Popularity rules at People’s Choice Awards

“It means so much, because it comes from the people!”

Numerous variations on that winner-spoken sentiment are standard elements of the annual People’s Choice Awards, typically the first award show of any calendar year. It still arrives relatively early, though it will be a couple of weeks later than usual when CBS televises the event from Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater L.A. Live tonight.

Mark Burnett — whose own “The Voice” is up for favorite competition TV show — will serve as the ceremony’s executive producer for the eighth consecutive time, with Joel McHale (“The Great Indoors,” “Community”) as the host.

If the People’s Choice Awards, now in Year 42, seem like more of a popularity contest than other shows of its type … well, it is, as proven simply by the way the nominees are determined. Box-office grosses factor in for movies, ratings for television programs, music sales for artists, and so forth.

In a real way, then, the public is voting every time it consumes a piece of entertainment, though more direct voting also is conducted via the People’s Choice Web site and Facebook page. (For this year, that solicitation ended in mid-December.)

Among the interesting statistics of the latest People’s Choice Awards: “Captain America: Civil War” tops the movie contenders with seven nominations; with five chances, “Grey’s Anatomy” is the TV nominee in front; Ellen DeGeneres will become the top winner over the event’s history with one more win (and she has three opportunities to do that); and comedian Kevin Hart is this year’s most-nominated talent with five bids.

Where TV is concerned, some shows may get their sole awards hurrah from the People’s Choice crowd since they’ve already had their original first-season orders not extended – which would seem to translate into “cancellation,” though that exact word hasn’t been used. All sharing that boat, ABC’s “Conviction” and “Notorious,” CBS’ “Pure Genius” and The CW’s “Frequency” and “No Tomorrow” are among the People’s Choice nominees for favorite new TV drama.

Also of interest, some of the movie titles being mentioned as strong contenders for industry honors during the award season are absent from the People’s Choice contests. Slots that might have gone to “La La Land,” “Moonlight” and “Manchester by the Sea” are filled instead by “Me Before You,” “Central Intelligence” and the female-driven remake of “Ghostbusters,” indicating what popular taste dictates as opposed to within-the-profession choice.

Given that, it’s unlikely that the outcome of the People’s Choice Awards will have much of an impact on the film accolades still to be handed out in the coming weeks leading up to late February’s Academy Awards. And that’s perfectly fine, since the People’s Choice ceremony has its own purpose, particularly in following the reviewer-selected Critics’ Choice Awards and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association-staged Golden Globe Awards as it does this time.

The People’s Choice Awards is an occasion for the people, as determined by the people … and the winners undoubtedly will be happy to note that again, and to thank those people, as they take the stage.