Last Updated Jan 18, 2017 11:08 PM EST
Stars in music, TV, film and digital gathered at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday for the People’s Choice Awards, hosted by Joel McHale.
McHale opened with a skit with his cast-mates from “The Great Indoors.” He told them he was hosting the People’s Choice Awards show. His co-stars seemed very skeptical, but McHale said, “I’m the people’s choice, and when have the people ever been wrong.”
“We’re afraid you’re going to… suck,” said Stephen Fry.
When McHale asked who would be better, everyone answered: “Chris Williams.”
“Me?” asked Williams. “But I need to be in a tuxedo. Wait — look at that,” Williams said as he realized he was indeed wearing a tux.
Check out all the red carpet fashions as the stars arrive for the 2017 People’s Choice Awards
In spite of his castmates’ concerns, McHale took the stage to host the show with a stroller of eight babies in tow.
“Don’t cry — they just saw ‘Manchester by the Sea,’” he explained.
McHale called the show “the one night a year when Hollywood reacts positively to what the middle of the country thinks” in his monologue and talked about an egotistical billionaire trying to take over the world — he assured the audience he was talking about the plot of “Captin America: Civil War.”
He also joked that one of the biggest discoveries of the past year was that there is a third Hemsworth brother, Luke, who is in “Westworld.”
Michael Pena and Dax Shepard, who star in upcoming movie “CHiPs,” presented Favorite TV Crime Drama Actress, which went to Jennifer Lopez. Lopez set the tone for the night and said, “I want to say thank you to the people! Mi gente! Gracias! I love you!”
Favorite Actress in a New Series Kristen Bell and Favorite Actor in a New Series Matt LeBlanc presented Favorite Comedic Movie Actor, which went to Kevin Hart.
“This one goes to all the co-stars I’ve had except the Rock because he hasn’t helped me at all, in fact it’s lessened my talent,” he cracked. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson grinned at Hart from the audience.
McHale presented a mock “Favorite Dwayne Johnson” award, which instead of going to the actor, went to “Dwayne ‘Literally Just a Rock’ Johnson,” a large rock sitting in the audience. Johnson (the actor) did not seem too upset, though.
Ali Larter and Ruby Rose presented Favorite Song, which went to Justin Timberlake for “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” The singer joked that he was stuck in traffic earlier in the night and said, “There are way too many people in this city, but I love all of those people.” Timberlake said to his baby son at home, “You’re the reason why I wrote this song.”
Molly Shannon and Fred Armisen took their time as they slowly presented Favorite Premium Series Actor, which went to Dwayne Johnson. He gave his fans advice and said, “It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice,” except when it comes to Kevin Hart, apparently: He pointed at Hart and used explicit language that was censored as a shocked Hart looked on.
McHale pointed out that some of the polls were still open for nominations and tried to buy votes off of Tom Hanks so his show, “The Great Indoors,” would win.
Victoria Justice introduced Blake Shelton, who won Favorite Country Male Artist and Favorite Album, onstage to sing “Every Time I Hear That Song.”
McHale returned and claimed that he had enlisted Ken Jeong to help count up the votes for the People’s Choice Awards. Jeong, who McHale kept calling “Ben,” looked miserable and wrote on a slip that he was being held captive by McHale. In the end, McHale bumped all of the ballots off of Jeong’s desk, making him even more miserable.
Bill Paxton and Justin Cornwell from “Training Day” presented Tom Hanks with the award for Favorite Dramatic Movie Actor.
Justin Timberlake took the stage to honor Ellen DeGeneres, who made history on Wednesday with the most People’s Choice Awards ever. Wins for Favorite Daytime TV Host, Favorite Animated Movie Voice and Favorite Comedic Collaboration brought her up to 20 awards.
“When it comes to the person the fans love the most … Ellen DeGeneres is the People’s Champ,” said Timberlake as a reel of DeGeneres winning People’s Choice Awards over the years played.
“This is amazing,” said DeGeneres. “Twenty is — I mean 17, I get it. Eighteen, sure. Nineteen — I can see that. But 20 is outrageous … You are the people who are responsible for me being up here, so thank you, people.”
John Stamos and Kaitlin Olson took the stage to present Favorite Comedic Movie Actress. Things got awkward when Olson kept looking at Stamos and saying, “Freeze all motor functions,” much to his annoyance. “I’m not a sex robot [from ‘Westworld’],” he said. “That’s Bob Saget.”
The award went to Melissa McCarthy, who thanked the other actresses who were nominated and claimed that it was a cutthroat fight: “[Anna] Kendrick’s too quick. She’s wiry,” said McCarthy of the competition before she said that she and Kristen Wiig got into a brawl when they found out they were both nominated. “What you may not know about Kristen [Wiig] is that her wingspan is incredible.”
“Teen Wolf” star Tyler Posey and Yara Shahidi of “Black-ish” presented Favorite Premium Series Actress, which went to Sarah Jessica Parker.
Jamie Chung and Adam Rodriguez presented Favorite Dramatic TV Actress, which went to “Quantico” star Priyanka Chopra.
“I’m just really psyched. Can I do a little wiggle?” she asked as she danced onstage and referred to her injury last week. “It’s the concussion talking.”
The mood turned serious when McHale talked about the country’s hunger problem and Enterprise’s work to end the issue, which includes a $60 million donation over the next 10 years.
He then passed off the stage to Kristen Bell, who presented Tyler Perry with Favorite Humanitarian for his work with the NAACP, with Charity: Water to bring clean drinking water to villages in Africa and Cambodia and more. She talked about his random acts of kindness in particular, saying that when he reads stories in the news, he calls directly to repair schools and churches.
Bell tripped up when the teleprompter malfunctioned, but improvised: “With this guardian angel at our side — and the teleprompter has gone out … I think we’re all incredibly grateful to have someone like him that can teach us to grow and give back as an example.”
After playing a heartwarming video of people talking about Perry’s charity work — with some referring to him as a “guardian angel” — Bell announced that Enterprise was donating $100,000 to Perry’s charity of choice, Global Medical Relief Fund.
