A friend of mine is a finalist in the America’s Favorite Couple contest, so I started looking into it and found the same company, Colossal, does tons of these contests to raise money for charity. They are also the ones behind the Cosplay Star competition and the Fab Over 40 that was all over social media last year. So, is the America’s Favorite Couple contest a scam? I’m off on a deep dive to find out the details.
In the meantime, you can help out Emily and Brian in the contest by voting once a day. It’s free to vote! You will end up getting on an e-mail list that reminds you to vote, but it is easy to unsubscribe. Click here to vote. (There are paid options, but that’s where it gets a little scammy. Read on to learn more about that.)
*Update: My friends Emily and Brian made it to 6th place and were cut from the contest. Good luck to everyone still in it!
What is the America’s Favorite Couple Contest?
The America’s Favorite Couple contest markets itself as a heartwarming campaign that celebrates real love stories while supporting worthy causes. Promoted with celebrity sparkle—hosted by Jeff Goldblum and his wife Emilie Livingston—the competition offers a $20,000 prize and a professionally produced spread in Variety magazine to the winning couple.
The contest is put on by a company called Colossal Management, LLC, which is a professional fundraising company. In other words, they are getting paid for doing this. They also produce an impressive amount of these contests annually. Check out over 20 contests here, with everything from America’s Favorite Baby to the Face of Halloween: Featured Competitions — Colossal Impact.
It appears they do work with actual celebrities and also donate to real charities. These contests are created to raise money for charities by selling votes. You can get one free vote a day, but additional votes cost money, where a portion goes to Colossal and a portion goes to the charity. For the America’s Favorite Couple contest, the money raised benefits the L.A. Regional Food Bank and Oceana—two legitimate nonprofits.
But Is the Contest a Scam?
There’s a lot of “Is America’s Favorite Couple Contest a scam?” posts on Reddit right now, which is why I started looking into this. On the surface the answer is technically no, it’s not a scam. It does benefit actual charities and people do win. But the gray area is how the voting is done, who wins, and how much goes to the charities.
Colossal does clearly state that “Proceeds raised from each competition are distributed to the designated charity minus fees and costs and a small percentage retained by DTCare.” DTCare is a nationally registered 501(c)(3) organization, so if you do donate money, you can get a tax-deductible receipt for donating to a charity.
And while they don’t tell you exactly how much percentage the charity will get, they mention they are “committed to the highest pass-through rate in the industry.” There are several claims online that the amount is something close to 25%.
Let’s Talk About the Voting
If you start looking up contestants, it seems like everyone who enters is in “the finals.” So, when you look closer, you’ll notice it will say they are #so-and-so “in their group.” But how many groups are there?? Apparently, a lot. (Tip: If you click where it says “in their group” on the contest page, you can see everyone in their group. It doesn’t look like a link, but it is.)
Thanks to a commenter on this post, I’ve learned there are 2358 groups with 89 couples in each group. The group phases go from top 20, to top 15, top 10, top 5 and 1st
In quarter finals, all votes are refreshed to give all the top 1 couple a fair chance, and now there’s 14 couples in each quarter final.
There’s a marketing tactic at play that’s familiar to anyone who’s encountered similar contests online: each round is set up so participants are “close to winning” or “just behind first place,” a tactic often used to encourage more sharing and vote purchases to get them just a little closer to winning.
While not inherently deceptive, this gamified feedback mechanism can create pressure and lead participants to spend more in hopes of securing the lead.
There’s a lot of angry people posting about this from the “Fab Over 40” competition that was all over social media recently: Fab Over40 Contest group 2025
Also, Colossal Management, LLC is not accredited with the Better Business Bureau, however there is a page with several complaints about how the voting is run and how they get people to donate: Colossal Management, LLC | BBB Complaints | Better Business Bureau
Do People Really Win Colossal’s Contests?
I tried looking into who wins these contests and it was a bit odd. I couldn’t find much info on the winners, or much social media presence. I noticed this same thing echoed from other people on Reddit threads.
For example, the Cosplay Star winner Jarrod Davis has 68 followers on Instagram and pretty much zero social media presence besides a few posts about the contest, all with minimal engagement. That’s pretty strange considering all these things are pretty much a popularity contest.
He barely has any posts overall and stopped posting after winning the contest. There is very little information about him or photos of his actual face without the costume – https://www.instagram.com/sivad_dorraj
His last photo shows his “photo spread” in Star magazine, which actually amounts to an ad purchased by Colossal.
