Tony Question

[non-stop26]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 11:52am

I've heard tons of people talk about splitting the vote when there's more than one performer in the same category and show. What does this mean? 

 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:02pm

The idea is that the voters will have opposing views on which performer from the show deserves the award more, thus splitting the votes between the 2 (or more) performers. This would allow for someone from another show to garner enough votes to actually win, even though the performers from the other show seem like more obvious choices to win. 

 
The most recent example that people view as vote-splitting was Judy Kuhn vs. Sydney Lucas. Most people predicted that one of them would win, but Ruthie Ann Miles won. However in the exact same evening, Christian Borle won over his co-star, Brad Oscar. It may happen sometimes, but it doesn't really mean anything for the future. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. 

Updated On: 5/14/16 at 12:02 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:04pm

And there's never any proof that that is what happened, it's just speculation

[asmith0307]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:08pm

I guess a good example would be Fun Home. Last year three actresses were nominated from the show in the same category: Sydney Lucas, Judy Kuhn, and Emily Skeggs. Also in the category were Victoria Clark (Gigi) and Ruthie Ann Miles (King and I). For purposes of this, we are going to exclude Victoria Clark.

Say there are 100 voters (the number this year is roughly 777, but 100 is a prettier number). The term "to split the vote" means that instead of voters just being able to go "I'll vote for the actress from Fun Home", they now have to decide which of the three they are voting for, essentially lowering the numbers each actress receives. 

 

Say, if only Sydney was nominated (and Ruthie for purposes of this example), a vote could look like this: 

Ruthie Ann Miles: 40

Sydney Lucas: 60

And Sydney would win.

 

However, if we put all three Fun Home actresses in the category and keep Ruthie's votes constant (though this is unlikely in real life as some voters would most likely switch), it may look like this:

Ruthie Ann Miles: 40

Sydney Lucas: 28

Emily Skeggs: 12

Judy Kuhn: 20

*note - I'm using a random split of numbers, not my personal beliefs. 

And therefore, Ruthie would (and did) win. 

 

Did that make sense and/or answer your question?

[asmith0307]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:09pm

JBroadway said: "The idea is that the voters will have opposing views on which performer from the show deserves the award more, thus splitting the votes between the 2 (or more) performers. This would allow for someone from another show to garner enough votes to actually win, even though the performers from the other show seem like more obvious choices to win. 

 
The most recent example that people view as vote-splitting was Judy Kuhn vs. Sydney Lucas. Most people predicted that one of them would win, but Ruthie Ann Miles won. However in the exact same evening, Christian Borle won over his co-star, Brad Oscar. It may happen sometimes, but it doesn't really mean anything for the future. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. "

Haha. We were both thinking of the same example.

[Wick3]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:09pm

JBroadway said: "The most recent example that people view as vote-splitting was Judy Kuhn vs. Sydney Lucas. Most people predicted that one of them would win, but Ruthie Ann Miles won. However in the exact same evening, Christian Borle won over his co-star, Brad Oscar. It may happen sometimes, but it doesn't really mean anything for the future. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. "

I agree with you JBroadway but don't forget Emily Skeggs, who was also from Fun Home and nominated in the Best Featured Actress category. So in that case, 3 actresses from the same show are vying for the same award.

Another example is back in 2011 where both Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad from Book of Mormon were nominated for Best Leading Actor. BOM was the hot show back that year yet Norbert Leo Butz won the Tony for his leading performance in Catch Me If You Can. Norbert was amazing but some people say Tony voters split their vote between Andrew & Josh.

Who knows what really happened in the secret ballot of Tony voters but hopefully these examples help answer your question.

 

[hork]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:15pm

People apparently mistake the Tonys for a presidential race, in which the voting pool is dichotomized and vote splitting actually does occur.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:23pm

Wick3 said: "don't forget Emily Skeggs, who was also from Fun Home and nominated in the Best Featured Actress category. So in that case, 3 actresses from the same show are vying for the same award."



Yes, but Emily Skeggs was not likely to win, I don't think. It was really between Kuhn and Lucas, and I think that was mainly the "split" that would have caused the upset, if indeed that is what happened. 

 

I can see how presence of multiple nominees from the same show can contribute to this theoretical vote-splitting, as it can be harder to decide which one contributed more meaningfully if they are from the same show and category. However, it seems to me that this theoretical vote-split could happen between any 2 nominees from any show, as long is there is enough of an even competition between them. 

Updated On: 5/14/16 at 12:23 PM

[hork]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 12:28pm

This theory assumes people vote for the show rather than the performance, and I can't imagine why anyone would do that, unless they had a vested interested in the show's success (which surely wouldn't include enough voters to make much of a difference).

[non-stop26]

Posted: 5/14/16 at 5:16pm

Yes this helped a lot! Thanks everyone