People's Choice Podcast Awards

Founded by

Todd Cochrane, through Podcast Connect Inc. Cochrane later led the podcast host Blubrry.

First ceremony

2006, honouring shows from 2005

Last ceremony

Not confirmed in this review

How winners were chosen

Public vote, with a judging round to set finalists

Categories

22, according to Wikipedia

Status

Postponed indefinitely after Cochrane's death in September 2025

History

Todd Cochrane founded the awards in 2005 to recognise podcasts chosen by listeners. Wikipedia reports that the first show, in 2006, drew more than 350,000 votes and close to 1,000 attendees.

In September 2014 the awards passed for a short time to New Media Expo, a podcasting trade show. No awards were held in 2014. The 10th annual show, the first run only by New Media Expo, took place at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort on April 14, 2015. Control later returned to Cochrane after New Media Expo ended.

Notable winners

Early People's Choice winners included This Week in Tech, MuggleCast, and Keith and the Girl. Later, The Fantasy Footballers won the People's Choice category in several years running. Grammar Girl won the education category several times.

How it ended

Cochrane died in September 2025. Podcast industry outlets then reported that the awards had been postponed indefinitely. Tributes from colleagues described the awards as a project he ran for independent podcasters with little financial return.

Kerrang! Awards

Organiser

Kerrang! magazine, owned by Bauer Media until 2017 and then by Wasted Talent

First awarded

About 1993. The 2013 event was described as the 20th anniversary.

Last ceremony found

June 23, 2022, Shoreditch Town Hall, London

How winners were chosen

Reader and website votes, plus merit awards chosen by the magazine

Gaps

No ceremony in 2017, 2020, or 2021

Status

No ceremony found after 2022

History

The rock magazine Kerrang! ran yearly awards voted by readers, alongside honours such as the Kerrang! Icon and a Hall of Fame. In 2013 and 2014 the event was held at the Troxy in east London. The 2014 show was cohosted by Andrew WK and Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian.

The awards skipped 2017 while the magazine moved from Bauer Media to Wasted Talent. They returned on June 21, 2018, with Foo Fighters, Architects, and Enter Shikari leading the nominations.

Notable winners and moments

At the 20th anniversary event in 2013, Biffy Clyro, Fall Out Boy, and You Me at Six won awards, and Venom received the Icon award.

After a break for the pandemic, the 2022 show was hosted by comedian Ed Gamble. Green Day received the Icon award. Of 14 awards, nine were voted by fans. Bob Vylan won Best Album, Biffy Clyro won Best British Act, Poppy won Best International Act, and Bring Me The Horizon won Best Song.

How it ended

This review found no ceremony after 2022 and no announcement of an end. Wikipedia states that the awards ceased and names the Heavy Music Awards as an informal successor, but gives no firm date or reason.

Costa Book Awards

Organiser

Whitbread, then Costa Coffee

First awarded

1971, as the Whitbread Book Awards

Last ceremony

February 2022, for the 2021 awards

Format

Category winners competed for one overall Book of the Year

Categories

Novel, first novel, biography, poetry, children's book, and in later years short story

Top prize

£30,000 in the final year, according to Books+Publishing

Final Book of the Year

The Kids, a poetry collection by Hannah Lowe

Why it ended

Costa ended its sponsorship and gave no reason

History

The prize began in 1971 as the Whitbread Book Awards. It recognised English language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. The Book of the Year format, where category winners compete for one top prize, was adopted in 1985.

The awards aimed at books with literary merit that general readers would also enjoy. That set them apart from prizes judged on literary criteria alone.

Notable winners and moments

Roald Dahl won the children's prize in 1983 for The Witches. Press reports describe it as the only literary award he ever won.

In 1999, Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf narrowly beat Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Book of the Year. In 2001, Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass became the first children's book to win the overall prize.

Other winners over the years included Iris Murdoch, Paul Theroux, Kazuo Ishiguro, Andrea Levy, Hilary Mantel for Bring Up the Bodies, Kate Atkinson, and Sally Rooney. The 2020 Book of the Year was The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey.

How it ended

On June 10, 2022, Costa announced that it had made a difficult decision to end the awards. It said the 2021 awards, held in February 2022, were the 50th and final edition.

Costa said there were no plans for another sponsor to take the awards over. The Guardian reported that Costa, owned by Coca Cola, had been trading well and had not given a reason. Publishers criticised the decision. Juliet Mabey, founder of Oneworld, said authors and publishers would feel the loss keenly.

What came after

No successor prize was announced.