According to a very informative YouTube video from Horror Realm about the Face of Horror contest, the winners usually have ties to the organization, and all the magazine spreads are just purchased ads and not really associated with the magazine.
Below is a screenshot where he brings up Bon Appetit magazine putting out a tweet clarifying that they were not associated with the Favorite Chef contest and that the contest organizers had purchased an ad. Read the full story about that and the lawsuit here: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/2021/02/24/favorite-chef-competition-scam-controversy/4546938001/
There are several other interesting videos on the Horror Realm channel about his experience in the contest and more about the organization and their history.
A Colossal Waste of Money?
After all this research, I am still giving Emily and Brian my free vote, because that’s what friends do. But I did urge her not to spend any of her money on this contest, as it’s made to milk people for every dollar.
Yes, somebody will win, and somebody will get $20,000. I’d love for it to be my friends, and I hate to rain on their parade with this little exposé, but I felt people needed to know the whole story about this company and their contests.
In the end, it’s a contest with questionable voting practices and designed mostly to make Colossal millions of dollars. Pretty much everyone who enters will experience being in “the finals” because it gives them hope to keep hustling and get people to pay for votes.
So, do you know anyone in the finals or maybe you are in the contest? Leave me a comment and let me know how you’re doing! I’d love to hear from a winner and see what they have to say.
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Categories: scam alert
It’s interesting that I also have friends in the top 15. Were you able to find out how many groups there are? Why hasn’t anyone’s standing changed if people are still voting for them?
I wasn’t able to find any details on the number of groups, but it seems like everyone is in the top 15 of their group. I’ve seen my friend’s number go up and down between 11th to 7th place. But apparently the rounds and the groups will be going on until September!
There were about 76 couples in my group, and my boyfriend and I are in 5th place currently.
How did you find out how many people are in your group? I’ve been first place for basically the entire competition in my group. I have a friend who went from 15th to 5th and she’s friends with the person that’s 2nd. I’ve been questioning how legitimate it is because (not to be mean) but they have very very few supporters.
Click the words “in their group”. It doesn’t look clickable, but it is! It will bring up the group page.
I am in the contest and was #1 in the groups finals. We are now waiting for Monday 8/11/25 to go into the Quarter finals. There were 90 in my group to start then we were #1 in the top 5 of the group
Same. We are in the Quarterfinals now as well. Our group had 82 people in it. Good luck to you all! It’s been fun so far.
I emailed the contest directly and they were very upfront
2358 groups with an even number of couples in each group 89 couples to be exact votes in the group phase go from top 20 to top 15 top 10 top 5 and 1st
I actually placed 1st in my group and now in quarter finals, at this point all votes are refreshed to give all the top 1 couple a fare chance now there’s 14 couples in each quarter final.
Thanks for the info!
Wow! Thank you so much 4 the info.
Can confirm. We are in the quarter finals as well. 14 in our quarter. Good luck Daniela!
We placed first throughout the contest also and as soon as voting opened for quarterfinals we dropped down to 6th and now at 5th. I see people voting every 10-15 mins for us consistently but I guess it’s just a buy your win contest at this point.
well, in fact people standings HAVE changes in our group. Because I am a bit of tech nerd I have been logging the daily standings and have seen people move up and down. Undoubtedly because some have bought / paid for votes to keep them safe for that round of 7 days
My friends in the contest have also moved up and down, anywhere from 7th to 11th place so far.
My fiancée and I were in the competition. I felt like the couple “Misfits and Matcha” were partnered with the organization. They showed up 2 days before the first round is down and take first place in my group. I was actually going to make a TikTok about it. I will gladly say that I was petty enough to help make sure a TikTok couple/influencers didn’t make it far.
So just asking here. When you say they showed up 2 days before, do you mean that they were added to the group two days before or just started making moves then. In our group (89 in the group) I wouldn’t have been able to tell you who all was in it. I followed a few as they moved toward the front. We took first in the group phase and I promise you we don’t have a tik tok following 🙂
I was curious about that as well!
