Wide World of Women

For the last 15 years, I've been doing the annual Sexiest Woman of the Year polls twice a year: the first half in the spring, and resuming with the second half in the fall. As always, there has been an aura of unpredictability in every round, especially the finals.

Of the nearly 200 ladies, only 14 have won the title: Britney Spears, Jessica Alba, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lauren Graham, Kristen Bell, Lisa Edelstein, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Walsh, Hilary Duff, Eva Longoria, Maria Menounos, Carrie Underwood; and last year, Julianne Hough. All of this was made possible by your votes and in the last few years, getting that out through social media.

The poll started out as part of my Allen Report's Year in Review in 1999, and in 2004, it finally made a name of its own. And every year, I've made numerous tweaks to keep things more exciting, from categories to additional rounds to finally in 2012, multiple voting.

But lately, there have been several different "Sexiest Woman" listings, especially "Esquire" magazine with their "Sexiest Woman Alive". The Sexiest Woman poll has originated in Fairbanks for much of its life, but since moving to Atlanta in late 2013, I fell that just like "American Idol", it was getting past its shelf life.

As for this year's poll? After a lackluster preliminaries round, Round 1 after a strong first few days was getting long in the tooth even though I wanted to get to Round 2 as soon as possible, and I realized that there are other things of importance to me. So therefore, it is my decision that effective immediately, I am discontinuing Sexiest Woman of the Year after 15 years. Julianne Hough, Hilary Duff, and Sophia Bush will be our final winner, runner-up, and third-place finisher respectively.

But no doubt, Sexiest Woman will leave an indelible mark, as you the public had the power. I want to thank you and the thousands of others who have voted all these years; and even if they've went all the way or not, our favorite ladies are ALL the Sexiest Women of the Year or any other year!

Alas, all good things must indeed come to an end. Many thanks for a great 15 years!!