Round 1 of the 4th annual BOTVA smashed every record imaginable.

A sensational 579,630 votes were cast (last years entire awards total was less than 400,000)
We had our 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th & 9th highest traffic days
of all time during round 1.
A record 108 Programs have a challenger in the semi-finals.
A record 89 contenders had over 1000 votes each between all the categories. 11 had over 10,000 votes each, 4 had over 20,000 votes each.

 As usual, the limited field of Science Fiction Shows on TV & their rabid fanbases leads to the top 2 programs in total semi-final contenders being from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. Supernatural, as they often do, leads the way, this time with 31 semi-finalists. Once Upon A Time was 2nd with 25. The vigilante adaptation of the comic book series "Green Arrow", Arrow came in 3rd with 21 semi-finalists.

Shows with multiple semi-finalists (total)
Supernatural (31)
Once Upon A Time (25)
Arrow (21)
Psych (17)
Continuum (15)
Fringe (14)
Glee (14)
How I Met Your Mother (14)
Game Of Thrones (13)
Castle (12)
Hell On Wheels (12)
The Big Bang
Theory (12)
Lost Girl (11)
Hannibal (9)
Person Of Interest (9)
The Killing (9)
The Vampire Diaries (9)
Community (8)
Hawaii Five-O (8)
The Walking Dead (8)
Criminal Minds (7)
Elementary (7) 
Haven (7)
Sleepy Hollow (7)
Falling Skies (6)
King & Maxwell (6)
Orphan Black (6)
Teen Wolf (6)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (5)
Dexter (5)
Pretty Little Liars (5)
The Blacklist (5)
The Newsroom (5)
Warehouse 13 (5)
Burn Notice (4)
2 Broke Girls (3)
Agents Of SHIELD (3)
Greys Anatomy (3)
Homeland (3)
Modern Family (3)
New Girl (3)
Parks & Recreation (3)
Primeval New World (3)
Victorious
(3)
Bates Motel (2)
Breaking Bad (2)
Doctor Who (2)
Girls (2)
Once Upon A Time In Wonderland (2)
Rizzoli & Isles (2)
Suits (2)
The Goldbergs (2)
The Mentalist (2)
The Originals (2)
The
Tomorrow People (2)
Touch (2)

Shows with 1 semi-finalist each
30
Rock
Almost Human
American Horror Story
Arrested Development
Back In The Game
Bones
Chelsea Lately
Chicago Fire
Conan
CSI
Dads
Davinci's Demons
Degrassi The Next Generation
Downton
Abbey
Dracula
Good Luck Charlie
Grimm
Hemlock Grove
House Of
Cards
Inside The Actors Studio
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia 
Jessie
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
Masters of
Sex
Melissa & Joey
Mom
Motive
Nikita
Raising Hope
Revenge
Rookie Blue
Sam & Cat
Scandal
Sons Of Anarchy
Super Fun Night
Switched At Birth
The Bridge
The Carrie Diaries
The Colbert Report
The Crazy Ones
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Fosters
The Michael J. Fox Show
The
Office
The Tomorrow People
Under The Dome
Veep
Vegas
White
Collar
Wilfred


Of course, as happens every year, there will be some who easily made it to the semi-finals on the backs of a small handful, or even possibly 1 voter who spent lots of time voting. As they often do, those contenders will as they do, fall by the wayside for contenders with presence.

In the past, there has been some shows who end up nominating in 2 or 3+ contenders to the finals, only to see them all fail. None of the fans took the time to consider "what will happen when we can vote for only 1?" & often are the victim of vote splitting. I suspect, with so many shows this year garnering 2+ nominees in categories, this will happen much more this year. A smart fan base will pick their 1 challenger NOW, and abandon the others...but of course, we all know, most fanbases rarely can focus their efforts like that. 

A common theme in round 1 was, shows doing well who were very active with social networking sites. Campaigns on twitter, tumblr, livejournal & facebook gave several shows, who usually would garner only a handful of votes by those who stumbled across the polls, a louder than usual voice & vaulted several more of their contenders into round 2.  In round 2, where each individual voting is more crucial, these campaigns will become far more important I expect in deciding the finalists this year.

So, are you ready for round 2? It starts in the next few hours.

The Sci-fi and Fantasy categories are often some of the most voted on, but its usually with clear run away winners in each one. This year, looks like that wont be happening.

The Sci-fi/fantasy program category, which last year was dominated by The Walking Dead after the shows star Norman Reedus told fans to vote, seems to have some real competition this year.

Lost Girl lead round 1 voting with 8941 votes. Continuum was 2nd & for most of the time till the last few hours, was continually leapfrogging LG for 1st. Haven rounded out the top 3 not too far behind either.

Rounding out the top 5, the 2010 & 2011 winner Supernatural & 2011 New Show winner Once Upon A Time.

The rest of the semi-finalists include Doctor Who, 2012 Winner The Walking Dead, Fringe, Game Of Thrones, Warehouse 13, Falling Skies, The Vampire Diaries, Grimm, Teen Wolf & Primeval New World.

All of last years finalists made the semi-finals this year.