We were 4th and 5th early on. We moved to 1st in the first week. We’ve emphasized the free vote. It’s been fun to share our story and reconnect with friends we haven’t heard from a while. Naturally as our friends interact it allows for our reach to grow even among our friends list. We’ve been searching for how many groups there are and such but then we just decided to emphasize the free votes and enjoy the conversation. If we win cool, if we don’t, we didn’t lose, we’ve connected with and encouraged others
This is the best way to go about it, and a very good way of looking at it with making connections if nothing else. Good luck in the contest. 🙂
I’ve never heard of this in Australia… but I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar lands on our digital doorsteps soon… we do have relentless advertising for “win a car / home” style lotteries that often turn out to be not quite scam, but not quite as advertised (things like the car is unregistered and the same model as promised but a couple of years old etc)
I wouldn’t be surprised if they expanded internationally! The company is hitting every genre over here. My Instagram is always filled with ads for these contests now.
our friends are in “first place” she told me. at first she said we have till july 9 to vote now it’s still going on. i asked her about it she just says they are in eliminations now. she really didn’t respond to her older posts of only so many days left to vote. would be interesting to see past winners
would
The voting will be going on for many rounds, possibly until September! I would love to hear from actual winners of one of these contests.
definitely into September. Voting Ends Sept 4th with the announcement of the winner on Sept 19.
Where did you find this information? I have been searching for information and unable to really find any.
You can find the whole competition schedule on the rules page.
We have been between 2nd & 4th in our group the whole time. We have made the first 2 cuts. It has been fun sharing our story and having friends vote for us!
I think that it does have that positive side about it- that people are enjoying sharing their story and connecting more with people even if they don’t win.
Can the couples see who voted?
I don’t think so. They also can’t see how many votes overall they have, just where they are placing currently in their groups. (*If anyone is in the contest and this is incorrect, please let me know)
My partner and I are currently 1st in our group and we can definitely see who has voted for us.
Hi, we’re in the competition. The couples can see some who votes, it will show on the ‘dashboard’ the last 3 free votes that were made, and if there are any purchased votes, it will show that as well
Thanks for sharing that info!
Absolutely! You can see the free votes and a separate section for the money votes.
Wife and I are into the 3rd round in our group we have amazingly been in 1st place in our group since day 3 of the 10 day round 1. We have been getting our friends to daily vote for free. we ended round 1 and 2 in 1st place in our group. No idea where people are getting the idea that this is the FINALS. the rules clearly state that these early rounds are are for the groups first cut down was 90 to 20, then to 15 next Thursday it will be to 10 it believe the final cut down is to 5 and then from there the winner of THEIR GROUP all o0f the winners will be put together after w wildcard round for the 2nd place finishers. Yes there are a lot of rounds. Sounds like it will go on fore if you keep making the cuts. That being said, it is amazing how quickly our group is now at ONLY 15…
Technically everyone in the contest is in “the finals.” Like every round is another elimination and then you move on to the next round of “finals.”
We’re Life on Marzz and currently 7/20/25 in 3rd place in our group. On instagram you can find us @istherelifeonmarzz I’ve been encouraging free voting. My Mom who doesn’t have a pot to p in donated $50 the first day, she’s older and doesn’t understand she cannot “help” us win this. I was disheartened to see people posting on Reddit that they entered this contest and are not in a relationship. I saw two men who are co-workers entered this because their boss did, and they wanted to beat him. I’m still trying to figure out if they made the cut to the next round. What a waste of time for all these people who put themselves out there and have incredible stories. I worry my friends and family’s identity will be stolen lol
My husband is my living donor, he did what no one else would and I’ll never stop trying to share his bright light with the world. Also to advocate for all the caregivers who are the real super hero’s and they go unoticed. We may not be the most deserving or favorite of the couples by any means but I know we have a story people will want to hear. We made the local Pittsburgh news for donate life month and it was an incredible feeling to share hope with everyone. The money would be nice but this opportunity is the reason for us. And man I’d love to meet Jeff Goldblum who hails from my town! I’d be happy to share a link if you or anyone would like to vote for us.
Jenn and Dan Marzzarella
That’s pretty crazy that people who aren’t even couples are entering! But it’s great that you have the opportunity to share your story. Good luck in the contest 🙂
My boyfriend and I are 5th in our group, which originally had around 76 couples. We were in 1st place for a while, but a couple of weeks later, we had dropped to 3rd and now 5th. We’re still enjoying being part of the contest, regardless.
We dropped from 3rd to 5th place in our group. We know it is all set up to promote/get more money but we have been having a good time and advocate for the free votes. The #1 in our group has 1.2 million followers so we know we are doomed but still trying lol
Find us on Instagram @stephaniek67
Having fun is the important part. Good luck!
How do you see who is in your group? Have not been able to figure that out yet:/
I got the answer-click where in says “in their group”
My husband and I are in AFC contest…Currently #1 in our group.
