How awards season became the season for fan armies

BY DERON DALTON

This award season the Tylt worked to engage with social communities during major pop culture moments and events. Following our ambitious “Best of 2016” series that mobilized fan armies, we set out to launch our biggest set of themed pop culture stories yet—award season coverage.

Between January and March, the Tylt’s entertainment editor (Deron Dalton) and the social team (A.K.A. “Triple A”—consisting of creative lead Adrian Arizmendi, creative producer Anna Vignet and social media editor Aditi Kini) connected with fan armies of pop music stars, actors and films, to get their opinions and votes to predict the winners in a variety of award season face offs. In November, we did our first series of award show face-offs with the America Music Awards. The AMAs allowed Tylters and pop music fan armies to predict and vote for their favorites to win the respective major genre categories.

The America Music Awards series was a step in the right direction — seeding what was to come. We took it up a notch with our series and brackets on major awards shows—Golden Globes face-off series, Grammys face-off series and then our Academy Awards brackets—giving us many takeaways on how to further engage with social communities around major entertainment events. Our coverage helped us come up with our biggest awards series yet—the iHeartRadio Awards brackets.

The Golden Globes Series:

The Golden Globes series took the top-two contenders and faced them off in a battle that would predict the winner prior to the awards ceremony. Coming off the “Best of 2016” series, this face-off series was produced days before the awards show—pushing us to jump on launching awards series in enough time prior to the ceremony. Still—we produced a successful series on much smaller scale for film awards fans to vote on.

Who will win the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis or Michelle Williams?

—Results: #TeamViolaDavis won over #TeamMichelleWilliams by 64 percent in our poll, and also won the actual award.

Who will win the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali or Dev Patel?

—Results: It was a tight race, but #TeamMahershala beat #TeamDevPatel by 51 percent of the vote. Neither one actually won the Golden Globe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson pulled an upset for his role in “Nocturnal Animals.”

Who will win the Golden Globe for Best Director: Damien Chazelle or Barry Jenkins?

—Results: #TeamChazelle won our poll and the actual Golden Globe.

Who will win Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Emma Stone or Annette Bening?

—Results: #TeamEmmaStone won our poll and the actual Golden Globe over #TeamAnnetteBening.

Who will win Best Actress, Drama: Natalie Portman or Amy Adams?

—Results: #TeamAmyAdams beat #TeamNataliePortman in our poll, but Isabelle Huppert won the actual Golden Globe.

Who will win Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds?

—Results: #TeamReynolds won our poll by 62 percent, but #TeamGosling won the actual Golden Globe.

Who will win Best Actor, Drama: Denzel Washington or Casey Affleck?

—Results: #TeamDenzel crushed #TeamCaseyAffleck in our poll, yet Casey Affleck won the Golden Globe.

Which will win Best Picture, Musical or Comedy: ‘La La Land’ or ‘Deadpool’?

—Results: #TeamLaLaLand won our poll and the Golden Globe.

Which film will win Best Picture, Drama: ‘Moonlight’ or ‘Manchester By the Sea’?

—Results: #TeamMoonlight won the poll and the Golden Globe.

The Grammy Series:

The awesomeness of pop music fan armies is no secret. During Grammys season, we wanted to elevate the voices and opinions of the fan armies who believed their favorite stars deserve to win in the respective categories these pop stars were nominated in. The Tylt launched a face-off series of the best song performances, albums and artists in the top genre categories. These face offs were chosen by a combination of popularity, impact, acclaim, rankings and/or amount sold. But ultimately with our head-to-head predictions, we wanted fans to let us know who and what deserves to win in each category prior to the Grammys on Sunday, Feb. 12, and oh boy—did they tell us (Adele’s Daydreamers, Arianators, Beliebers, Rihanna Navy, BeyHive, Sia’s Lovers, Skelton Crew, etc.)!

Who will win big at the Grammys: Beyoncé or Adele?

— Results: Daydreamers gave #TeamAdele 80 percent of the vote. An emotional Adele won Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year.

Best Rock Performance: ‘Blackstar’ or ‘Heathens’?

—Results: #TeamHeathens won in our poll, but #TeamBlackstar won the actual Grammy.

Best Pop Solo Performance: 'Love Yourself' or 'Hello'?

—Results: 69 percent of votes went to #TeamHello and Adele’s “Hello” won the Grammy too.

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: ‘Work’ or ‘Cheap Thrills’?

—Results: In a tight race, #TeamCheapThrills won over #TeamWorkWorkWork, but Twenty One Pilots won the actual award.

Best Rap Performance: ‘No Problem’ or ‘Panda’?

—Results: #TeamPanda crushed #TeamNoProblem in our poll, but Chance the Rapper’s ‘No Problem’ won the Grammy.

Best Country Solo Performance: ‘Vice’ or ‘Church Bells’?

—Results: Though 67 percent voted for #TeamVice over #TeamChurchBells, Maren Morris’ ‘My Church’ won the actual Grammy.

Best R&B Performance: ‘Needed Me’ or ‘Cranes in the Sky’?

—Results: #TeamNeededMe pretty much crushed #TeamCranesInTheSky with 93.5 percent of the vote, but Solange walked away with the award in the end.

Best Pop Vocal Album: ‘Dangerous Woman’ or ‘Purpose’?

