The 36th annual People's Choice Awards will be held on Wednesday, January 6, 2010, at the Nokia Theatre. Nominations were announced in November.

  (To read the list of 2010 nominees, click here.)

Big winners last year included the movie "The Dark Knight", singer Carrie Underwood, the TV show "House", and actor Will Smith.

You may not be able to get inside the annual Academy Awards show or the Golden Globes, but you can get a seat to see many of the very same Hollywood movie and TV stars when they show up to accept the annual People's Choice Awards.

The People's Choice Awards are different from most Hollywood award shows. Until 2004, the winners of the People's Choice Awards were selected through a Gallup poll of the general public.  The people were polled for their opinion about their favorite movie & TV stars, their favorite singers, and their favorite films and TV programs. Those polled were free to name any star that they like as their favorite; their choice is not limited to a handful of nominees.

However, in 2004, they dropped Gallup and switched to a partnership with Entertainment Weekly magazine. Now, nominees are determined by a "front row panel of over 6,000 entertainment enthusiasts" recruited by EW editors. The panel votes on the various categories, then people vote via the Internet for the winners.

To cast a vote via the Internet go to www.PCAvote.com .

Previous years' winners have included Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger, Mel Gibson, Ray Romano, Eminem, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Ricky Martin, Tim Allen, Helen Hunt, Bill Cosby, Drew Carrey, Celine Dion, Elton John, Bruce Willis, Adam Sandler, Calista Flockhart, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Shania Twain, Billy Campbell, Faith Hill, Nathan Lane, Christina Applegate and the Backstreet Boys.

And the good news is that you can attend. For free!

That's right, although there are 1,000 invited VIP guests (who dress in black tie), there were also free tickets distributed to the general public via Audiences Unlimited, in all recent years. But this year (2000-2010), the awards show moved from the huge Shrine Auditorium to the smaller, newer Nokia Theatre, where there are fewer seats to fill. As a result, Audiences Unlimited won't be distributing the tickets this year.  Instead, tickets to the People's Choice Awards show were sold to the public via TicketMaster.

The tickets went on sale on Ticketmaster at 10 AM (PST) on Monday, November 2, 2009. You can buy the tickets then by clicking here.

You never know what's going to happen at this live awards banquet. When funnyman Jim Carrey won the award for "Liar Liar'', for Favorite Comedy Motion Picture, he leapt up from his table, lifted his chair high above his head, and shook it in manic glee as he danced up to the stage, finally hurling the chair ahead of him before bounding onto the stage and smothering his producer in a mock passionate embrace.

The January event is also the first major awards show to be held of each year. The show is broadcast live on CBS-TV (tape-delayed for the west coast).

In 2008 and 2007, the show was hosted by Queen Latifah.

In 2006, the awards show was hosted by comedian Craig Ferguson.

In 2005, the show was hosted by Jason Alexander, from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

In 2004, the hosts were Charlie Sheen & Jon Cryer.

A limited number of tickets for this event will be sold via TicketMaster..

Several performers have won multiple People's Choice awards over the years - Tim Allen has won ten and Garth Brooks has won eleven of the flame-shaped crystal awards. Reba McEntire has won eight awards, and Julia Roberts has won eight. Whitney Houston has six, and Oprah Winfrey has won four.

In 1998, Whoopi Goldberg was honored for her 20 years of career achievements in motion pictures and television with a special tribute presented by LeVar Burton, Rosie O'Donnell, Rob Reiner and Tom Jones.

 Getting There: The Nokia Theatre is located right next to the Staples Center (and the L.A. Convention Center), just east of the Harbor (110) Freeway, just south of downtown L.A.

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