We always find it interesting to look at which celebrities were the "big picks" for the year. We also like to see where Death Watchers are from and how many of 'em botched up their lists. Sure it takes hours to tally all this nonsense up. So what? Each and every minute we spend doing it, we get to drink beer. Let 'er rip.....

A total of 146 Death Watchers are playing this year. That's seven less players than we had last year. Death Watchers from 31 states in the U.S. are playing as are Death Watchers from 3 other countries. The states represented and the number of Death Watchers from each are: AL (1), AZ (2) CA(17), CO(6), DE (1) FL(9), IA(1), ID(1), IL(7), IN(2), KY(2), LA(7), MA(2), MD(5), ME(3), MI(4), MN(3), MO(4), NC(1), NE (4), NJ(13), NY(12), OH(8), OR(3), PA(3), TN(1), TX(5), VA(3), VT(1), WI(3) and WV(3). The countries represented and the number of Death Watchers from each are: Australia(3), Canada(4), and United Kingdom(2).

Since 146 lists were entered into the 2011 Old Blue Eyes Memorial Celebrity Death Watch, we should have 1898 total picks entered. However, we considered 16 people picked to be ineligible as Celebrities. Those 16 people occupied a total of 17 places across 13 lists. This reduced the total number of picks to 1881 and will undoubtedly piss off either the complete set or some subset of those 13 Death Watchers. It's not like we didn't warn you guys. Heck, one (1) eliminated pick, Johannes Heester, has been deemed ***Not A Celebrity*** since 2009!!!! Still, two of you entered him.

In fairness to the Death Watchers playing this year, the entries were MUCH better than in the past. Even the ***Not a Celebrity*** picks took some time, thought, argument, and beer on the part of The Guys in order to make determinations. Heck, we received 112 names not already on the database we posted on the web-page (just click Frank's picture on the Main Page for the updated celebrity database). Of those 112 names, we only excluded 16 names! We're heading in the right direction!!!

One more thing about ***Not A Celebrity*** entries....we WILL NOT entertain arguments, requests, pleadings, gripes, whines, or any other similar annoyance regarding which picks we allowed and which picks we didn't. You pay yer money (we hope) you take yer chances. We call this the Ronnie Hawkins stipulation. It's been added to the official rules as Item 20.0.

Remarkably, we had no lists entered which were short on picks this year. Everyone entered 13 picks (even if some were already dead....).

Of course, a few of you picked folks who were already dead when you sent in your list. Come on people, it's called Google. Five lists contained five seperate pics who were already dead (Gloria Stuart, Art Linkletter, Maria VonTrapp, Mitch Miller, and Walter Cronkite). Now we suspect the VonTrapp entrant is gonna argue that they meant the daughter (who is alive) and not the mom (who is WAY dead). Thing is, they didn't specify and we don't really think the daughter is a celebrity anyway (so don't bother). Anyway, that means our entry count drops by 5 to 1876 individual picks.

Two alternates were exercised this year. We received a list on December 13, 2010 containing Bob Feller. Bob, um, fell around December 15, 2010. Consequently, the alternate was exercised for this pick. We also received a list on December 26, 2010 containing Bill Erwin. We found out on January 9, 2011 (from another Death Watcher), after everything was posted, that Mr. Erwin bought it on December 29, 2010. So, the alternate was exercised for the Erwin pick and we had to update these damn statistics again.

If you're wondering how the donations worked out...GREAT! We are really grateful to those of you who donated. We covered all of our hard costs for the Death Watch (prizes, PO Box, domain name, and some printer ink!) and we were able to throw in a last minute INCREASE to the prize money for the 2011!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Speaking of donations, 59 Death Watchers (40.4%) donated this year. The other 59.6% of you ought to be ashamed. If you folks had donated, we could increase the prize money even more.

"So Guys, what the Sam Hill does all this crap really mean?" Great question little camper! It means you should open a beer (or two), pour it (them) slowly into a glass (or a big glass if you opened two), sit back and read this....

There are a total of 146 lists with a total of 1875 total valid picks entered. 401 different celebrities (one less than last year!) make up the 1876 picks. Of the 401 celebrities picked to buy the farm, 196 (48.9%) were on only one list (the Tad Szulcs), 66 (16.5%) were on only two lists (the double whammies), 55 (13.7%) were on three or four lists (the mortage a trois) and the remaining 84 (20.9%) were on five or more lists.

Oh. Right. The most picked statistics. Sorry. Here goes (keep drinking)....

The number one pick this year was Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ms. Gabor got a leg up on the other celebrities by appearing on 87 (59.6%) lists. The number two pick was none other than Arehta Franklin. 76 (52.1%) lists think they'll be paying their R-E-S-P-E-C-Ts to Aretha this year. Dropping from number one last year to number three this year is Kirk Douglas. 72 (49.3%) lists think Spartacus won't be around to startacus 2012.

As for the rest of the potential tomb tennants... Well, the complete breakdown of celebrities and how many players picked 'em is presented below for your viewing pleasure and intellectual (heh) edification. You may want to open another beer (or four).