CarterMatt Awards 2017: McDanno, Bughead, Supercorp, Roger & Bree among ‘Ship of the Year candidates

Who is the 2017 ‘Ship of the Year? It’s certainly an objective question without a doubt, but in today’s edition of the 2017 CarterMatt Awards it is one we’re going to try and answer. There are many interesting candidates out there across all sorts of shows, and the characters nominated this year represent a wide array of people. The one common thread here is that their relationships are dynamic and interesting to watch.

So what’s the difference between ‘Ship of the Year and the Best Couple award nominations we presented yesterday? The big difference is that Best Couple is more about TV relationships that are firmly established. ‘Ship of the Year, meanwhile, celebrates relationships that viewers want to see happen. Some of these may be characters who were together, characters who are building towards being together in the future, or popular relationships among fan communities who haven’t been explored on TV in a romantic context.

Below, you can see all of our nominees for 2017, which have been compiled by the CarterMatt staff.

(Note: If you are on mobile and cannot see the poll, scroll to the bottom of the article and click to view the non-AMP version.)

Now, without further ado, let’s get to the nominations.

Benson and Barba, Law & Order: SVU (NBC) – It’s common to want to ‘ship Olivia Benson with other characters given that she deserves as much happiness as possible. Does she need love to find happiness? No, but there are some relationships that are appealing. The Barson ‘ship is one of them because she and Barba know each other so well and have a constantly engaging push and pull. They challenge each other at work, and we have to imagine that they would have a really dynamic romantic relationship if the show ever went there.

Betty and Jughead, Riverdale (The CW) – Otherwise known as Bughead, it’s a ‘ship so popular that the network gave it a custom hashtag emoji. We really thought that we’d be able to nominate these two for best couple, but this season has been very volatile for the two — especially this past episode with everything that happened between them (and it wasn’t great for Archie and Veronica, either). Is there still a reason to hope for Bughead’s future? For sure, it’s the pairing that most of the show’s fans seem to want.

Jackson and April, Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – When these two were together they were clearly one of the best couples on the show; unfortunately, it’s been a while now since that was the case. While Japril did sleep together late last season, they’ve since stuck mostly to parenting. No matter what the two are going through and who they date now, there is probably going to always be a part of us rooting for them to work things out.

Jamie and Eddie, Blue Bloods (CBS) – When is Jamko going to finally become a thing on this show? We’re not sure that a will-they-or-won’t-they romance on TV has been teased longer thank this one. Their struggle should be very familiar to longtime viewers at this point — they can’t be together because of their status as partners on the police force, but clearly they care about each other and, were it not for that, they’d probably be an item. Fingers crossed that they still figure out a way to have their cake and eat it too.

Kara and Lena, Supergirl (The CW) – The Supercorp fandom seemed to begin in much of the same way that several others have — watching two characters be supportive of each other and develop a close friendship. This, in turn, made some fans want to root for the two of them beyond just a friendship. The Supercorp ‘ship is incredibly popular on Tumblr and it’s quickly become one of the most-prevalent through all of the CW superhero universe, even without it being explored in a romantic context on-screen.

Klaus and Caroline, The Originals (The CW) – They’re the reigning champions of this award at the moment, and the funny thing is that they’ve been able to reign supreme in this category without all that much in the way of screen time. That’s obviously going to change when Candice King heads to The Originals for at least a couple of episodes in the final season. We’re not sure that the hype for Klaroline has ever been more substantial.

McGarrett and Danny, Hawaii Five-0 (CBS) – We do love the fact that the Five-0 writers are reasonably self-aware of this given that they had the McDanno’s Bar & Grill t-shirt concept earlier this season. Those shirts became so popular that CBS started to sell them! Given that these characters are basically an old married couple on the CBS show, it’s not all that hard to see where the popularity of this ‘ship comes from — they bicker, but they also love and care about each other at the end of the day.

Roger and Brianna, Outlander (Starz) – We had a bit of a spirited debate regarding whether or not to place them in this category — it seems like they’re well on their way to becoming a couple, but you can make the argument that based on where we are in season 3 right now that they haven’t quite made it there. Clearly, there are feelings between the two and a strong emotional bond. Even just through a small number of appearances, you have a pretty good sense as to why so many out there want to root for the pair just like they did in the books.