Teen Choice Awards

Network

Fox

Created by

Executive producers Bob Bain and Michael Burg

First ceremony

1999

Last ceremony

August 11, 2019, Hermosa Beach, California

How winners were chosen

Votes from teens, first on ballots printed in magazines and later online

Trophy

A custom surfboard

Status

Indefinite hiatus since 2019

History

Bain and Burg designed the show for an audience slightly older than the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. Categories covered film, television, music, sport, fashion, and the internet.

Readers of teen magazines once tore out paper ballots. Voting later moved to fox.com, then to a dedicated site launched in 2008, and finally to Twitter and the Fox Now app.

Notable winners and moments

Britney Spears won 11 awards, including the Ultimate Choice award, which Miley Cyrus presented to her in 2009. Cyrus herself was an 18 time winner. In 2017 she was due to receive the Ultimate Choice award but withdrew at the last minute, Reuters reported.

The 2019 ceremony was the only one held outdoors, on a temporary beach stage near the Hermosa Beach pier. Avengers: Endgame, Riverdale, and BTS each won four awards. Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers received special awards.

How it ended

No ceremony has been held since August 2019.

Hollywood Film Awards

Producer

Dick Clark Productions in later years

Broadcast

CBS in some years

First ceremony

1997

Last ceremony

November 3, 2019, the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills

How winners were chosen

Honorees were announced in advance, not voted

Timing

Usually October or November, at the start of awards season

History

The event presented itself as the first stop of awards season. It drew major stars but was often criticised. Wikipedia cites a Los Angeles Times column that described the selection process as vague and said a winner's promise to attend appeared to be the main requirement.

The final ceremony

The 23rd ceremony in 2019 lasted about three hours and drew more than 700 guests, Fortune reported. Nicole Kidman presented Charlize Theron with a career achievement award. Presenters included Francis Ford Coppola, Willem Dafoe, Jennifer Garner, and Robert Downey Jr. Fortune noted that the event, once televised on CBS, had a looser feel by then.

How it ended

No ceremony has been found after 2019.

Q Awards

Organiser

Q magazine, published by EMAP and then by Bauer Media from 2008

First awarded

1990, in central London

Last full ceremony

2019

Venues

Included Abbey Road Studios and, later, the ballroom of the Park Lane Hotel in London

Final award

A one off Classic Songwriter award to Paul Heaton in 2020

Why it ended

Q magazine closed in July 2020

History

Q was launched in October 1986 by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, both former presenters of the BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test. The magazine started its annual awards in 1990. They became one of the best publicised music awards in Britain.

Many Q Awards honoured a career rather than a single year. In the later years, those lifetime honours usually outnumbered the awards for recent work.

Notable winners

Winners at the 2019 ceremony included Madness, Lana Del Rey, Dizzee Rascal, and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth.

How it ended

Bauer Media tried to sell Q and found no buyer. On July 20, 2020, editor Ted Kessler announced that the issue due on July 28 would be the last. It was issue 415. Kessler said the pandemic alone caused the closure, after years of running a lean operation in a hard print market.

The 2020 awards had been booked for two nights at the Roundhouse in London. After the closure, Kessler said Paul Heaton, formerly of the Housemartins and the Beautiful South, had donated a large sum that was shared among more than 40 former staff. The staff thanked him with a final award inscribed to Q's all time classic songwriter.

What came after

According to Wikipedia, Q began posting online again in 2023 and relaunched as a website in 2024.

The Crunchies

Organisers

TechCrunch, with GigaOm, VentureBeat, and at first ReadWriteWeb

Started by

Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch

First ceremony

January 2008, for 2007

Last ceremony

February 6, 2017, the 10th, in San Francisco

How winners were chosen

Reader nominations, finalists picked by editors, and a final vote by a board of investors, founders, and writers. Law firm Perkins Coie tallied the results.

Trophy

A plastic primate on top of a computer holding a bone, a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey

Why it ended

TechCrunch said the event had outlived its purpose

History

Arrington launched the Crunchies as an Oscars for the tech industry. Ceremonies took place in theatres in San Francisco. Categories ranged from best startup and best app to founder of the year and venture capitalist of the year.

Facebook won best startup at the first ceremony. Later categories included hardware of the year and an award for social impact.

Notable moments

John Oliver hosted one ceremony and joked that it resembled the Nobel Prizes given out amid high school pettiness, TechCrunch recalled. T.J. Miller, of the HBO series Silicon Valley, hosted the ceremony in February 2015. Winners for 2013 included Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi and Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo.

How it ended

In November 2017, TechCrunch chief operating officer Ned Desmond and editor in chief Matthew Panzarino said they were retiring the Crunchies. They wrote that the event had started when the San Francisco startup scene needed encouragement and a reason to gather.

