Shorty Awards

The 12th Shorty Awards were held on May 3, 2020 via an online live stream event. The event was originally scheduled to be held at 1515 Broadway Theater in New York City, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held virtually. The digital show was hosted by American actor and comedian J. B. Smoove, and Fetty Wap provided a musical performance. The show was streamed on Periscope and YouTube with presenters including Lindsey Vonn, Bobby Berk and Jaime Camil.

The 11th Annual Shorty Awards were held on May 5, 2019, in New York City at the Playstation Theater. The ceremony was hosted by American actress and comedian Kathy Griffin, along with a music performance by Tank and the Bangas. The event was live streamed on YouTube and Twitter with presenters including Denzel Dion, Devin Lytle, Eva Gutowski, Freddie Ransome, Grace Helbig, Jay Shetty, Lauren Giraldo, Mamrie Hart, Meghan Currie, Miles McKenna, Molly Burke, Raymond Braun, Remi Cruz, Ryland Adams, Samir Mezrahi, Sean Evans, Shangela, and The Try Guys.

Voting for the second Shorty Awards opened on January 5, 2010, in 26 official categories. A Real-Time Photo of the Year category was added to the list of official categories for the first time, recognizing the best photo posted to services such as Twitpic, Yfrog, or Facebook.

The nomination period for the third annual Shorty Awards opened in January, 2011, and ran through February 11, 2011, except for new categories that had extended nomination deadlines. There were 30 official categories, and five special categories. In addition to Real-Time Photo of the Year, for the first time the awards accepted nominations for Foursquare Mayor of the Year, Foursquare Location of the Year, Microblog of the Year on Tumblr, and a Connecting People award. The awards also introduced new Shorty Industry Awards to recognize the best uses of social media by brands and agencies. A Marketing Jury within the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences judges the Shorty Industry Awards and determines the winners from among the paid entries. Winners were announced at a ceremony on March 28, 2011, hosted by Aasif Mandvi in the Times Center. Other Shorty Awards presenters were scheduled to include Kiefer Sutherland, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Stephen Wallem, Miss USA Rima Fakih, and Miss Teen USA Kamie Crawford.

The 4th Annual Shorty Awards featured Ricky Gervias and Tiffani Thiessen. 1.6 million tweeted nominations were made across all the categories to honor the top users on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, YouTube and other internet platforms.

The 5th Annual Shorty Awards ceremony featured Felicia Day, James Urbaniak, Kristian Nairn, Hannibal Buress, Carrie Keagan, Chris Hardwick, David Karp and Coco Rocha. 2.4 million tweeted nominations were made across all the categories to honor the top users on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, YouTube and other internet sites.

The ceremony for the 6th Shorty Awards took place on April 7, 2014, at the New York Times Center and was hosted by comedian Natasha Leggero. The show included appearances by Patton Oswalt, Jamie Oliver, Kristen Bell, Jerry Seinfeld, Moshe Kasher, Julie Klausner, Erin Brady, Guy Kawasaki, Matt Walsh, Retta, Us the Duo, Big Boi, Gilbert Gottfried, Thomas Middleditch, Billie Jean King and Leandra Medine. Winners included Jerry Seinfeld and Will Ferrell.

The 7th Annual Shorty Awards was hosted by comedian Rachel Dratch and took place on April 20, 2015 at The Times Center in NYC. The Real-Time Academy, the judging body of the Shortys, tripled in size for the 7th annual Awards and included Alton Brown, Mamrie Hart, Nikki Glaser, OK Go, The Fine Bros, Debbie Sterling, Dan Savage, Deena Varshavskaya and Palmer Luckey. Panic! at the Disco was the musical guest at the ceremony. On-stage presenters included Kevin Jonas, Bill Nye, Bella Thorne, Wyclef Jean, Emily Kinney and Tyler Oakley.

The 10th Annual Shorty Awards powered by DirecTV Now, honoring the best in social media, took place on April 15, 2018, at the Playstation Theater, New York City. The ceremony was hosted by actress, singer, songwriter, Keke Palmer.

The 9th Annual Shorty Awards, honoring the best in social media, took place on April 23, 2017, at The Times Center, New York City. The ceremony was hosted by actor and comedian Tony Hale. There was a musical performance by Lizzo.