How People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” entered its flop era

This week, a number of social media users were, once again, disappointed by the selection of a certain man to a coveted position. Actor John Krasinski — yes, Jim from The Office — was given the title of People’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” 

It’s a choice that’s less egregious than genuinely perplexing. It’s not that Krasinski isn’t an objectively handsome man. In his most recent television role — on the Prime Video show Jack Ryan, which ended in 2023 – he played a buff, butt-kicking CIA agent. It’s more that his career has rarely ever required him to display any sort of sex appeal. His most crush-worthy role to date was arguably more than a decade ago on The Office as the funny and approachable Jim Halpert. Since then, the most female attention he gets on social media is when he’s posing with his wife, actress Emily Blunt, on a red carpet. Plus, it’s not exactly his year for visible hotness: His work in 2024 was almost entirely behind the scenes, directing the children’s film IF and producing A Quiet Place: Day One. 

All this to say, in a pop culture landscape practically infested with “internet boyfriends,” Krasinski was a baffling choice. Amid look-alike competitions being held for Hollywood’s hottest young men across the United States and Europe — your Timmy Chalamets, your Paul Mescals — the lack of excitement around this issue has never felt so loud. What does it even mean to be People’s sexiest man alive in 2024, if it means anything at all? And why are we still so invested? 

For readers who witnessed Patrick Dempsey receive this honor just last year, it must be pointed out that the “Sexiest Man Alive” issue didn’t always feel this arbitrary and untimely. From its (now-cursed) inaugural issue in 1985 with box-office star Mel Gibson up until Channing Tatum’s spread in 2012, the titular “man” felt representative of the tastes of the average (straight white) woman. Plus, it was often a star who was dominating at the box office. In the past, the cover served as the ultimate advertising vehicle for “it” guys who were either newly cementing themselves as full-fledged movie stars, like Brad Pitt in 1995 and George Clooney in 1997, or major celebs reassuring the public that they were still hot commodities, like Harrison Ford in 1998. While these selections have been overwhelmingly white, at least they once felt relevant. 

People is a stalwart in an industry weathering difficult times, and this special issue is arguably one of the things keeping the magazine on newsstands. According to Digiday, the sexiest man issue has “a rate base, or guaranteed circulation, of 3.7 million, compared to a regular issue of the magazine, with a rate base of 3.5 million.” Strategically published during the fourth quarter when consumers are doing Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, it’s proven to be a huge cash cow for People’s parent company, Dotdash Meredith. 

In the 2010s, though, the issue started to receive some blowback — or, more accurately, the advent of social media allowed these complaints to be expressed in a hypervisible way. It wasn’t just that only two men of color, Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves, had received the award until 2016, when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson graced the cover. The choosing of celebrities like Adam Levine, a rockstar with a reputation for being a so-called “douchebag,” raised eyebrows in 2013 and also performed relatively poorly on newsstands. His co-star on The Voice Blake Shelton has maybe done the most damage to the issue’s reputation. The unveiling of his cover in 2017 sent the internet into hysterics for days. John Legend (another judge on The Voice) in 2019 felt almost equally random. Even Benny Blanco’s appearance in the current issue as an honorable mention was strongly objected to online. Year over year, the “Sexiest Man Alive” has become less of a trusted assertion and more of a platform for debate.

The details of the selection process for this issue have largely been kept under wraps. In a 2012 interview with USA Today, former editor Julie Jordan said People temperature-checks in a few ways, including asking female celebrities, consulting focus groups, and observing social media. There are constant rumors, including in the case of Krasinski, that the title can be bought or won by a convincing publicist. It’s easy to forget, though, that the selected men also have to be willing to participate in this extremely public form of objectification. The less impeachable Ryan Gosling reportedly turned down the offer twice.  

Even with an increasingly questionable reputation, social media has remained invested in this frivolous honor, particularly this year. Maybe it’s because People did a good job of incessantly teasing the reveal on social media with the help of dominant X accounts like FilmUpdates and PopCrave. Maybe it’s because the public needed a distraction from a much more crucial and devastating election. In the midst of political tumult, Krasinski is ultimately a “safe,” fairly inoffensive option, a celebrity that millennials obsessed with The Office have a level of affinity for. Despite questions about his political affiliation, he hasn’t been mired in any real controversy. 

Whatever relevance the title holds, the sport of debating and crowning famous men as “sexy” and “hot” has never really gotten old. Like awards shows, it’s one of the last examples of celebrity monoculture for consumers to collectively engage with. In an overly skeptical social media landscape, it also seems as though half of the fun of the issue is negotiating whether the awarded person is a genuine attempt to reflect consumers’ taste or some elaborate PR play being fed to us. 

However meaningless the issue has become these days, it’s been successful in producing two things: revenue and a good, hollow debate.