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The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting," which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s. (Full article...)

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The first season of Smallville began airing on October 16, 2001, on The WB television network. Smallville recounts the early adventures of Kryptonian Clark Kent as he adjusts to life in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman. The first season comprises 21 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 21, 2002. The season's stories focus on Martha and Jonathan Kent's attempts to help their adopted son Clark cope with his alien origin and control his developing superhuman abilities. Clark must deal with the meteor-infected individuals that begin appearing in Smallville, his love for Lana Lang, and not being able to tell his two best friends, Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan, about his alien nature. Clark also befriends Lex Luthor. "Villain of the week" storylines were predominant during the first season; physical effects, make-up effects, and computer-generated imagery became important components as well. The pilot broke The WB's viewership record for a debut series, and was nominated for various awards. Although the villain of the week storylines became a concern for producers, critical reception was generally favorable, and the series was noted as having a promising start.

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Credit: Adam Kliczek, [1]

CRT TV set "Wisła" ("Vistula") made in Poland, since 1955, by Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne

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... that a television station spent so little on programming that a media columnist called it the "IOUs of Cincinnati"?
... that radio station KWKC dropped its application for a TV station in order to speed the arrival of television to Abilene, Texas, which would otherwise have been 89th in line?
... that Japanese actor Kouhei Higuchi prepared for his role on the television drama adaptation of My Personal Weatherman by learning from a weather forecaster?
... that before being restored as a Broadway theater, the Ritz Theatre was used as a television studio, pornographic theater, vaudeville house, children's theater, and poster warehouse?
... that Lifetime Medical Television, "the network for physicians only", charged the highest advertising rates on cable?
... that Ice King, the antagonist of television series Adventure Time, was at first received negatively by critics but later praised for representing mental health issues such as Alzheimer's disease?

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What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen or never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.

— Salvador Dalí

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...that The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, a book that analyzes the The Simpsons using philosophical concepts, is the main textbook in philosophy courses offered at some universities?

...that the 1994 Guinness television advertisement Anticipation used jump cutting techniques to make an actor appear to be performing a physically impossible dance?

...that children up to the age of five can find it difficult to distinguish between television programmes and toy advertising campaigns?

...that the WWF in 1986 introduced a stable of masked wrestlers to keep the injured wrestler Andre the Giant on television, but off the ring?

...that the Zambian district of Chiengi has no television or telephone service?

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Rudolph Cartier (born Rudolph Kacser, renamed himself in Germany to Rudolph Katscher; 17 April 1904 – 7 June 1994) was an Austrian television director, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television, exclusively for the BBC. He is best known for his 1950s collaborations with screenwriter Nigel Kneale, most notably the Quatermass serials and their 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

After studying architecture and then drama, Cartier began his career as a screenwriter and then film director in Berlin, working for UFA Studios. After a brief spell in the United States he moved to the United Kingdom in 1935. Initially failing to gain a foothold in the British film industry, he began working for BBC Television in the late 1930s (among other productions he was involved in the making of Rehearsal for a Drama, BBC 1939). The outbreak of war, however, meant that his contract was terminated; his television play The Dead Eye was stopped in the production stage. After the war, he occasionally worked for British films before he was again hired by the BBC in 1952. He soon became one of the public service broadcaster's leading directors and went on to produce and direct over 120 productions in the next 24 years, ending his television career with the play Loyalties in 1976. (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton Rose Catherine Pinkney

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 2Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 3Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 4The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 5LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 6Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 7First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 8RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 9Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 10An RCA Victor Color TV ad featuring milliner Lilly Daché in 1959. (from Color television)
Image 11The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 12An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 13Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 14This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 15Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 16RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 17The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 18Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 19Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
Image 20LG Smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 21Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 22DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 23A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 24Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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The Claymore anime series is based on the manga series of the same name by Norihiro Yagi. The episodes are directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka and produced by Madhouse Studios. They adapt the first through eleventh volumes of the manga over 24 episodes. The remaining 2 episodes follow an original storyline not found in the manga written by Yagi. The series aired between April 2007 and September 2007 in Japan on Nippon Television. The series follows the adventures of Clare, a Claymore, or half-human, half-yoma hybrid, and her comrades as they fight for survival in a world filled with yoma, or shapeshifting demons.

