CarterMatt Awards 2017 results: Who received Top Actress honor?

Welcome to the CarterMatt Awards results! Throughout the final days of December we’re going to be sharing with you the end results of one of the greatest editions of these awards ever since we first started them six years ago. Hundreds of thousands of you voted, making this edition incredibly competitive and also a total blast to conduct. We hope that some of your favorites end up being among the winners this year!

We should start off this results article for Top Actress by saying this: In all of our years of doing awards and fan votes, none have been as close or had as many changes back and forth in the final day as this one. Just in the final several hours of voting alone Caitriona Balfe and Sarah Rafferty swapped spots back and forth; at one point this morning, there was only twenty votes separating the two! Given that this poll has received more than 50,000 votes, that makes this win all the more impressive.

Hats off to both Balfe and Rafferty’s fans for one of the best, hard-fought campaigns we’ve ever seen at CarterMatt in the 6 years we’ve been doing these awards. Both of these women gave fantastic performances over the past year and were worthy nominees.

In the end, though, there can only be one winner…

Caitriona Balfe of Outlander is the Top Actress of 2017

Balfe’s fans staged an epic campaign over the final two days to push her into the lead and secure her the title. It’s certainly understandable why they would want to. She’s a fantastic actress known for giving powerful, real performances as Claire Fraser. She brings devastation when she needs to as well as joy. Above all else though, Balfe brings relatability. She makes it easy to step into Claire’s shoes and understand where she is coming from — no small feat given that she is a woman in an extraordinary circumstance, traveling back through time in order to be with the man she loves.

In addition to winning this award Balfe is nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and it is certainly our hope that she receives an Emmy nomination as Claire in 2018. When you look back at such stellar episodes as “A. Malcolm,” “First Wife,” and “Uncharted,” it’s hard to fathom how a performer of her caliber could ever be overlooked. Her work is breathtaking and she pours her heart and soul into every single scene.

Balfe joins such other recent Top Actress winners as Alycia Debnam-Carey for The 100 and Melissa McBride for The Walking Dead. Insofar as other Outlander-related winners at the CarterMatt Awards this year, she also joins Top Actor Sam Heughan and Favorite Showrunner Ronald D. Moore.

Are you happy with this CarterMatt Awards victory? Be sure to share in the comments!