Wed Mar 10

Who will be Time Person of the Year in 2021?

Written by News Co Media

Although it’s only March, that hasn’t stopped many people from speculating about who Time magazine will nominate to be its Person of the Year. This award was created by the US news magazine to shine a spotlight on those persons who have done most to influence an individual year.

While the Person of the Year award was originally established to highlight individual people, it has since expanded to award groups of people, objects or even ideas for the power of their influence. As a result, previous winners of the Time Person of the Year award have included everything from President John F Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II to American women and the computer.

Last year’s Person of the Year award was jointly won by US president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris. If you go here, you can see a review of a bookmaker who has a full shortlist for the most likely contenders to win this year’s Person of the Year award. But here is a quick overview of those candidates who are looking odds-on to win the 2021 Time award.

Doctors, journalists, and climate change activists

Given the pandemic, it’s little surprise to find that most bookmakers have the theme of ‘Doctors, Nurses, First Responders and Essential Workers’ to be the leading candidate to win this year’s Person of the Year award. Similarly, ‘epidemiologists’ are also in the front-running to win this award due to their incredible efforts to beat Covid-19.

While these would be admirable award selections, it’s important to note that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is in second-place in the odds. This would be a huge victory given that the legitimacy of the WHO was called into question after the former US president Donald Trump severed ties with the health organisation. Plus the American physician Anthony Fauci is a front-runner which will be some small compensation for having survived the Trump administration.

Beyond this, there are many more groups of people who have caught bookmakers’ eyes in terms of being likely to claim the Person of the Year award. ‘Journalists’ are among the front-runners - perhaps in a rebuke to the anti-journalist diatribes issued in the Trump era. Other groups of people that are linked with the award are ‘climate activists’ and ‘teachers and educators’.

Politicians and political groups

Unsurprisingly, politicians have tended to dominate the Person of the Year awards in the past. This time around, it’s both President Joe Biden and Vice-president Kamala Harris who are the most likely politicians to claim the award.

While Donald Trump has taken a slump in the ratings, there are improved odds for progressive political figures ranging from the US politician Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. It’s also interesting to see that the Black Lives Matter movement is also among the 10 most likely to win the Time magazine award.

Many of the leading candidates have tended to be from the Northern Hemisphere. However, it’s important to note that New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is thought to be in with a decent chance of winning the award, while our own prime minister has had to make do with creating headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

Outsiders in the running to be the Person of the Year

Of course, there is still two-thirds of 2021 yet to run, and the Time award never usually gets announced until December. All of which means that there are still plenty of contenders who have ample time to make an impression on the judging panel.

Some bookmakers have already identified some interesting choices about individuals who they think could be in line to win the Person of the Year award. As usual, there are a smattering of pop stars among the odds with the likes of Cardi B, Lizzo and Beyonce all being in with a chance.

Plus when celebrities like RuPaul are among the contenders, it shows that truly anything could happen in 2021. So that whether it’s a tech mogul like Mark Zuckerberg or a politician like Anthony Albanese, the award should hopefully help us to forget about the pandemic for just a few short moments.