The Sci-fi/fantasy actor category might not go to last years winner, OR the 2 time winner Jensen Ackles, neither of which even snagged a top 3 spot.

Robert Carlyle "Once Upon A Time" had a dominating 16,588 1st round votes for a commanding lead. Well back, with 5817 was Misha Collins "Supernatural", rounding out the top 3 was Michael Raymond James "Once Upon A Time"

The top 5 is filled out with 2011 winner & 2010 Best Actor winner Jensen Ackles "Supernatura; & Victor Webster "Continuum".

The rest of the semi-finalists include Jared Padalecki, 2011 Recurring actor winner Mark Sheppard "Supernatural", Stephen Lobo "Continuum", Noah Wyle "Falling Skies", Eric Balfour "Haven", Dylan O'Brien, Tyler Posey "Teen Wolf", PauL Wesley, Ian Somerhalder "The Vampire Diaries", Clark Gregg "Agents of SHIELD", Kris Holden-Ried "Lost Girl", Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington "Game Of Thrones", Colin O'Donoghue, Josh Dallas "Once Upon A Time", Tom Mison "Sleepy Hollow", Norman Reedus, Andrew Lincoln "The Walking Dead"

Only finalist from last year not in this year is John Noble "Fringe" as he is in the recurring actor category.

The actress category again, like it did last year, has "Lost Girl" star Zoie Palmer leading in round 1 with 15,601 votes. Not far behind in 2nd was "Continuum" star Rachel Nichols with 14,295. Rounding out the top 3 was Emilie de Ravin "Once Upon A Time"

The rest of the top 5 had another Lost Girl star, Anna Silk, and Continuum star, Jennifer Spence.

The rest of the semi-finalists include Lexa Doig "Continuum", Emily Rose "Haven", Ksenia Solo "Lost Girl" Lana Parrilla, last years winner Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin "Once Upon A Time". Tatiana Maslany "Orphan Black", Nicole Beharie "Sleepy Hollow", Emilia Clarke "Game Of Thrones", Nina Dobrev "The Vampire Diaries", Joanna Kelly, Allison Scagliotti "Warehouse 13", Lauren Cohan, Dania Gurira "The Walking Dead".

The only finalist to not make this years semi-finals was Anna Torv "Fringe" who is in this years recurring actress category.

The final two categories. Best Episode, Best Guest Star. There will be a second vote that will be happening in the upcoming weeks to give late season episodes/guest stars a chance to make the finals as voting for these categories closed well before mid-season finales aired. These categories will be the last categories voted on this round, after the secondary vote has taken place, those votes will garner 1 to 5 semi-finalists.

Till those categories are officially done, here is CURRENT list of semi-finalists for these categories.

Best Episode. With much, much more competition this year, the 2 time winners of the award, Supernatural will be in for a fight this year to three-peat. But with FOUR semi-finalists, they will have lots of horses in the race.

Leading vote getter in round 1 "Second Time"
(Continuum) with 1578 votes. "Dark Hollow" (Once Upon A Time) was 2nd & "Sacrifice" (Supernatural) was 3rd.

The top 5 was rounded out by "Fallout" (Haven) & "LARP And The Real Girl" (Supernatural)

The rest of the semi-finalists include "As Time Goes By" & "Devil May Care" (Supernatural), "Sacrifice", "Crucible" (Arrow), "The Quarterback" (Glee), "Get Behind The Mule", "The Game", "Searchers", "One Less Mule" (Hell On Wheels), "Time Will Tell" (Castle), "The Replicator" (Criminal Minds), "The Rains Of Castemere" (Game Of Thrones), "Six Minutes", "Try" (The Killing), "PS I Love You" (How I Met Your Mother), "Heroine" (Elementary), "No Country For Two Old Men", "Right Turn Or Left For Dead" (Psych) & "An Enemy Of Fate" (Fringe)

As stated, another 1 to 5 will be added to this list once the "late additions" vote happens. When the secondary vote happens, important to remember, ONLY shows who aired AFTER November 17, 2013 will be eligible.

The Guest Star Category is also going to be having a secondary vote, but the 1st round of voting is over & here are the current semi-finalists.

Christian JKane "King & Maxwell" took the top vote total in round 1 with 4593 votes. Second was "Supernatural" 2012 recurring finalist Ty Olsson, 3rd was Robert Knepper "The Blacklist"

Rounding out the top 5. 2012 Recurring Actress winner Rachel Miner "Supernatural", David Richmond-Peck "Lost Girl"

The rest of the semi-finalists currently are. Kristy Swanson "Psych", Christopher Heyerdahl "Castle", "Falling Skies", "Vegas", "CSI", "Nikita", Gil McKenney, Andrea Brooks, Kaniehtiio Horn, Liane Balaban, Don Thompson "Supernatural", Jerry O'Connell, Catherine Bell "King & Maxwell", John Noble "Sleepy Hollow", Joshua Gomez "Castle", Seth Gabel "Arrow" "Fringe", Ellen Muth "Hannibal"

Just like the episode vote, 1 to 5 new additions will be added after the vote. Just like that vote, only nominees in episodes AFTER November 17, 2013 will be eligible.

Voting on some Round 2 categories starts TODAY!