The Weekly Rant: Fan voted awards (with hidden conditions)

Take a deep breath in the mirror, Taylor Nation.

Here at the Swift Agency, just a guy who thinks it’s better to burn out than to fade away, we’re not happy to be just another blog. I try to give you a little bit of a different edge. If you like that, cool. If you haven’t noticed, perhaps I am too subtle about it but that’s the way ah ha ah ha I like it.

The 2013 Teen Choice Awards added a seventh prize for the Blonde With The Sparkly Guitar. She is nominated for Choice Summer Tour for the RED Tour. Officially it’s called “Red” (I started to call it RED all capitals just because I wanted to see how many people picked up on that).

She’s also has six nominations for Choice Female Artist, Choice Female Country Artist, Choice Country Song (We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together), Choice Single Female Artist (I Knew You Were Trouble), Choice Break Up Song (We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together) and Choice Smile. If you are 13 to 19 years old you can vote daily at TeenChoiceAwards.com. The awards air on FOX Networks on August 11.

The Princess in Red also has two nominations to the 2013 MTV VMAs. According to MTV News, she’s nominated for Video of the Year and Best Female Video for I Knew You Were Trouble (have you noticed that every other site follows the standard of putting song titles in quotes, while I put them in italics? I do that on purpose). The 2013 Video Music Awards air August 25 on MTV and VMA.MTV.com, live from the Brooklyn Barclays Center.

So what are her chances of winning any of those awards?

Well… First she has to get a really significant amount of votes. That part is true. The other part is how much the show’s organizers think it will mean for her to win the award. Technically they’ll get ratings from the Taylor Nation as long as she’s in the run. After that, it’s a matter of an executive decision based on certain conditions.

First up, Teen Choice Awards reserves the right to pick the winner from the top four, according to TC’s Voting Rules

Winners for the Teen Choice Awards are determined using the votes cast on the Site. Votes are tabulated electronically and winners are determined based on the nominees in each category with the highest number of eligible votes. Teenasaurus Rox reserves the right to choose the winner from the top four vote generators.

– TC’s Voting Rules

At least they’re being honest. Of course the TCA has five nominees in every category. What your fan voting will be doing is eliminating the nominee with the lowest votes. Then it’s up to their executives. Something tells me they’re not teens.

Now, MTV’s VMA Voting Rules start fair:

The total number of votes submitted during the Voting Period for the “Nominees” in each of the eligible categories will be tabulated by Sponsor and the “Nominee” with the most votes in its applicable category, as determined by Sponsor, will be declared the winner of such category.

– MTV’s VMA Voting Rules

And then… there’s a disclaimer.

 If, for any reason, this voting process is interrupted for any reason, is found to have been tampered with in any way, or for any other reason that Sponsor believes in its sole discretion to be reasonably necessary, Sponsor reserves the right to select the winners at its discretion and may take into consideration the number of votes received by a Nominee up until the time of the interruption or cancelation of the voting process.

– MTV’s VMA Voting Rules

In case you’re not quite sure what “select winners at its discretion” means, let me clear it up: they don’t have to tell you if they picked the winner. In case that’s not clear, there’s a further disclaimer:

If, for any reason, any aspect of this voting process is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical or system failures or disruption, ‘Acts of God’ or terrorist attacks, or any other causes beyond the control of Sponsor which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the voting process or for any reason Sponsor deems necessary, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, amend, modify, extend or suspend the voting process and reserves the right in its sole discretion to determine the winners.

– MTV’s VMA Voting Rules

For me the clencher is that last reason, “or for any reason Sponsor deems necessary”, that really says it all. If we think we ought to do it we will. Of course the old “sole discretion” appears again because it’s not popular to ever disclose that.

The point of both shows is promotion of anything that either network is running. You will see faces from whatever show is about to hit either network. FOX is also pretty obvious about favouring their artists. American Idol winners usually get nods on FOX awards. But make it fan-voted and you got people tweeting about the show and tuning in. Although in the end, they’ll decide the outcome.

I like to think that they’ll go with an artist if they are winning by a landslide against the rest. But we don’t know what we don’t know. Either way, I’m not eligible to vote for either show (US only) so I’m not going to bother. You’re welcome to try to get the Enchantress to the top number of votes. I just wanted you to know that doesn’t guarantee her a win.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/357491778603065345

But no, some sites are spinning this story into Tay not being able to let go of a grudge… Because when she says something serious, people think she can’t take a joke but when she does a joke, then the media has to get serious. Damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. Seems like there’s always someone who disapproves.

Coming up on the Calendar!

• July 19 & 20: The Red Tour at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On sale now. More information on Ticketmaster.
• July 26 and 27: The Red Tour at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. On sale now. More information on Ticketmaster.
• Aug. 1: The Red Tour at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. On sale now. Ticket information here.
• Aug. 2 and 3: The Red Tour at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. On sale now. More information on AXS.com.
• Aug 6: The Civil Wars release their eponymous second album, The Civil Wars.

(Sources: Teen Choice Awards, MTV News, 2013 MTV VMAs, TC’s Voting Rules, MTV’s VMA Voting Rules)