Mr. Darcy's popularity is such that our little throwdown poll this week went viral. Several avid supporters voted repeatedly for their favorite Darcy, spiraling the numbers upward every time we took a peek. Before the voting went out of control, the three Mr. Darcys were amazingly close, enjoying an almost even three-way split (32-34-34) . The voting went back and forth, with Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen maintaining only a slight edge over Elliot Cowan. Then, the next time I looked, our little poll had received over 500 additional votes, and the votes began to heavily outpace the number of visitors to our blog, which meant multiple votes for one candidate from only a few I.P. addresses.
Even though the results are skewed, I can only conclude that Mr. Colin Firth is no longer sitting at the top of the Darcy heap, and that he has two viable contenders. Matthew Macfadyen has been challenging him for the top position for four years. That Elliot Cowan has made such a strong showing after his recent performance in a JA spoof speaks to his hunk factor and comedic talents.
As for me, I love all the Mr. Darcys, including Laurence Olivier's turn and David Rintoul's rather stiff performance. All I can say is: Thank you for voting. The final results sit in the original post. - Vic
What fun! I love all of the 3 Darcys in the poll - and I'm actually rather surprised that LIA's Darcy took the top spot...but good for him! :)
ReplyDeleteI wondered what was going on. I voted for Colin on Monday when it looked like a three way tie.
ReplyDeleteHow many people usually vote in the regular polls? I suppose they are truly Janeites, while in this case I suspect many fans of the actors voted, so I would consider the results very biased.
ReplyDeleteJust remember that last year there was a JASNA survey but it was limited to people who at least had read the 6 novels and BBC 1995 remain the absolute favourite JA adaptation with more than 50% of preferences.
So I repeat, I would suspect the results of this poll.
Cinthia
I think all three Darcys did amazing jobs in their roles. I couldn't pick!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cinthia,
ReplyDeleteThis kind of voting reminds me of some elections for President of the U.S. ! Every vote should count, but please, one person, 1 vote... I am wondering also...LOL
Yes, Cinthia and Lynn, I agree. Usually the polls stay open for the week, but when I realized that there was no way to rectify what had happened, I decided to shut the poll down. We wanted the poll, which is titled "Jane Austen Movie Throwdown" to reflect movie goers, so we expected the results to be different from JASNA's.
ReplyDeleteOne obvious fact emerged before the votes went viral - during the first 36 hours Colin Firth's Darct was consistently ahead of the other two, but not by much. Then the voting went ballistic and it became hard to predict exactly what was going on (except that some visitors had heavy fingers).
Based on past polls, a voting pattern emerges almost from the start and changes very little during the week. No matter how long the poll stays up, the relative percentages remain the same. That is why I am "guessing" that either Colin or Matthew would have won by a very slim margin and that, surprisingly, Elliot Cowan would have remained close on their heels.
Too, much, D.. Dar...Darcy.......!(spoken in broken syllables)
ReplyDeleteCan't, can't, h..old onnn,
(gritted teeth)
trying.... tryin... tttr...
(gasp)