The Big Ballot

The Big Ballot
Date	1987
Location	New York
Runtime	30 minutes

The Big Ballot was an awards event that aired over four episodes of Nickelodeon's movie review program, Rated K: For Kids By Kids from March 28-April 18, 1987, taking place alongside the shows typical movie reviews, and is considered the predecessor to the Kids' Choice Awards. Unlike the KCAs, the show was less of a televised live event, and more of a pre-produced program. The in-studio hosts for the show were Matt Nespole, Rebecca Schwager, and Mark Shanahan, the hosts of Rated K: For Kids By Kids. The program was sponsored by Bonkers fruit chews and Post Cereal.

Presenters, performers, and format

Hosts

• Matt Nespole
• Rebecca Schwager
• Mark Shanahan

History and formats

The show was conceived as a way to "honor kids' opinions about movies and television", furthering Nickelodeon's campaign at the time of being a network that was "for kids, by kids". Ballots for the show's awards were cast via mail, and then the winners would tape a thank you video that was shown during the program. These videos were introduced, and broken up by "link" segments, featuring the Rated K cast. While The Big Ballot was seen as a success, producers Alan Goodman, Albie Hecht, and Fred Seibert were brought in to rebrand and re-launch the award show the following year, modeling future KCA's after MTV's Video Music Awards, which was under the same banner network umbrella now that Nickelodeon had been purchased by Viacom.

Awards

Below is a complete list of nominees and a partial list of winners. Winners are highlighted in bold.

Movies

The winners for the movie categories were announced on March 28, 1987.

Favorite Movie	Favorite Movie Actor	Favorite Movie Actress
The Karate Kid Part II Top Gun Crocodile Dundee	Eddie Murphy Tom Cruise – Top Gun as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell Tom Hanks	Whoopi Goldberg Goldie Hawn Ally Sheedy

Television

The winners for the television categories were announced on April 4, 1987.

Favorite TV Show	Favorite TV Actor	Favorite TV Actress
The Cosby Show Moonlighting Family Ties	Bill Cosby – The Cosby Show as Cliff Huxtable Michael J. Fox – Family Ties as Alex P. Keaton Kirk Cameron – Growing Pains as Mike Seaver	Kim Fields - The Facts of Life as Dorthy "Tootie" Ramsey Tempestt Bledsoe - The Cosby Show as Vanessa Huxtable Keshia Knight Pulliam - The Cosby Show as Rudy Huxtable

Music

The winners for the music categories were announced on April 11, 1987.

Favorite Music Group	Favorite Male Vocalist	Favorite Female Vocalist
The Monkees The Jets Huey Lewis and the News	Phil Collins Lionel Richie Bruce Springsteen	Madonna Whitney Houston Janet Jackson

Sports

The winners for the sports categories were announced on April 18, 1987.

Favorite Sports Team	Favorite Male Athlete	Favorite Female Athlete
Chicago Bears Los Angeles Lakers New York Mets	Michael Jordan Jim McMahon Darryl Strawberry	Valerie Brisco-Hooks Chris Evert Debi Thomas

Timeline

1988

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