Predicting the winners of the 2019 People's Choice Awards

Will the three Marvel movies in contention cannibalize each other’s votes? We think to some degree but not enough to keep the big one from winning the award. “Avengers: Endgame” made more money than any movie ever. It’s a massive blockbuster hit, and fans and filmgoers seemed to love it too. It won’t win an Oscar, but it’s the ideal choice for an award show like this.

This isn’t the strongest of the movie categories. The best movie of the bunch is Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood…” However, only one movie up for the drama award is also up for the overall movie of the year. That would be Jordan Peele’s “Us,” so it gets the prediction nod here.

If you think the drama offerings were middling, the comedy category is kind of a slog. This was a bad year for mainstream comedy evidently. “Men in Black: International,” a movie that bombed, is among the nominees. People love Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and their movie “Murder Mystery” is up for the award. It was on Netflix, so people didn’t have to go to the movies to see it. We’ll go with that one winning.

All the Marvel movies up for nomination are in this category. We’re talking “Avengers: Endgame,” “Captain Marvel” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Those are all really good movies, and Marvel movies hit with audiences. However, only one of these movies was the culmination of a massive movie story arc. “Endgame” will get the win.

This probably comes down to “Toy Story 4” and “The Lion King.” Both are up for movie of the year. On the other hand, both are also derivative in some way. One is the fourth movie in a series. The other is a straight-up remake. That remake does have Beyonce, though. Let’s go with “The Lion King.”

Will Robert Downey Jr. win for his final appearance as Tony Stark? Does the star power of Will Smith still resonate, even when he’s giant and blue? The biggest star in the world right now, though, feels like it’s Dwayne Johnson, and he starred in a movie from a hit franchise as well. The erstwhile Rock will get the trophy.

This one feels like a lock. “Captain Marvel” brought a female superhero to the forefront of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson has an Oscar. She’s a truly talented actress. Now she will walk away with a People’s Choice Award.

The music industry has fractured. Few artists are in the zeitgeist. We bet you haven’t even heard of some of the people up for this award, but some you may be a fan of. The song that had the greatest reach in 2019, though, was “Old Town Road,” and for that reason alone we think Lil Nas X will get the win.

There are some old-school names on this list. Granted, one of those is all of 30. We also think she will win. Taylor Swift dropped new music this year, and she’s still a superstar. Her fans are also incredibly dedicated. They will get her the victory.

This comes down to the Jonas Brothers vs. BTS, the K-Pop sensation. K-Pop fans are extremely fervent. That being said, the Jonas Brothers have the reunion narrative. They also have fans from back in the day, not to mention their new fans. This is a rough call, but we’re going with the brothers Jonas.

Well, we gave Lil Nas X the Male Artist of 2019 solely for the strength of “Old Town Road.” It was a massively popular song. It was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks. That broke records. “Old Town Road” is clearly the song of 2019.

Albums are sort of falling by the wayside in popular music. Singles matter much more. That being said, people still make albums. “Cuz I Love You” by Lizzo is a strong contender, but she doesn’t have the reach of Taylor Swift yet. This wasn’t the best-received of Swift’s albums, but her fan base doesn’t really care. They probably voted in droves.

Only at the People’s Choice Awards can “The Big Bang Theory” be pitted against “Stranger Things” and “WWE Raw.” Wrestling is extremely popular to a certain fan base, but you know what show is nominated? The final season of “Game of Thrones.” That is going to get the win, even though people were unhappy with the last episodes.

“The Walking Dead” still is watched by some people. “Stranger Things” has a ton of fans, and it had a really good third season. However, once again we have to go with “Game of Thrones.” Its fans are going to want it to get one last win.

“Veep” is clearly the best show nominated, but it’s a vulgar, cynical political comedy from HBO. It may be too niche a show to win something like this. “The Big Bang Theory,” a less threatening show, also just had its final season. If its fans stuck around this long, they’ll probably feel like voting for Kaley Cuoco and Co.

You have probably either seen all of these shows, or none of them. Are you up on your “Real Housewives?” How about your Kardashians? Right now, it feels like the most popular reality show is “Bachelor in Paradise.” That should be able to earn it a victory.

We’ve got a few music shows, including “The Masked Singer,” and then also some dating shows. Could people choose between “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette?” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” would be an interesting choice, but we are going to go with “The Masked Singer” because it’s the newest, so it may have the most passionate voters.

Voting for finalists ran until Oct. 18. Why do we note this? Because Ellen DeGeneres had her controversy related to her friendship with George W. Bush happen during that time. She would have seemed like an easy winner here, but did that cost her votes? Do people who watch Ellen’s show care about that? For the sake of caution, we’ll predict “Live With Kelly and Ryan” wins instead.

If this were the Emmys, John Oliver would walk away with this. However, this is the People’s Choice Awards. This is basically right in Jimmy Fallon’s wheelhouse. Sure, Stephen Colbert gets better ratings these days because he dares to be political (also he’s actually funny). Fallon’s brand of inoffensive comedy and enthusiastic pandering is more likely to appeal to the voters of this award show, though, so he probably gets the win.

“Game of Thrones” could have been included here, but it wasn't. As such, it seems pretty likely that “Stranger Things” walks away with it. It had a really good season, the show is still super popular and it’s the only one of these shows up for TV show of the year.

“Game of Thrones” is up for this, but do people really binge it all that much? It feels like this category is built for streaming shows. The third season of “Stranger Things” dropped on the Fourth of July. A lot of people probably watched it in one day. That sounds “bingeworthy” to us.

Will Kit Harington, here repping “Game of Thrones,” win? The two “Riverdale” guys may split votes. If this was the Teen Choice Awards, Finn Wolfhard would probably be the choice. So let’s say Jim Parsons. He’s won Emmys for “The Big Bang Theory.” Why not send Sheldon off with one final award?

Reese Witherspoon is a movie star, but have enough people seen “Big Little Lies?” People love Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams, but they might split votes. Eleven is still in many ways the primary character of “Stranger Things.” Millie Bobby Brown seems like she may be heading for movie stardom too. It’s a tricky choice, but we’ll go with the British teenager. Williams is British, but she’s 22 now.

Talk about splitting votes. Four shows have two finalists a piece. Kylie Jenner seems like she’s becoming a bigger star. Maybe she’s the biggest star among the finalists. So the prediction here is Jenner walking away with the win.

This is one we don’t really need to predict, but we wanted to include it anyway. This is like the Lifetime Achievement Award equivalent for the People’s Choice Awards. This year, the  awards show is recognizing Jennifer Aniston. It makes sense. “Friends” is still one of the most popular TV shows in the world, and she is one of the big reasons why. Throw in a hit movie career, and Aniston is clearly an icon.