TechCrunch sold tickets and sponsorships for the event. Panzarino declined to say whether money was a factor, Business Insider reported.

Guys Choice Awards

Network

Spike, owned by Viacom

First ceremony

June 9, 2007, CBS Studio Center, Los Angeles. Aired June 13.

Last ceremony

2016 according to Wikipedia. TheTVDB lists June 18, 2015, as its last airing.

How winners were chosen

Viewer votes until 2015. After that, Spike picked the honorees.

Trophy

A golden pair of antlers on a wooden base

Model

Patterned after the MTV Movie Awards

History

Spike billed the show as a celebration of things men like. Categories changed most years. Recurring ones included Guy of the Year, Guy Movie of the Year, Funniest M.F., Decade of Hotness, and a Guy Movie Hall of Fame.

The show sold well abroad. In 2010, distributor Fireworks International said it had been picked up in more than 90 territories.

Notable winners and moments

Adam Sandler won the Guy's Guy award at the first show in 2007. In 2009, Sacha Baron Cohen was named Funniest M.F. and Halle Berry received the Decade of Hotness award. In 2011, Mark Wahlberg won Guy of the Year, and The Fighter won Guy Movie of the Year. Robert De Niro presented the Hall of Fame honour that year.

At the 2015 taping, Clint Eastwood made a joke about Caitlyn Jenner while presenting an award to Dwayne Johnson. Spike said the remark would be cut from the broadcast. That show was hosted by Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard.

How it ended

No announcement of the end was found in this review.

The Bloggies

Organiser

Nikolai Nolan, as a non profit project

First awarded

2001

Last awarded

2015 (unconfirmed)

How winners were chosen

Public nominations and public voting

Categories

About 30, including regional and topic awards and Weblog of the Year

Prize

Small and playful. Global Voices reported that 2009 winners received 2,009 US cents.

History

The Bloggies began in 2001, early in the blogging era. Early categories reflected the tools of the time, such as best weblog powered by Manila or PITAS. Results were often announced at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.

Categories changed with the medium. In 2007, the best tagline and best podcast categories were dropped, and sports and music blogs were added.

Notable winners

In 2005, Boing Boing won the top overall prize, BBC World News reported. PlasticBag.org won best British blog and a lifetime award. Gawker Media and Dooce took four prizes each. Dooce's writer was one of the first people known to be fired over a blog.

PostSecret led the 2006 awards. In 2012, the 12th year, Watts Up With That won best science blog for the second year in a row and a lifetime achievement award.

How it ended

No public announcement of the end was found.

Guardian First Book Award

Organiser

The Guardian, run with Waterstones in later years

Predecessor

The Guardian Fiction Prize, 1965 to 1998

First awarded

1999

Last awarded

November 2015

Eligibility

A first book in English, in any genre, fiction or non fiction

How winners were chosen

Reading groups helped shape the shortlist. A panel of eight judges, including two Guardian editors, chose the winner.

Prize

£10,000

Final winner

Andrew McMillan, for the poetry collection Physical

History

The Guardian replaced its fiction prize in 1999 with an award for debut books of any kind. It wanted to use the judgement of reading groups in bookshops around the country.

That caused friction at the start. In 1999, the reading groups backed David Mitchell's novel Ghostwritten, but the judges chose Philip Gourevitch's book on the Rwandan genocide.

Notable winners

Zadie Smith won in 2000 for White Teeth and Jonathan Safran Foer in 2002 for Everything Is Illuminated. Robert Macfarlane won in 2003. Later winners included Yiyun Li, Dinaw Mengestu, Alex Ross for The Rest Is Noise, Petina Gappah, Alexandra Harris, Siddhartha Mukherjee for The Emperor of All Maladies, Kevin Powers for The Yellow Birds, Donal Ryan, and Colin Barrett.

The last winner, Andrew McMillan, was the first poet to win. He was only the second poet to make the shortlist. He received the prize at a London ceremony on November 25, 2015.

How it ended

On April 7, 2016, The Guardian published a farewell to the prize after 17 years, written by books editor Claire Armitstead, who had chaired the final panel.

World Music Awards

Founded by

John Martinotti, under the patronage of Albert II of Monaco

First ceremony

May 10, 1989, Monte Carlo

Last ceremony

May 27, 2014, Salle des Étoiles, Monte Carlo

How winners were chosen

Mainly record sales, worldwide and by country. Public votes were added in 2014.

