Teen Choice Awards Rigged? Fans Warn Others Of Unfair Voting Rules Ahead Of 2016 Show

The Teen Choice Awards voting process has been clouded by controversy since 2014. After the show, a disclaimer flashed across the screen stating that while fans were given the opportunity to vote, producers reserved the right to handpick winners of their own choosing. That coupled with a comment from Vine star Cameron Dallas sent Twitter users into a frenzy, demanding that Fox change the process.

The 2016 Teen Choice Awards website states that employees of Fox, Bob Bain Productions, Telescope Inc. and affiliated companies are barred from voting. In addition, advertisers, promotional partners and members of their immediate family and/or those living in the same household as those people are not eligible. The site states that only votes cast between 12 p.m. EDT on May 24 and 6 p.m. EDT on July 31 are valid. Each voter gets just one vote per category. The same goes for votes cast on Twitter. The site contains no disclaimer about producers stepping in and choosing a winner, though it is possible Fox will include one at the end of the 2016 award show. Still, it seems fans are losing interest in voting for fear that their votes don’t count.

In 2015, the network amended the rules, removing the disclaimer about producers choice. This pleased fans, but many were not completely convinced. Fans looked to Dallas — who publicly claimed he’d been told he won in 2014 nearly one week before the voting period ended — once more to see if he’d received clarification from Fox, but got no answer. The 2015 site stated that winners were determined based off fan votes from the Teen Choice website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It went on to reveal that all votes are calculated electronically.

Are the Teen Choice Awards rigged? We hope not! Tune in Sunday at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox to find out if your favorites will be bringing home a surfboard.