Two pieces of theme music are used for the episodes: one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Raison d’être" (レゾンデートル, lit. Reason for being) by Nightmare. The ending theme is J-pop singer Riyu Kosaka's single, "Danzai no Hana~Guilty Sky" (断罪の花 ~Guilty Sky~, lit. Flower of Conviction~Guilty Sky). A single for "Danzai no Hana~Guilty Sky" was released on May 30, 2007, and the single for "Raison d’être" was released on June 6, 2007. (Full article...)
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The 40th Daytime Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), "recognizes outstanding achievement in all fields of daytime television production and are presented to individuals and programs broadcast from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the 2012 calendar year". The ceremony took place on June 16, 2013, at The Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST. The ceremony was televised in the United States by HLN and executive produced by Gabriel Gornell.

The evening was hosted by Sam Champion, A. J. Hammer and Robin Meade for the first time and the pre-show ceremony was hosted by Hammer and Christi Paul. The drama pre-nominees were announced on February 27, 2013, and the nominations were announced during an episode of Good Morning America on May 1, 2013. (Full article...)
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Book Three: Fire is the third and final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The series stars Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Michaela Jill Murphy, Dante Basco, Dee Bradley Baker, Greg Baldwin (replacing Mako Iwamatsu as Iroh, who died in July 2006), Grey DeLisle, and Mark Hamill as the main character voices.

The final season focuses once again on Avatar Aang, now seeking to learn Firebending, and his friends Katara, Sokka, and Toph, who must defeat the tyrannical Fire Lord Ozai before the arrival of Sozin's Comet. Concurrently, it also follows Prince Zuko, who is finally welcomed back into the Fire Nation after betraying his uncle Iroh and helping his sister Azula conquer Ba Sing Se in Book Two. (Full article...)
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The Masked Singer is an American reality singing competition television series based on the South Korean television program King of Mask Singer. The show, which involves celebrities singing anonymously in elaborate full-body costumes, was developed by Craig Plestis and is hosted by Nick Cannon. During most episodes, three to six celebrities each perform covers of famous songs in costume in front of a studio audience and panelists Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Nicole Scherzinger, and Robin Thicke. After the audience and panelists vote for their favorite performance, the celebrity with the fewest votes is eliminated from the competition and takes off their mask, revealing their identity.

The series has been broadcast on Fox since January 2, 2019, and has aired eleven seasons thus far. Plestis and Izzie Pick Ibarra have served as executive producers since the first season; Rosie Seitchik and Cannon have also done so since the second and third, respectively. As the highest-rated entertainment series in the adults 18–49 key demographic both television seasons it has aired, the program's ratings have remained consistently high. Owing to its success, an aftershow, The Masked Singer: After the Mask, was formed as a spin-off. The series's costume designer has won a Costume Designers Guild Award in the Excellence in Variety, Reality-Competition, Live Television category, and has received two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming nominations. Aside from double-length episodes, most run for about 43 minutes. (Full article...)
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Breaking Bad is an American television crime drama series created by Vince Gilligan that premiered on AMC on January 20, 2008. Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the show follows the life of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher struggling with stage-three lung cancer who decides to produce and distribute crystal meth with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to secure his family's financial future. Concurrently, his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) grows suspicious and his brother-in-law and DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) begins to investigate. After five seasons and a total of 62 episodes, the series concluded on September 29, 2013.

Upon its release, Breaking Bad became one of the highest-rated shows on network television and received universal acclaim, with particular praise for its acting, characters, writing, direction, and cinematography; it entered the Guinness World Records in 2014 as the most critically acclaimed show of all time. Its impact on television resulted in the creation of the spin-off series Better Call Saul, centered on the character of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), and a sequel released in 2019 as El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, both of which also received positive reviews. (Full article...)
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Arrested Development is an American television sitcom that aired for three seasons on the Fox network from November 2, 2003, to February 10, 2006, and began streaming a fourth season on Netflix on May 26, 2013. The show centers on the Bluth family, a formerly wealthy, habitually dysfunctional family, and is presented in a continuous format, incorporating hand-held camera work, narration, archival photos, and historical footage.

