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 2016 Old Blue Eyes Memorial Celebrity Death Watch. Go ahead and grab a six pack and some jerky. The fun is just starting...

A total of 133 Death Watchers are playing this year. That's down 16.3% from last year's count of 158 participants.

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(2), CA(17), CO(7), FL(8), GA(2), HI (1), IL(4), IN(9), KS(1), LA(7), MA(3), MD(2), ME(2), MI(1), MN(3), MO(2), NC (1), NE (3), NH(1), NJ(12), NY(11), OH(5), PA(5), SD(1), TN(4), TX(4), VA(3), VT(1), WA (1), WI(1) and WV(4). The countries represented and the number of Death Watchers from each are: Australia(2), Canada(2), and England (1).

No Alternates were exercised this year.

133 lists should result in 1729 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, Luise Rainer, Maurenn O'Hara, Christopher Lee and Percy Sledge were each picked. O'Hara was actually picked twice! Rainer died in 2014 and Sledge, O'Hara and Lee all died in 2015. Man, is Google that hard to use? Heck, the 2015 deaths were posted on the OBE site all year. Anyway, these four dead picks reduce our pick count by 5, leaving 1724 picks.

Here's the part everybody loves to hate...99 new names were entered as picks this year. That's down 23.3% from the 129 new picks entered last year.

Of the 99 new names entered, 73 (73.7%) were deemed to be celebrities. If you've been working your slide rule, you've figured out that 26 new names were deemed ***Not a Celebrity***. These 26 names occupied 41 pick positions across 28 lists. That means the loss of 41 more pick positions, making our active pick total 1683. 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, 2 players picked Bhumibol Adulyadej, 2 player picked Joao Havelange and 1 player picked Rene Angelil. Now we're not about to argue whether these folks are celebrties or not. See, we already did that IN 2015! We deemed each of these picks as ***Not a Celebrity*** last year. That information was posted on the web site all year long! It appears on the page whose link is so cleverly named NOT CELEBRITIES. The information was also mentioned on the STATISTICS page. No mercy from us on this one. Whether you think our position on these folks is right or wrong, if we post the info for a year, you really don't have any excuse. Second, one ***Not a Celebrity*** pick was already dead anyway (Johnny Pesky died in 2012).

To see who got deemed ***Not a Celebrity*** Go to the NOT CELEBRITIES portion of our web site. 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" about their pick(s) being deemed ***Not a Celebrity***.

Oh? What's that? Donations? Sure we have some statistics on donations too. 68 players (51.1%) donated to the OBE this year. Last year 75 players donated. This year, about 49% of our players presumed the other 51% 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 very 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 1683 active picks across 133 lists. Those 1683 active picks are comprised of 389 different celebrities (13 less than last year!). Of the 389 celebrities picked to keel over, 189 (48.6%) were on only one list (the Tad Szulcs), 78 (20.0%) were on only two lists (the double whammmies), 50 (12.9%) were on three or four lists (the mortage a trois) and the remaining 72 (18.5%) were on five or more lists.

The number one pick this year is the perennial favorite Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ms. Gabor appears on 80 (60.2%) lists. Kirk Douglas took the number two spot, appearing on 73 (54.9%) lists. The number three most frequent pick was Billy Graham with his name appearing on 70 (52.6%) 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.