Image Credit: Andrew Eccles / The CW; Joey Lawrence…on August 26! Yes, yes, I know I’m like Santa coming down the chimney and cheekily declaring “I’ll be back on New Year’s with your toys!” But trust me when I say that we’re actually rewarding you for your extremely enthusiastic turnout over the last month of EW.com’s Sexy Beast single-elimination bracket tournament (while, yes, admittedly ratcheting up the suspense quotient to a somewhat unbearable level). Our final matchup (the polls are officially closed) between the Twilight series’ Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and The Vampire Diaries‘ Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) brought in almost 275,000 votes — compare those numbers to your local school-board election, then weep silently for our children’s future — so we decided to celebrate by simultaneously announcing the winner on August 26 on EW.com and in a splashy spread in the pages of that week’s Entertainment Weekly magazine. Yes, folks, if your object of lust was one of the 64 players in our mano-a-beasto melee (i.e. Anna from V, or Wolverine from X-Men, or maybe Ms. Pac-Man), you’ll now have a way to commemorate his/her/its results. To tide yourselves over, click here to see how the full bracket played out, then do visit EW.com on Thursday, August 26, or pick up a copy of that week’s EW at your local newsstand, to find out who took home the title. Thanks once again for your time and participation: If you cast a vote in our tourney, you’ll always be a Sexy Beast to us! And to get an immediate announcement when our champ is crowned, follow me on Twitter @EWMichaelSlezak.]

Image Credit: (FROM LEFT: Damon, Edward) Bob Mahoney/The CW; Kimberly FrenchCleaning up litter on your local highway. Running errands for your elderly shut-in neighbor. Volunteering at the downtown food bank. These are all causes worthy of your valuable time and energy. Unfortunately, they’ll have to wait until next week. Because right now, it is your all-consuming duty to get out the vote in the final round of EW.com’s Sexy Beast single-elimination bracket tournament! Yes, folks, a battle of the beautiful that began almost a month ago with 64 entrants — vampires and werewolves, mutants and machines, aliens and other creatures (even Ms. Pac-Man!) — has been whittled down to just two combatants: The Vampire Diaries‘ Damon Salvatore and Twilight‘s Edward Cullen. So stop what you’re doing, think deeply about the most important question you’ll ask yourself all day (“Who’s hotter?) and then click through past the jump to vote for your favorite. Plus, you can click here to see the entire 64-player bracket and how it played out (then click again on the image for a zoomed-in view). Polls are open for 72 hours only, so support your candidate in battle; only one can be named the ultimate Sexy Beast! [UPDATE, Friday, August 20, 12:05 a.m. ET: Voting in EW.com's Sexy Beast bracket tournament is officially closed. Please visit EW.com on Thursday, August 26, or pick up a copy of that week's Entertainment Weekly magazine at your local newsstand, to find out who took home the title: Twilight's Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) or The Vampire Diaries' Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder). Thanks for your time and participation: If you cast a vote in our humble tourney, you'll always be a Sexy Beast to us! And to get an immediate announcement when our champ is crowned, follow me on Twitter @EWMichaelSlezak.] READ FULL STORY »