—Results: #TeamDangerousWoman beat #TeamPurpose by 63 percent. But no one could beat Adele in this category.

Best Urban Contemporary Album: ‘Lemonade’ or ‘Anti’?

—Results: #TeamAnti won our debate, but #TeamLemonade won the Grammy.

Best Rap Album: ‘Views’ or ‘Coloring Book’?

—Results: #TeamColoringBook won our poll and the Grammy over #TeamViews.

Best Country Album: ‘A Sailor’s Guide to Earth’ or ‘Ripcord’?

— Results: #TeamRipcord won our debate by 68 percent, but #TeamASailorsGuide won the Grammy.

Best Rock Album: 'California' or 'Death of a Bachelor'?

—Results: #TeamDeathOfABachelor crushed #TemCalifornia, but Cage the Elephant won over both bands.

The Oscars Series (Mini Brackets and Face Offs):

While we tried to maximize on how many major categories we covered and picking the right two nominees to face-off in both Golden Globes and Grammys series — we also found that it was much easier to create brackets that closely matched the amount of nominees in these categories. Enter the Oscars brackets. Of course we could only pick four out of the five nominees the Oscars polls, but picking the four top nominees is sometimes easier than predicting “the top two.” Plus, it’s more fun to give fans and social users an opportunity to predict the winners among most the nominees in the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Picture categories.

The Tylt decided to shift its awards season coverage while the Grammy series wrapped up and launched polls on the Academy Awards. The Oscars would present two mini brackets for “Best Actor” and “Best Actress” categories and bigger bracket for “Best Picture.” Four out of the five performances in the lead acting categories faced off in both brackets.

We also ran a series of regular face-offs for the other major Oscar categories and for Oscar snubs right after the nominees were announced.

Snubs:

Did ‘Deadpool’ get snubbed at the Oscars?

—Results: In one of our major non-face-off polls, #DeadpoolGotSnubbed won by 54 percent over #NotForOscars.

Biggest Best Actress snub: Amy Adams or Taraji P. Henson?

—Results: #TarajiGotSnubbed won by 54 percent over #AmyGotSnubbed.

Biggest Best Actor snub: Tom Hanks or Ryan Reynolds?

—Results: #ReynoldsGotSnubbed beat #TomGotSnubbed by 56 percent.

Regular Face Offs:

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali or Dev Patel?

—Results: It was a tight race this time, but #TeamMahershala lost to #TeamDevPatel. In the end, Mahershala Ali won his Oscar.

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis or Michelle Williams?

—Results #TeamViola beat the competition in the poll and by winning the Oscar. No surprise here.

Best Director: Damien Chazelle or Barry Jenkins?

—Results: Although Jenkins won our poll, Chazelle won the Oscar.

First Round Best Actor Bracket:

Who should win Best Actor: Denzel Washington or Andrew Garfield?

—Results: #TeamDenzel lost in the first round against a very mobilized #TeamGarfield fanbase.

Who should win Best Actor: Ryan Gosling or Casey Affleck?

—Results: #TeamGosling easily beat out #TeamCaseyAffleck.

First Round Best Actress Bracket:

Who should win Best Actress: Natalie Portman or Ruth Negga?

—Results: #TeamNataliePortman crushed #TeamRuthNegga by 70 percent and went on to the final round.

Who should win Best Actress: Emma Stone or Isabelle Huppert?

—Results: #TeamEmmaStone garnered 64 percent of the vote over #TeamIsabelle.

First Round for Best Picture Bracket:

Which lauded drama should win Best Picture: ‘Moonlight’ or ‘Manchester by the Sea’?

—Results: #TeamMoonlight crushed #TeamMBTSMovie in our poll.

Which adapted story should win Best Picture: ‘Fences’ or ‘Lion’?

—Results: #TeamFences went on to the second round with 59 percent of the vote over #TeamLionMovie.

Which heroic biopic should win Best Picture: ‘Hidden Figures’ or ‘Hacksaw Ridge’?

—Results: #TeamHiddenFigures won over #TeamHacksawRidge by 52 percent.

Which blockbuster should win Best Picture: ‘La La Land’ or ‘Arrival’?

—Results: #TeamLaLaLand beat #TeamArrival with 52 percent of the vote.

Second Round for Best Picture Bracket:

Which praised drama should win Best Picture: ‘Moonlight’ or ‘Fences’?

—Results: #TeamMoonlight crushed #TeamFences with 67 percent of the vote.

Which blockbuster should win Best Picture: ‘La La Land’ or ‘Hidden Figures’?

—Results: #TeamHiddenFigures beat #TeamLaLaLand with 54 percent of the vote.

Final Round for Best Picture Bracket:

Which film will win Best Picture: ‘Moonlight’ or ‘Hidden Figures’?

—Results: #TeamMoonlight won the bracket with 76 percent of the vote in the final round, and “Moonlight” won the actual award for Best Picture. (Although, “La La Land” was the mistaken winner at first.)

Final Round for Best Actress Bracket:

Who will win Best Actress: Emma Stone or Natalie Portman?

—Results: #TeamEmmaStone won the poll and the Oscar!

Final Rounds for Best Actor Bracket:

Who will win Best Actor: Ryan Gosling or Andrew Garfield?

—Results: #TeamGosling won the Best Actor bracket, but Casey Affleck ended up winning the Oscar. Although, he drastically lost in the first round of the bracket.