Thanks to several very long days with an abacus, a slide rule and a case of beer, we are able to present to you, dear Death Watcher, a breakdown of some of the more interesting statistics for the 2015 Old Blue Eyes Memorial Celebrity Death Watch. Its a long review as this was a crazy Death Watch year. Go ahead and grab a six pack and some jerky. The fun is just starting...

A total of 158 Death Watchers are playing this year. That's up 2.6% from last year's count of 154 participants. Growth is good (unless it's a tumor).

Death Watchers from 32 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(2), AZ(2), CA(18), CO(12), FL(11), GA(1), IL(6), IN(11), KS(1), LA(6), MA(2), MD(1), ME(2), MI(4), MN(1), MO(3), NC (2), NE (5), NH(1), NJ(13), NY(9), OH(6), OR (2), PA(6), SD(1), TN(4), TX(3), VA(3), VT(1), WA (2), WI(4) and WV(4). The countries represented and the number of Death Watchers from each are: Australia(4), Canada(4), and England (1).

Of the 158 lists entered, 19 lists had the Alternate exercised. 18 of those lists contained Luis Rainer (who died on December 30, 2014). 1 list had Bess Myerson (who died on December 14, 2014 but whose death was not announced in the press until January 5, 2015). After some discussion, The Guys decided it was appropriate to exercise the Alternate for this list. The Guys will be updating the rules for 2016 to clarify such a scenario for future games. Interestingly, with the exception of Bob Barker appearing on 2 of the 19 lists as an Alternate, the remaining 17 Alternates were all different. 2 of those 17 Alternates were new picks that had to be reviewed for celebrity status. 1 of those 2 picks was deemed ***Not A Celebrity***.

158 lists should result in 2054 total picks entered (Really! Try it on YOUR abacus!). However, several factors reduced the total pick count. Have a piece of the jerky, open another beer and read on, you'll find out all about it.

5 lists had a pick that was already dead. Yup, Joan Fontaine, Sheila MacRae, Peter Falk, Donald Keefer and Waylon Jennings were each picked. MacRae and Keefer died in 2014, Fontaine died in 2013, Falk died in 2011, and Jennings died in 2002. Jennings was a new pick to the Death Watch. After review, Waylon was deemed a celebrity. However, that didn't really matter 'cause he's been dead for over a decade. Man, is Google that hard to use? Anyway, these four dead picks reduce our pick count by 5, leaving 2049 picks.

4 lists were submitted with only 12 picks. Each of these lists will play short the missing pick. Additionally, one list was submitted with the same pick entered in two different positions. Norman Lloyd may be a good pick, but he isn't so good that The Guys will let you place him on your list twice. Consequently, this list is also playing one pick short. That makes 5 more pick positions knocked out of the 2015 OBE. Our pick count is now down to 2044 if you're keeping track.

Here's the part everybody loves to hate...130 new names were entered as picks this year. However, one of the accepted new picks was Bess Myerson. Due to the craziness surrounding her death announcement, she really can't be counted as a new pick for 2015. That reduces the count to 129 new picks. That's up 18.3% from the 109 new picks entered last year. A big factor for this increase was one player entering a list of 13 obscure yet highly accomplished people (to make a point we suppose). All 13 picks on that particular list were deemed ***Not A Celebrity*** by the way.

Of the 129 new names entered, 90 (69.8%) were deemed to be celebrities. If you've been working your abacus, you've figured out that 39 new names were deemed ***Not a Celebrity***. These 39 names occupied 45 pick positions across 26 lists. That means the loss of 45 more pick positions, making our active pick total 1999. Remarkably, several names we have previously indicated were ***Not A Celebrity*** were entered again this year. More on that in a moment.

A few comments are warranted here. First off, once you account for the list with 13 ***Not a Celebrity*** picks, you're left with 32 pick positions across 25 lists. Nowhere near as ugly as first blush, though 66.7% higher than the 21 ***Not a Celebrity*** picks from last year. Second, 6 players picked Little Jimmy Dickens. Now we're not about to argue whether he's a celebrity or not. See, we already did that IN 2014! We deemed Little Jimmy ***Not a Celebrity*** last year. That information was posted on the web page all year long! It appears on the page whose link is so cleverly named NOT CELEBRITIES and is also mentioned on the STATISTICS page. No mercy from us on this one. Whether you think our position on Little Jimmy's celebrity status is right or wrong, if we post the info for a year, you really don't have any excuse. Don't feel too bad though. The same thing happened with one player who picked Bobby Bowden. His name was also posted all year on the web page in the same locations. Finally, one ***Not a Celebrity*** pick was already dead anyway (Malcom Toon died in 2009). So, no real loss there but we still count it in our stats.

To see who got deemed ***Not a Celebrity*** Go to the NOT CELEBRITIES portion of our web page. To see our entire existing database or people who are celebrities, click on Frank Sinatra's image on the home page for the OBE or just click HERE. Oh, and please don't forget the Ronnie Hawkins Requirement which clearly prohibits a player from "belly-aching, whining, sniveling, wincing, guffawing, or donning of faux expressions of shock"

Oh? What's that? Donations? Sure we have some statistics on donations too. 75 players (47.5%) donated to the OBE this year. Last year 74 players donated. This year, a little more than 50% of our players presumed the other 50% would support them. Sounds like the current tax structure in the U.S.! It's not too late to rectify this situation. We take donations all year long via mail and PayPal. If you mail a donation after January 10, please let us know via email so we're sure to check the PO Box (which we don't do too often after the Death Watch is under way).

Lot's of information so far, right? It's enough to make your head hurt. Maybe you ought to open up another beer. Go ahead, we'll wait.....Pop. Sip. Sip. Gulp. Ah! Okay, now let's get back to things.

We're at 1999 active picks across 158 lists. Those 1999 active picks are comprised of 402 different celebrities (34 more than last year!). Of the 402 celebrities picked to keel over, 185 (46.0%) were on only one list (the Tad Szulcs), 63 (15.7%) were on only two lists (the double whammmies), 68 (16.9%) were on three or four lists (the mortage a trois) and the remaining 86 (21.4%) were on five or more lists.

The number one pick this year is the oh so very stubborn Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ms. Gabor appears on 96 (60.8%) lists. Kirk Douglas and George H. W. Bush tied for the number two most picked celebrity this year with each appearing on 86 (54.4%) lists. The number three most frequent pick was Billy Graham with his name appearing on 84 (53.2%) lists.

A complete breakdown of celebrities and how many players picked 'em is presented below for your reading pleasure. It's definitely time for another beer.