Past recipients of this award include Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Foxworthy, Richard Jeni, Paula Poundstone, George Wallace, Rita Rudner and Margaret Cho. These voters selected the finalists from a list of 15 male and 15 female performers generated from submissions from representatives of comedy clubs across the country. To determine honorees in the other award categories, a questionnaire is sent to approximately 3200 comedic performers, network, cable and studio executives, agents, managers, publicists, talent executives and other people who are directly associated with the comedy industry to secure their suggestions. Suggestions for possible nominations must be for comedy performances during the calendar year of 2000. Suggestions are then compiled into a master list, which is then sent to approximately 2100 actors, actresses and comedic performers.
Performers working in comedy are the only people who can vote.
Their selections are tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers to determine the top performances that receive the most votes in each category. A ballot of all the nominees, made up by PricewaterhouseCoopers, is then sent to the voters, who must select one choice from each category. The nominee with the most votes, as tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, is the winner. Bruce Gowers will direct.