After a ten day, multi-beer odyssey we were able to input, review and cut the OBE data six ways to Sunday. Below are some of the more interesting facts about the 2023 Old Blue Eyes Memorial Celebrity Death Watch. Grab a beer. The more beer you consume, the more interesting the information becomes...

A total of 119 Death Watchers are playing this year. That's down 3% from last year's count of 123 participants.

Death Watchers from 32 states in the U.S. are playing as are Death Watchers from 2 other countries (that's right, we're an International Death Watch baby!). The states represented and the number of Death Watchers from each are: AZ (1), CA(11), CO(6), CT(1), FL(3), GA(1), IL(3), IN(3), KS(1), KY (1), LA(4), MA(6), MD(1), ME(1), MI(1), MN(1), MO(11), MS(1), NC(1), NE(6), NJ(13), NY(7), OH(7), OK(1) PA(7), SC (1), TN(1), TX(2), VA(4), VT(1), WI(3) and WV(3). The countries represented and the number of Death Watchers from each are: Australia(2) and Canada(1).

There were 113 email entries (95%) and 6 mail entries (5%). We have 12 people playing for the first time! Welcome!!

Alternate picks: 22 people needed to use their alternate for the 2023 OBE. Barbara Walters and Pope Benedict decided to throw us an end-of-year curveball on December 31st so their alternate picks were exercised. Two lists did not include and alternate and they lost out when one of their picks bit the dust right before the end of the year. Ouch. Always include an alternate, you never know....

119 lists should result in 1547 total picks entered. However, several factors reduced the total pick count (as is typical). Have some popcorn, open that second beer and read on, you'll find out all about it. We're presuming that first beer was done somewhere between CA and TN.

Wow let's talk about Pope Benedict. And Barbara Walters. And for that matter Pele. It looked to be an easy end of year and effortless entries for the 2023 OBE until this sequence of deaths. One early entry had all three. Three entries had the Pope and Barbara, and 16 entries had either the Pope or Barbara. In fact one entry had the Pope listed twice! The lesson here kids is to hold off on your entry as long as possible before submission to avoid such a hit to your lists. Not only that it created extra beer drinking for the poor soul who had to enter all the info.

As is typical, we had some lists that were short on picks. One player entered a list with only 10 and no alternate. That list was submitted without the Official OBE Entry Form which has 13 blanks and 1 alternate space for your entries. Use the form. Fill in the spaces. Problem solved.

It's true, someone always picks a dead person. In fact, three someones picked dead people this year, and not just recently dead, we're talking 3-5 months into decomposing at this point. We really can't believe this still happens. It's called Google folks. You put in the celebrity name. It tells you if they're alive. Simple.

One entry picked a dog. Rule 7.0 is pretty specific on who qualifies as a pick. Human, yes. Dog, no.

Hopefully you grabbed a third beer, you might need it. 65 new names were entered as picks this year. That's up from the 59 new picks entered last year. Of the 65 new names entered, 46 (70.3%) were deemed to be celebrities. That's pretty generous for a group of guys drinking beer and full of attitude about their opinions of celebrity. If you've been using your fingers and toes, you've figured out that 19 names were deemed ***Not A Celebrity***. These 19 names occupied 37 pick positions across 22 lists.

To see who got deemed ***Not A Celebrity*** Go to the NOT CELEBRITIES portion of our website. To see our entire existing database of people who are celebrities, click on Frank Sinatra's image on the home page for the OBE or just click HERE. Now, have another beer, go to the rules page and reread the Ronnie Hawkins Requirement. This Requirement 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***. Now let's get that beer.

"But what about donations?" Glad you asked. 36 players (30.2%) donated to the OBE this year. Last year 54 players donated. This year, 69.8% of our players presumed the other 30.2% would support them. That's so not right. Fortunately, 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 visit the PO Box (which we don't do very often after the Death Watch is under way). One more thing about donations, WE NEED THEM TO KEEP THE GAME RUNNING AND AWARD THESE FABULOUS PRIZES!

Lots of information so far, right? Lots of beer too if you've been doing what we told you. So, before we get into the nitty gritty, why not get another beer...

So after all the calculations we're at 1,499 active picks across 119 lists. Those 1,499 active picks are comprised of 332 different celebrities. Of the 332 celebrities picked to keel over, 167 (50.3%) were on only one list (the Tad Szulcs), 58 (17.4%) were on only two lists (the double whammmies), 35 (10.6%) were on three or four lists (the mortage a trois) and the remaining 72 (21.6%) were on five or more lists.

After being the #2 pick the last two years Jimmy Carter has made it to the top and holds the coveted #1 pick this year, edging out last year's #1 Bob Barker and knocking him down to #2. Jimmy Carter appears on 81 (68.1%) of the lists while Bob Barker occupies 71 (59.6%) of the lists. Henry Kissinger rounds out the top three appearing on 63 (52.9%) lists.

A complete breakdown of celebrities and how many players picked 'em is presented below for your reading pleasure. Whew! We made it! It's off to the pub. Cheers!