Usual venue

The Monte Carlo Sporting complex, with some years elsewhere, including London in 2006

Status

No ceremony since 2014

History

The awards honoured the best selling artists in the world and in each major territory. That gave artists from many countries a stage at the same event. Past winners included Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Shakira, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Beyoncé.

In 1993, Michael Douglas presented Tina Turner with a Legend Award in Monte Carlo. The awards' own description claims Michael Jackson gave his last television performance at the 2006 show in London.

The final ceremony

The 2010 show was hosted by Michelle Rodriguez and Hayden Panettiere. After another break, the 2014 show had a troubled night. Sharon Stone, the planned host, withdrew over a payment dispute. Pamela Anderson and Jason Derulo stepped in. Wikipedia reports that delays, including Mariah Carey's late arrival, pushed the taping about four hours over, and the show missed its planned NBC broadcast.

One Direction, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber won many of the 2014 awards. Big Bang took five. Country awards went to artists such as My Tam of Vietnam and Sakis Rouvas of Greece.

How it ended

No ceremony has been held since 2014. No formal end was found.

Spike Video Game Awards

Network

Spike

Producer

Geoff Keighley

First show

2003 (disputed, see below)

Last show

December 7, 2013, as VGX, hosted by Joel McHale

Format

Awards mixed with world premiere trailers, music, and celebrity skits

Successor

The Game Awards, launched by Keighley in 2014

History

The VGAs were one of the first televised game awards built for a general audience. Samuel L. Jackson hosted four times. Critics often said the shows focused more on celebrity skits than on the awards. Giant Bomb's Alex Navarro argued the shows were more useful for game reveals than for honours.

Spike gave its only Video Game Hall of Fame award to The Legend of Zelda in 2011. With Entertainment Weekly, it also named a best game of the decade. In 2012, the show was streamed on Xbox Live for the first time.

Game of the Year winners

Madden NFL 2004 (2003), Resident Evil 4 (2005), BioShock (2007), Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), Red Dead Redemption (2010), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), The Walking Dead (2012), and Grand Theft Auto V (2013).

How it ended

On November 15, 2013, Spike announced a new format called VGX and described it as the next generation of the VGAs. It was the last show. On November 10, 2014, Keighley announced The Game Awards, an independent show without Spike.

What came after

The Game Awards started in 2014 and continues each December. Epic Games describes it as a direct descendant of the VGAs.

Scream Awards

Network

Spike, with simulcasts on VH1 and VH1 Classic in 2011

First ceremony

October 2006

Last ceremony

October 15, 2011, Universal Studios Hollywood. Aired October 18.

Genres

Horror, science fiction, fantasy, and comic books

How winners were chosen

Public online voting on the Spike website

Top honour

The Ultimate Scream

Why it ended

Falling popularity while Spike was changing its format

History

Spike created the show for genres that rarely win major film awards. It was staged more as a television event than a traditional ceremony. The name changed from Spike TV's Scream Awards to Scream plus the year, and later back to the Scream Awards.

The final ceremony

The 2011 show was held in an amphitheatre built on the Universal backlot. It opened with a crane carrying a woman over a lake of fire and dropping her in, The Canadian Press reported.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 won six awards, including the Ultimate Scream, and the series received a farewell tribute. Daniel Radcliffe accepted remotely from New York. Black Swan won three awards, including Best Director for Darren Aronofsky. Game of Thrones and True Blood each won three television awards. Sean Bean and Lena Headey accepted best TV show for Game of Thrones.

How it ended

The 2011 show was the sixth and last. Bloody Disgusting attributes the end to declining popularity while Spike reworked its programming and name.

Commonwealth Writers' Prize

Organiser

The Commonwealth Foundation, with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation

First awarded

1987, succeeding the Commonwealth Poetry Prize

Last awarded

2011

Format

Regional winners for Best Book and, from 1989, Best First Book, followed by overall winners

Regions

Africa; Canada and the Caribbean; Europe and South Asia; Southeast Asia and the South Pacific

Why it ended

The Foundation said the prize no longer fit its development mission

History

The prize honoured fiction in English by writers from Commonwealth countries. Regional panels chose finalists, and the chairs of those panels picked the overall winners.

Winners included Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Rohinton Mistry, and J.M. Coetzee. Peter Carey won twice, for Jack Maggs in 1998 and True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001.

How it ended

The Foundation announced changes in September 2011 and dropped the main prize. Writing later, it said that after 25 years the prize no longer fit a development organisation and needed modernising.

A first book prize, the Commonwealth Book Prize, ran in 2012 and 2013. It was then dropped as well, so the Foundation could focus on short fiction. Novelist Philip Hensher later cited the change as a warning, arguing that what remained drew little attention.