Since its debut, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim and has been nominated for a variety of different awards. Arrested Development has received nominations for twenty-five Primetime Emmy Awards (six wins for the series, including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2004), eight TCA Awards (three wins), four Golden Globe Awards (one win), three Writers Guild of America Awards (one win), five Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Producers Guild of America Awards, among other awards. (Full article...)
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Brotherhood, an American television drama series created by Blake Masters, premiered on July 9, 2006, on the cable network Showtime in the United States. It ended its first season on September 24, 2006. The show's second season debuted on September 30, 2007, and ended on December 2, 2007.
The show's third and final season premiered on November 2, 2008, and concluded on December 21, 2008. There are eleven episodes in the first season, ten in the second, and eight in the third – twenty-nine episodes aired, in total. The episodes are approximately 50 minutes long each.

Brotherhood is set in Providence, Rhode Island and centers on the Irish-American Caffee brothers, who hail from a fictional working-class neighborhood known as "The Hill". Tommy Caffee (Jason Clarke) is a respected local politician; he is a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Michael Caffee (Jason Isaacs) is a professional criminal who is involved with the Irish Mob of New England.
Throughout the series, the brothers' professional and private lives are intertwined. (Full article...)
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The fourth season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing on the ABC network in the United States, and on CTV in Canada on January 31, 2008, and concluded on May 29, 2008. The season continues the stories of a group of over 40 people who have been stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific, after their airplane crashed there more than 90 days prior to the beginning of the season. According to Lost's executive producers/writers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, there are two main themes in the fourth season: "the castaways' relationship to the freighter folk" and "who gets off the island and the fact that they need to get back".

The fourth season was contemporaneously acclaimed for its flash-forwards, pace and new characters. Retrospective reviews have been more critical of the season, and later seasons of Lost as a whole. (Full article...)
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Moonlighting is an American comedy-drama television show created in 1985 by writer Glenn Gordon Caron. It centers on Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), a former model who loses most of her financial assets due to her accountant's embezzlement but unexpectedly finds that she owns a detective agency. She teams up with cocky, chauvinistic investigator David Addison (Bruce Willis) to run the agency and becomes embroiled in various unusual cases. The show's other regular characters are Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley), the agency's receptionist, and Herbert Viola (Curtis Armstrong), one of the agency's investigators, who was introduced in the third season and became a featured character in the fourth season. The show mixes drama, comedy and romance, and often incorporates fantasy sequences or breaks the fourth wall.

The series premiered on ABC in the United States with a feature-length pilot episode on March 3, 1985. The series lasted 5 seasons, but only 66 episodes were produced, a low figure for American television, for which a full season normally includes at least 22 episodes. The show became notorious for failing to have a new episode ready to air each week, due to on-set problems including script issues and friction between actors and producers. Most episodes aired on Tuesday nights, although when the show returned in April 1989 after a two-month hiatus, the remaining episodes aired on Sunday nights. (Full article...)
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The episodes of the Vampire Knight anime adaptation is based on the manga series of the same name written by Matsuri Hino. They are directed by Kiyoko Sayama, and produced by Studio Deen and Nihon Ad Systems. The plot of the episodes follows Yuki Cross, a student at the Cross Academy, where she acts as a guardian of the "Day Class" along with vampire hunter Zero Kiryu from the secret vampires of the "Night Class" led by Kaname Kuran.

The first season premiered on TV Tokyo in Japan on April 7, 2008, and ran for thirteen episodes until the season's conclusion on June 30, 2008. The episodes were aired at later dates on TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Osaka, TV Setōchi, and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting Co. The second season, named Vampire Knight Guilty, premiered on the same station on October 6, 2008, and ran until its conclusion on December 29, 2008. As of December 2008, five DVD compilations of the first season have been released by Aniplex and Sony Pictures between July 23, 2008, and November 26, 2008. The first DVD compilation for the second season was released by Aniplex on January 28, 2009, and the second compilation was released on February 25, 2009. (Full article...)
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Doherty attending the premiere of 90210 in 2008

American actress Shannen Doherty (1971–2024) appeared in numerous television programs and motion pictures. After her television debut in Father Murphy in 1981, she landed her first major role in the dramatic western television series Little House on the Prairie (1982–1983), and reprised her role in its three television specials. Doherty received two Young Artist Award nominations for playing the oldest Witherspoon sibling Kris in the family drama Our House (1986–1988). She appeared in four films during the 1980s, including the positively-received, animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982) and the cult classic Heathers (1988). Her breakthrough role was as Brenda Walsh in the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–1994), but she was later dropped from the series because of backstage issues and her negative image as a "bad girl". She starred in television films in the early and mid-1990s, and played Rene Mosier in the romantic comedy Mallrats (1995) in an attempt to rebuild her career.

