Tonight, the 38th annual People’s Choice Awards will air on CBS. Winners are determined by voters on the internet, and in past years this selection process has had predictable results. But it doesn’t explain why the nominees — who are not selected via online voting — are almost all appallingly bad. Below, you can see our picks for the least terrible of the terrible bunch, and you can vote for which awful movies/TV shows/musicians least deserve to lose to the other awful movies/TV shows/musicians. Make your choices and then tell us in the comments which choices that were not nominated actually deserve to win these awards!

Favorite movie
House pick: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Was it the best movie of the year? Of course not, but this is one of the few cases where the People’s Choice nominee actually makes sense. After all, it was one of the movies that people were most excited about in 2011, and it was a fitting close to a saga that so many of us have grown up with. The only question in this category is, why were Pirates and Transformers nominated for anything other than “Loudest explosions?”

More categories and nominees after the jump!

Favorite movie actor
House pick: Daniel Radcliffe
For basically his whole acting career, Radcliffe has defined the role of Harry Potter. This is another case where the People’s Choice awards has actually gotten it right in nominating him.



Favorite movie actress
House pick: A tie between Anne Hathaway and Emma Stone
Now we’re getting into the doldrums. Neither of these actresses turned in a particularly great (or even memorable) performance this year, but they seem to us to be the best of the choices we were offered. Hathaway starred in the lackluster One Day, while Stone headlined Crazy Stupid Love and The Help. Still, at least we can name the movies they were in this year, which is more than we can say for the other nominees.


Favorite movie icon
House pick: George Clooney
Putting aside the fact that there are no women nominated in this category, this was the easiest choice we had to make. While all the nominees in this category have had their moments, Clooney is clearly the man of this moment. He is what we think of when we think of a movie star.



Favorite action movie
House pick: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Was this really an action movie? Most of us would not categorize it that way, but even so, we consider it the best movie of the nominees. The fact that Drive was overlooked in this category, however, is a tragedy.


Favorite action movie star
House pick: Hugh Jackman
X-Men: First Class came close to taking our pick for Best Action Movie, and that’s largely on the strength of Hugh Jackman’s cameo. Although he was only in the movie briefly, his performance is a reminder of his action persona in previous X-Men movies — not much to win an award for, we admit, but better than having to sit through the performances of any of these other nominees. Jackman was also in Real Steel, but it seems like the robots deserve most of the credit for that movie. Again, we wish that Ryan Gosling had made this list for his performance in Drive.



Favorite drama movie
House pick: Moneyball
Almost certainly the first nominee in this group that has an actual shot at winning an Oscar, Moneyball is a legitimately good movie that everyone should see. What is Limitless doing on this list?


Favorite comedy movie
House pick: Bridesmaids
Some called it The Hangover with women, and to an extent that may be a fair characterization. On the other hand, unlike most of the other choices here (Crazy Stupid Love excepted), at least Bridesmaids was actually funny.



Favorite comedic movie actor
House pick: A tie between Bradley Cooper and Steve Carell
Nobody liked The Hangover Part II, but it wasn’t Bradley Cooper’s fault. He was just as funny the second time around as he had been the first. And Steve Carell carried much of Crazy Stupid Love on his back, so he deserves some credit as well.


Favorite comedic movie actress
House pick: Emma Stone
This is also basically because we enjoyed Crazy Stupid Love. The movies for which all of these other actresses are nominated range in quality from “mediocre” to “unbearable.”



Favorite cable tv comedy
House pick: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Sure, maybe the show isn’t as strong as it once was. But it’s still miles better than Hot in Cleveland.


Favorite cable TV drama
House pick: Dexter
This Showtime drama beat out HBO’s Game of Thrones by only one vote in our tally.



Favorite network TV comedy
House pick: Modern Family
So, nothing from NBC was nominated, which is weird. Yes, Community and 30 Rock have been absent for most of this season, but the very best of these shows — Modern Family — is just ok and far past its prime. What is going on with these nominees?


Favorite network TV drama
House pick: House
This category is handicapped by the fact that there are no good network TV dramas. We chose House because, well, why not?



Favorite sci-fi/fantasy show
House pick: True Blood
This show is on the air at exactly the wrong time for people tired of the vampire obsession in our culture, but people who skip it for that reason are missing out. It’s intelligent, interesting, and just trashy enough to be fun. Plus Anna Paquin is perfect as Sookie Stackhouse. Also, again, the competition in this category is not great — The Walking Dead is a good show but that’s about it.


Favorite male artist
House pick: Bruno Mars
In our voting, he just barely edged out Justin Bieber (kidding!).



Favorite female artist
House pick: Adele
This was the closest we came to a unanimous decision, with only one dissenting vote. Adele has had a great year, and is actually deserving of the attention she’s received.


Favorite song of the year
House pick: Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
Just keeping it consistent.