Fans of Christina Grimmie have criticized television network Fox and the 2016 Teen Choice Awards for not including a tribute to the singer, who was killed by a gunman earlier in June. They also slammed the network for not acknowledging the artist for winning the Choice Web Star: Music award.
The ceremony took place at The Forum in Inglewood, California, on July 31. Aside from honoring the achievements of artists, the event, which was hosted by John Cena and Victoria Justice, also served as an avenue for celebrities to spread awareness about gun violence in the country.
Jessica Alba even shared the stage with victims of violence to talk about peace before introducing Ne-Yo, who then covered "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, Billboard reported.
However, some fans pointed out that even though the Teen Choice Awards had segments dedicated to the social issue, the show failed to pay tribute or even mention Grimmie, who was shot and killed on June 10 right after her concert in Orlando.
But aside from the lack of a tribute, the slain singer's fans also noted that even though Grimmie won her first award from the ceremony that night, Fox did not acknowledge it.
christina grimmie, a victim of gun violence, did not get one mention at the TCAs after being exploited for views and tweets.
— alisa. | ntgk stan (@nawmani) August 1, 2016
So the TCA's essentially nominated Christina Grimmie after her death for promo and never even mentioned her name on air? Gross & corrupt — Liz (@lizbaroa) August 1, 2016
As explained by Teen Vogue, the program had over 50 individual awards. Due to time constraints, the show decided not to announce the winners of certain categories during the event. For fans of Grimmie, however, Fox should have at least mentioned Grimmie during the show's airing. For them, aside from beating other nominees such as Boyce Avenue, Cimorelli, MattyBRaps, Johnny Orlando and Chloe X Halle, Grimmie is one of the recent victims of gun violence in the country. Some of the even accused Fox of exploiting Grimmie just to boost the ratings for the program.
I mean like cmon. #TeenChoice. This talented girl deserves better. Stop using Christina grimmie for ratings. pic.twitter.com/JwiSLgwQJK — osias sagapolu (@Osiaaas) August 1, 2016