Doherty enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after being cast by producer Aaron Spelling to play Prue Halliwell on the supernatural drama Charmed (1998–2001). The series was their second collaboration following Beverly Hills, 90210. The character was praised by critics and fans, earning a spot as one of the best witches in television history according to a TVLine article, and Doherty took an active role in the show's production, directing three of its episodes. Following disagreements with Spelling and co-star Alyssa Milano, Doherty left the series in its third season. Doherty starred in a string of television films and had a recurring role on the prime-time soap opera North Shore (2004–2005). The following year, she was cast as Denise Johnson in the unaired pilot of the sitcom Love, Inc., but was dropped from the show by producers from United Paramount Network (UPN). She reprised her role as Brenda Walsh in the reboot of 90210 (2008–2009), appearing as a special guest star in seven episodes in its first season. (Full article...)
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The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural drama television series that premiered on The CW on September 10, 2009, and concluded on March 10, 2017, after airing eight seasons. Screenwriters Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec adapted the show from L. J. Smith's novel series of the same name. The series takes place in Mystic Falls, Virginia, a fictional small town haunted by supernatural beings. It centers on the love triangle between the protagonist Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and vampire-brothers Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder). As the narrative develops in the course of the show, the focal point shifts on the mysterious past of the town involving Elena's malevolent doppelgänger Katherine Pierce (Dobrev) and the family of Original Vampires, all of whom have an evil agenda of their own.

The series has been nominated for many awards, including 67 Teen Choice Awards (30 wins), 27 People's Choice Awards (five wins), and eight Saturn Awards. The three lead protagonists—Dobrev, Wesley and Somerhalder—have received the most nominations. Lead actress Dobrev was nominated for 21 awards, winning five Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award, and a Young Hollywood Award. Somerhalder earned widespread critical acclaim for his role of Damon Salvatore, and is the most nominated cast member with 30 nominations. (Full article...)
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series are American superhero television shows produced by Marvel Television and Marvel Studios, based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The series are set in, or inspired by, the shared universe of the MCU film franchise.

The MCU first expanded to television after Marvel Television was formed in 2010, with that studio producing 12 series with ABC Studios and its production division ABC Signature Studios from September 2013 to October 2020. These premiered across broadcast, streaming, and cable respectively on ABC, Netflix and Hulu, and Freeform. The main ABC series were inspired by the films and featured film characters, while a connected group of series for Netflix crossed over with each other. Young adult–focused series were produced for Freeform and Hulu. The latter also had a group of series called "Adventure into Fear" planned before Marvel Television was shut down in December 2019. (Full article...)
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Book Two: Earth is the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelodeon. The series starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Dante Basco, Dee Bradley Baker, Mako Iwamatsu (in his final voice performance as Iroh before his death), and Grey DeLisle as the main character voices.

In the second season, Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka are on a quest to find an Earthbending teacher which finishes when they recruit Toph Beifong. After finding important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation, Appa ends up kidnapped. Their journey leads to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where they uncover a great internal government conspiracy. Meanwhile, due to their actions at the North Pole in Book One, Zuko and Iroh are declared traitors by the Fire Nation and desert their country, becoming fugitives in the Earth Kingdom. Pursuing both Zuko and Aang is Princess Azula, Zuko's younger prodigy sister. (Full article...)
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The Best Female Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a female athlete from the world of action sports. It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2004 after the non-gender-specific Best Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was presented the previous two years (with the American snowboarder Kelly Clark receiving the 2002 award). It is given to the female, irrespective of nationality or sport contested, adjudged to be the best action sports athlete in a given calendar year. Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.

The inaugural winner of the award was the American wakeboarder Dallas Friday. During 2003 and 2004, Friday won 12 of the available 14 professional women's titles, including national and world championships. She became the first wakeboarder to be nominated for, and hence to win, an ESPY Award. Athletes from the United States have won more times than any other nationality with ten (three times to snowboarders Jamie Anderson and Chloe Kim), followed by Australians with three, two of which went to the surfer Stephanie Gilmore. Snowboarders are most successful sportspeople, with eleven awards, followed by surfers with four. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent winner of the award was Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu in 2022. (Full article...)

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