The TEA's - The Judging Process

[GroobySteven]

Transgender Erotica Awards : The Judging Process

http://grooby.com/groobysteven/steve...process-2.html


Every year, after the show, some disgruntled fan or nominee has a complaint and accusations fly that the show is “fixed” in some way. Given the issues I’ve had with other award shows, which was one of the main reasons for starting The Tranny Awards 7 years ago, we’ve done everything we can to make the process as transparent as possible. I do understand why people can get upset but the simple fact is, everyone nominated deserves to be a winner and only one can be. It does go down to a judges preference which is why we try to pick a spread of judges from industry, fans, professional critics, etc. In the past years our judges have included, Christian XXX, Bob Maverick, Joanna Jet, James Darling, Darklady (AVN), Apache Warrior (Xcritic), Hanna (Transformation), Ecstatic, Frank, Caramel and more.


We don’t announce the judges until the night of the show. They’re unknown to each other and only the Grooby office is aware who each judge is. This stops any collusion or impropriety. Judges are allowed to state who they voted for, after the show – or not. It’s their choice. The judges this year include a TS adult company owner, a “celebrity” in the broader TS niche, a professional critic, an large affiliate website owner and a representative from the FTM side. If a judge has they appeared in or produced in a category, then they have to skip that category.


Each judge gives 3 points to their choice of top nominee, 2 points to second choice and 1 point for third choice. The nominee with the most points, wins. In the event of a tie-breaker, the winning choices go back to the judges.


Judges are advised on what they should be looking for in a performer or a scene to give their ratings. It’s a long and a difficult to job and the judges spend many hours to get to their decisions. I believe this is the fairest way to get to a winner. People often ask why we don’t make it a fan vote only (we do have a Fan’s Choice Award), fan voting often just becomes who is the best at social marketing or manipulating the system. This is an industry award, given by the industry and should be reflective of what viewers are watching (which is why fans, customers, site members etc. are allowed to pre-nominate their favorite performers) but fans also tend to be indiscriminate and will vote for their favorite model, regardless if she was the best in that category.


All nominated DVD’s, websites at scenes will be watched fully and companies are expected to get us access to those scenes or websites or face disqualification.



Please treat the awards, the nominees, the judges and the eventual winners with the respect that they deserve. There is no impropriety involved in the show. The only “favors” that the sponsors get is, they generally get asked to be presenters over non-sponsors, if we have a gap. Just to get to be nominated is an award within itself.


STOP PRESS : SMC Revenue has refused to give Transgender Erotica Awards judges passes to their solo model’s websites.


It’s no secret that their is no love lost between Grooby and SMC for various reasons but this is an industry award supported by every major producer in the transgender niche and more. SMC had a minor sponsorship once in the show’ss history and despite models for whom SMC run their websites being winners over the years (Sarina Valentina, Foxxy, Danni Daniels, TS Jesse, Adrianna Lynn Rush, Jessica Foxx, Eva Lin, Mandy Mitchell, etc.) they’ve been non-supportive of the show for their own reasons. I think it’s extremely petty for the owners of SMC to put their nominees for the Best Solo Site, Kelly Clare, Sunshyne Monroe, Bailey Jay, TS Jesse & Latina Tranny) at risk of being dis-qualified over a personal squabble.
When this was brought up in an email conversation with Martin at SMC, his response to my question was … surprising;


Steven Grooby : “Interesting that because of something I said, you’re willing to block them from an industry award that would bring them nothing but good publicity?
So much for having models as partners, when they can’t even get passes to their websites for competition. The TEA’s or Tranny Awards have had many models who were partners as winners over the years.”

Martin (SMC) : “We’re not blocking anything: feel free to buy your judges those passes, I’m sure the models will appreciate that.”


So Martin, we’re not going to disqualify those models. Unlike your company, we care about the models image and feel it would be unfair to disqualify them because of your personal issues. We’re going to go ahead and buy passes for our judges to get access to those nominees sites on our own expenses. I hope you enjoy the profit you’re making from the models – and I’m sure the models will appreciate the fact, that there is at least one company that still has class and aplomb.

As I’ve suggested to Isabelle and yourself, there are still sponsorship opportunities available like there are every year, and your company could probably do with the help from the publicity and branding you’d get by being associated with this show, so let me know so we can work something out. admin@grooby.com

[AshlynCreamher]

So it sounds like each judge watches hours and hours of porn before voting. How long does that normally last for?

Do the judges submit there votes before the award show or do they announce the votes during the show?

Who picks the judges??

[GroobySteven]

So it sounds like each judge watches hours and hours of porn before voting. How long does that normally last for?

Do the judges submit there votes before the award show or do they announce the votes during the show?

Who picks the judges??

The judging process is a about 4 weeks in total.

The votes are brought into the office well before the show. So we can get the names etched onto the awards.

Some judges apply during the year, others are selected from industry. Kristel normally see's who is available. We've asked quite a few people who've had to turn us down because of the amount of time it takes.

[Ben in LA]

"...fan voting often just becomes who is the best at social marketing or manipulating the system...fans also tend to be indiscriminate and will vote for their favorite model, regardless if she was the best in that category."

This excerpt shows exactly how I felt about the Best-Dressed award earlier this year. I'm sorry, but I had to disagree with the winner. There should've been a limit on who could vote. Quite a few folks joined the forum JUST TO VOTE, and I didn't think that was fair. Hopefully that can be rectified next year.

[Nikka]

Christian XXX a judge?

[Gillian]

What four weeks of judging does to you ...

[GroobySteven]

Christian XXX a judge?

No - he was last year. This year we have new judges./