Finally, the truth behind Star Awards!

12 November, 2001

We let you in on the nomination and judging process of the annual showbiz extravaganza.
By Yap Geok Hui

What's in store at Star Awards 2001?

Ok, we've heard you speak, so we'll now spill the beans on the nomination mechanisms of the Star Awards 2001.

· Qualifying period
October 16, 2000 to October 20, 2001

· Who's qualified?
All prime time productions on Channel 8 during the qualifying period and its complete list of cast are eligible in the run for nominations.

· Who nominates?
Internal (I-Weekly, 8 Days, Today and MediaCorp Radio) and external (the various papers) media constitutes 50% of the voters.

MediaCorp Studios (which produces drama and variety programmes), MediaCorp TV (which telecasts and acquires TV programmes and commercials) and MediaCorp News (which produces news and current affairs programmes) constitutes the other 50%.

The complete list of eligible productions and cast under each category are sent to the voters mentioned above. They have one week to make their choices - a maximum of 3 votes for any categories.

The returned forms are tabulated and the top 5 productions or artistes become the nominees.

· How do winners of each category emerge?
The public panel is made up of 100 persons that represent the demography of local TV viewers and who watch at least 3 hours of TV a day. They are randomly selected by the research company (MediaCorp Research), which does the final tabulation.

The professional panel is made up of 7-9 members of MediaCorp's upper management and media representatives.

Scores from each of the above panels constitute 50% of the final results.

Both panels get to watch 5 minutes of footnotes of the productions or performances of the nominated artistes and the scores given are tabulated once again to decide the winner.

· How are nominees of the Top 20 Most Popular Male/Female Artistes chosen?
All full time and contract artistes (for example Jack Neo and Mark Lee, who are actually from J Team) are eligible.

Pictures of these artistes are sent to 600 randomly chosen TV viewers (of 15 years and above) that make up the demography of local TV viewers who watch at least 3 hours of TV a day. Scores are given to each and every artiste.

The tabulated results of this popularity survey make up 50% of the final results with the other 50% decided by the telepoll calls of home viewers from November 16 to November 25, 9pm.

The Top 20 Most Popular Male/Female Artistes
All 40 artistes are winners for making it into Top 20


· The Malaysia Awards
Jointly organised by ASTRO, Sin Chew Jit Poh and MediaCorp Studios (Malaysia), the 3 Malaysia awards below were introduced in 2000.

The qualifying period is based on Malaysia's TV programming schedule.

The nomination list is obtained from a survey of the MediaCorp Studios (Malaysia)'s video market and the pay-TV market by MediaCorp Studios (Malaysia) and ASTRO.

Viewers poll for their favourite artistes/drama using the official polling form published in Sin Chew Jit Poh.

1. Most Popular Actor (Malaysia)
2. Most Popular Actress (Malaysia)
3. Most Popular Drama Serial (Malaysia)