EW’s Under-appreciated Entertainer … of … the … Year … is… Psych! No, not the TV show. Psych as in, do you really think I’d reveal the winner Ryan Seacrest-style now? After all, we’re only in round two of our Under-appreciated Entertainer of the Year bracket game, which seeks to reward the unsung heroes of television, film, music, and reality TV. And, speaking of Seacrest, today’s round pits American Idol season 8 finalist Allison Iraheta against Idol season 5 finalist Elliott Yamin. The latter might seem to have the advantage, finishing in third place on the televised singing competition while Iraheta finished fourth, but I have a feeling EW’s Michael Slezak and other Idoloonies will cry, baby, if Iraheta doesn’t bag the win. The movies category boasts another tough battle: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World‘s Kieran Culkin vs. the world Iron Man 2‘s Sam Rockwell. When a graphic novel character takes on a comic book character, who reigns supreme?
Kerry Hayes; Industrial Light & Magic/Marvel; LeAnn Mueller
Over in TV, it’s all about the sassy scene-stealers: Cougar Town‘s Busy Philipps and Community‘s Yvette Nicole Brown will battle it out for the title — certainly Philipps’ ability to play Penny Can on a bottle of wine (or three) gives her an edge? (Not if Brown’s Twitter followers have anything to say about it.) And, finally, in the reality TV category, it’s the Chenbot vs. the bangs: Big Brother‘s Julie Chen fights The Rachel Zoe Project‘s Rodger Berman to see who will advance to round three. But first… you most vote! Click the jump to choose your favorite Under-Appreciated Entertainer of the Year, and click here to see all 64 contenders competing for the title!
Bruce Birmelin/ABC; Chris Haston/NBC; John P. Filo/CBS ; Andrew Durham/Bravo
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Let’s go Elliott
I love his song Wait For You! Definitely one of my favorite songs ever, very incredibly beautiful song.
LOVE both Allison and Elliot but voted for Allison because I think she’s gotten less appreciation than Elliot. I cannot understand why her she didn’t get more air play-so many catchy songs that are immensly better than most of the crap out there.
Yeah, I love her album. It should have gotten way more radio play! Her first single in particular is just amazingly catchy…
Elliot is my favorite Idol I have ever heard/seen on the show.
Agree. “Wait for you” was a pretty big hit off his first album. Alli got nothing even though her material was pretty good.
I was a fan of Elliott and Allison during their respective seasons. Both underrated….both solid debuts. But Elliott’s second album is actually one of the most enjoyable albums of the last 2 years. Every song could be a radio hit….and it is the most played on my ipod. I think radio has ignored Elliott because he’s independent, and radio is controlled by the big lables. Without big promotion dollars, no one knows his album is out there. Go to you tube, and millions of people say the same thing…”this guy is extremely talented. How come more people don’t know about his music? Why is he not on the radio”. If you agree….Buy his music. Tell others about him…and request him on the radio.
Sam Rockwell!!!! He’s the president of the galaxy, after all. He invented the pangalactic gargleblaster. Lived on the Moon. (Twice!) And he knows Iron Man…
Just voted for Allison Iraheta – but not saying she is better than Elliot. Elliot is just not as criminally underappreciated as Allison.
Julie Chen?! You got to be kidding. If she wasn’t f!cking the boss, she’d be another buttafaced asian.
Well Rodger is also f*cking his boss.
Racist much?
There are no words …
Team Kieran. Igby Goes Down is one of the best movies ever.
Exactly. Also my favorite Culkin.
Mine too! People vote for him.
He is only the COOLEST gay roommate ever!
Busy versus Yvette? Kieran versus Sam?! This is getting cruel now.
(Had to vote for the latter in both cases, especially since Mr. Rockwell was *amazing* when I saw him in A Behanding In Spokane earlier this year.)
As much as I love Busy I feel like she gets lots of love from people that watch and appreciate the show. Not to mention her character is written to be the crazy one. Yvette, on the other hand, tends to get overlooked because of the way Danny Pudi and Donald Glover emerged. Not to mention her character isn’t meant to be the outlandish zany one as most of the other characters are. Yet even with all the competition from the others she still manages to be hilarious and make you take notice even if she isn’t the one building campus wide blanket forts or playing pool practically naked.
This is exactly what I was thinking.
Busy is wonderful, yes, but Yvette shines in an understated role, just the exact definition of underappreciated. Vote for Yvette, people, she deserves it.
Trying to pick between Yvette & Busy… heartwrenching!
If it were dependent on which show I like the most, it would be Community over Cougar Town – for me, more inventive and works on many levels
If you haven’t see Scott Pilgrim, then you should not vote on the Kieran Culkin vs Sam Rockwell poll.
Stop what your doing and go watch Scott Pilgrim, Keiran steals it!
Like fech, stop trying to make Allison Iraheta happen.
Allison’s album is dynamite! She has been insanely mistreated & underappreciated by the powers that be in the music industry & the media. She has atleast 7 or 8 songs on her album that could have got a ton of radio play but for whatever reason, there seems to be some sort of conspiracy against Allison. I don’t understand why! I’m saying it now. She is better than Kelly Clarkson & atleast as good as artists like Pink, & past artists like Pat Benatar & Joan Jett. Someone needs to show Allison some more serious attention!
I have a huge amount of love for Allison’s voice. I love her tone and her power.
ALLISON!!! Huge fan. Was very upset when Jives let her go. She was talent and its so sad that not a lot of people know about it
Two really hard ones this week: Sam Rockwell vs. Kieran Culkin, and Allsion vs. Elliott. I like the 4 of them; Allison and Elliott were my favorite contestants on their respective seasons. I voted for Sam though, and for Elliott.