What came after

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize launched in 2012 for unpublished stories of 2,000 to 5,000 words. From 2014, regional winners received £2,500 and the overall winner £5,000. It is now the Foundation's only literary award.

G-Phoria

Network

G4

First show

Aired August 8, 2003, hosted by Jamie Kennedy, presented by EB Games and Jeep

Last show

2009

How winners were chosen

Mixed at first. From 2006, a pure viewers' choice show.

Hosts from 2006

Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb of X-Play

What replaced it

Its honours were folded into X-Play's year in review until 2012

History

G4, a cable channel about games, launched G-Phoria in the same year Spike started its game awards. The first show featured guests such as Elijah Wood, Ray Liotta, Tony Hawk, and John Madden, with music from Public Enemy and A Flock of Seagulls.

The third show, taped in July 2005 at Los Angeles Center Studios, was hosted by Wilmer Valderrama. GameSpot said it felt more like an outdoor party than an awards ceremony. Halo 2 won Game of the Year that night, and game pioneer Ralph Baer received a Legend Award. Game Developer said the show might have found the right balance between entertainment and games.

How it ended

In 2006, G4 handed the show to X-Play and turned it into a viewers' choice show. After 2009, its honours were folded into X-Play's December year in review. X-Play itself ended in 2012.

The Weblog Awards (Wizbang)

Organiser

Kevin Aylward's Wizbang LLC

First awarded

2003

Last awarded

2008

How winners were chosen

Public online voting

Why it ended

Cost, according to an organiser notice cited by Wikipedia

History

A separate program from the Bloggies, despite sharing the name. Wikipedia describes it as one of the largest blog awards of its time, widely covered by news outlets, and notes it was described as a right wing answer to the Bloggies.

How it ended

Wikipedia says 2008 was the final year and that the 2009 awards were called off because of the cost of running them.

Smash Hits Poll Winners Party

Organiser

Smash Hits magazine

Readers' poll

Results printed in the magazine from the 1979 poll

First televised party

October 30, 1988, aired on BBC1 and Radio 1

Last show

November 20, 2005 (unconfirmed)

Networks

BBC1 from 1988 to 2000, then Channel 4 as the T4 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party

How winners were chosen

Votes by the magazine's readers

Why it ended

Smash Hits closed in early 2006

History

The poll started in print. In 1988 it became a live television event, first produced by Harvey Goldsmith and Janet Street-Porter. Hosts over the years included Phillip Schofield, Simon Mayo, Ant and Dec, Will Smith, June Sarpong, and Vernon Kay.

The first party, held on October 30, 1988, had an underwater theme. Salt N Pepa, Wet Wet Wet, Rick Astley, Bros, and Yazz performed. Wet Wet Wet won Best Album and Michael Jackson won Best Male Artist, according to the Royal Albert Hall archive.

Notable moments

In 1991, the band Carter USM had their performance cut short and wrecked the stage, in an incident with host Phillip Schofield that became the show's best known moment. Group winners over the years included Bros, New Kids on the Block, Take That, Spice Girls, Westlife, Busted, and Girls Aloud. The after party drew almost as much press as the show.

How it ended

The event ended with the closure of Smash Hits magazine in February 2006.

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

Organiser

Blockbuster Entertainment, the video rental chain

First ceremony

June 3, 1995, Pantages Theatre, Los Angeles

Last ceremony

Taped April 10, 2001, Shrine Auditorium. Aired April 11 on Fox.

Networks

CBS in 1995, UPN from 1996 to 1998, Fox from 1999 to 2001

How winners were chosen

Votes by Blockbuster customers

Categories

Film and music, with video games added in 2000

Why it ended

The 2002 show was cancelled, citing uncertainty after the September 11 attacks

History

Blockbuster created the awards at its peak to honour popular films that rarely won at the Oscars and to bring customers into its stores. The first show, hosted by Cindy Crawford and William Baldwin and produced by Ken Ehrlich, drew about 10 million viewers on CBS, Wikipedia reports. Jim Carrey won three awards that year.

The show moved from CBS to UPN and then to Fox. Retrospective coverage argues it struggled to stand out from other second tier awards shows.

The final ceremony

At the 2001 show, Ricky Martin and Creed performed and 'NSync won three awards.

How it ended

Late in 2001, Blockbuster cancelled the show planned for April 2002. It cited economic uncertainty after the September 11 attacks and a sluggish market, and said it could not predict viewers' behaviour. It pointed to the delayed and poorly watched Emmy Awards and worried about celebrity attendance. Viewership had also fallen in 2001.

Blockbuster said the show might return in 2003. It never did.