Washington went down well in movie Training Day

They are chosen by a nationwide Gallup telephone poll, which uses a random sample to reflect the views of more than 200 million Americans.

The public can vote for any star it wants in 18 categories covering TV, music and film.

The stars to receive the most votes for each category, or four if there is a tie, become the nominees.

The polling covers the time frame from 1 November to 31 October.

This allowed comedian Jason Alexander to pick up surprise votes for favourite male performer in a new television series, for his axed show Bob Patterson.

Bob Patterson was cancelled by ABC after five episodes because of dismal ratings.

Established

In this category, Alexander will battle it out against Scott Bakula, the captain on the latest Star Trek series Enterprise, and Damon Wayans for the sitcom My Wife and Kids.

Lopez is nominated for music and film

The nominees for favourite female performer in a new television series include Ellen DeGeneres for The Ellen Show.

Elsewhere, TV stars nominated in more established shows included Drew Carey, Kelsey Grammer, Ray Romano, Jennifer Aniston, Calista Flockhart and Oprah Winfrey.

Jennifer Lopez was nominated in the category favourite musical performer along with Britney Spears and country star Garth Brooks.

Lopez also picked up a movie nomination, as well as Sandra Bullock, Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Anthony Hopkins.

The People's Choice awards will go out live on CBS in the new year in what is usually a glitzy event attended by America's biggest stars.