Direction, Where We Are Tour
SONG – GROUP
One Direction, Story of My Life
BREAK-UP SONG
One Direction, Story of My Life
LOVE SONG
One Direction, You & I
COUNTRY ARTIST
Taylor Swift
OLAY FRESH EFFECTS BREAKOUT STAR
Odeya Rush
WEB STAR – FASHION/BEAUTY
Zoella
WEB STAR -MUSIC
Shawn Mendes
WEB STAR – COMEDY
Our2ndLife
WEB COLLABORATION
Troye Sivan & Tyler Oakley, The Boyfriend Tag
BREAKOUT GROUP
5 Seconds of Summer
SUMMER MUSIC STAR – GPOUP
5 Seconds of Summer
VILLAIN – MOVIE
Donald Sutherland, Catching Fire
MOVIE ACTOR – COMEDY
Kevin Hart, Ride Along
COMEDIAN
Kevin Hart
TV BREAKOUT SHOW
Faking It
FEMALE ARTIST
Ariana Grande
SONG – FEMALE
Ariana Grande, Problem feat. Iggy Azalea
TV ACTRESS – COMEDY
Lea Michele, Glee
MOVIE LIPLOCK
Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, The Fault in Our Stars
MOVIE SCENE-STEALER
Nat Wolff, The Fault in Our Stars
MOVIE – ACTION
Divergent
MOVIE ACTOR – ACTION
Theo James, Divergent
MOVIE – SCI-FY/FANTASY
Catching Fire
MOVIE ACTRESS – SCI-FY/FANTASY
Jennifer Lawrence, Catching Fire and X-Men: Days of Future Past
MOVIE – COMEDY
The Other Woman
MOVIE ACTRESS – COMEDY
Emma Roberts, We’re The Millers
HISSY FIT
Jonah Hill, 22 Jump Street
TV REALITY PERSONALITY – FEMALE
Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance
BREAKOUT GROUP
Fifth Harmony
SUMMER MUSIC STAR – GROUP
Fifth Harmony
BREAK-UP SONG
5 Seconds of Summer, Amnesia
R&B/HIP-HOP ARTIST
Iggy Azalea
R&B/HIP-HOP
Iggy Azlea Fancy, feat. Charlie XCX
TV SHOW – FANTASY/SCI-FI
The Vampire Diaries
TV SHOW – COMEDY
The Big Bang Theory
TV ACTOR – COMEDY
Ross Lynch, Austin & Ally
TV SHOW – ANIMATED
The Simpsons
TV SHOW – REALITY COMPETITION
The Voice
VILLAIN – TV SHOW
Dylan O’Brien, Teen Wolf
TV REALITY PERSONALITY – MALE
Adam Levine, The Voice
TV REALITY PERSONALITY – FEMALE
Shakira, The Voice
TV SCENE STEALER – MALE
Tyler Hoechlin, Teen Woolf
TV SCENE STEALER – FEMALE
Candice Accola, The Vampire Diaries
TV BREAKOUT STAR – MALE
Brett Dalton, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
TV BREAKOUT STAR – FEMALE
Sasha Pieterse, Pretty Little Liars
SUMMER TV STAR – FEMALE
Ashley Benson, Pretty Little Liars
FEMALE HOTTIE
Selena Gomez
– Sydney Morning Herald