(We’ll see how that goes as we head to the Top 10 and the subsequent rounds!🤷♀️)
Have been asked by several friends how many groups there are! (Don’t know …..Colossal has that as a big secret)
The charitable recipients are wonderful organizations. In fact, Oceana recently was instrumental in getting Amazon to stop using those jelly fish looking plastic air pillow packing materials and replace it with packing paper!!! Hopefully other companies will follow!!
Rules prevent purchasing your own votes and the couples who are not authentic couples will be disqualified if they win.
It’s been fun posting on Facebook reminders to vote!
Totally unattached to winning …(remembering the quote “It’s the journey ..not the destination!!”)
😂🥰
@Lapachiart IG account
FB and Linked In
Lanis Loveday Chidel
How do yall see other couples in your group? I can’t find it
Just click “in their group”
Thank you for sharing that!!
Holy crap! I had no idea we could see this! It’s the final round and we were 1st in our group of 5.
I knew this competition was a little iffy, but I still have high hopes. Winning this would absolutely change my life. I have a rare degenerative disease that’s not well studied & as a result I have to fly to specialists all over the U.S. It’s really costly, and not something insurance pays for. So winning this competition would be such an incredible gift.
Sending hugs to everyone!
Much love,
Kimi
TikTok
@profeshpatient
Good luck in the contest!
Wow! Thank you!
I haven’t figured that out either, and that’s just one reason why I figured this whole thing was scammy. But still kind of fun…. And cute.
That seems to be the general opinion- scammy, but fun and cute! LOL
I had a friend do this same thing with the “best tattoos” and another few friends did the “baby of the year” one.
Now, I do have a friend who is entered in this “contest” with her husband and they are “currently in 2nd place in their group.” When I did a deep dive into this a year or two ago, I found out that there are something like 27,000 “groups.” So, being in the top 15 of 27,000 groups doesn’t really narrow it down too much. The contests go on for MONTHS, too. So, needless to say, your friends and my friends will never win any of these contests.
Hopefully, they ARE giving a lot to the charities they say they’re going to donate to. It’s super shady that they won’t reveal the number of votes people have or the amount of money each couple has raised or the percentage they will give to the charity.
I’d love to know everyone’s group seeing as though my partner and I are also #1 in our group. We keep toggling between 1st and 2nd but usually by the end of the day we’re in 1st. I do know that is because we have a ton of family and friends supporting us.
I entered the contest and quickly figured out how it worked without doing anything sleuthing. There is no way for me or my friends to see who the other contestants are. What kind of contest of it when you only have the ability to see, know, and “vote” for only one contestant? And paying for votes? OMG! But it’s still been fun being in it. We are currently #4, not that that really means anything 😂
You can’t see who the other contestants are because it’s a scam. Literally everyone is in the top of “their group”, so if you were able to see other contestants, it would expose that.
I found out you can actually see the other contestants. Just click the part that says “in their group” and it will bring you to the page with everyone in that group including who has been eliminated.
Where do you find the phrase “in their group” to click on?
Right under where it says Currently whatever number. Right below that it says, “in their group.” It doesn’t look clickable, but it is!
Thank you!
Still could be fake. $20,000 is a lot. They could likely have fake paired employees as couples and doctored socials being placed automatically in 1st so nothing gets rewarded, thus getting more donations from hopefuls.
It’s absolutely fake. It has the exact same concept as the Inked Magazine Covergirl and Inked Originals “contests”, which have been proven to be a scam.
I have heard about those being scammy as well.
so as of an hour ago, my fiancé and I have moved on in the contest. It looks as a for almost 35 other couples were in our group and were eliminated. I know this whole thing is a joke. A comedian of 18 years I am making jokes about it while participating. I will continue to do so. I feel misled by this contest, but not deceived. I’m going to write an article about all of the silliness, including the fake robots that give obviously robotic questions to ridiculous questions I’ve asked
Anyway, we will see what happens this week. I am saving all of my comedic posts from Facebook. Facebook is the only social media that I do. My fiancé doesn’t do anything so we don’t have a chance in hell of winning this contest unless we get some Backing from local media outlets
I have friends who are in it and are #1 “in their group” as you say. My dog was in the “America’s Favorite Pet” contest, so I became familiar with the groups and voting and how it drags on and on. In fact, my dog made the top 5 but was disqualified when she died before the contest was over. 😆 Yep, it went on so long, the senior dog lasted a couple of months and gave up! While I’m confident my friends will make it until the end alive (I certainly hope so, anyway!), I feel like the voting and how it’s all presented is deceptive. I’m sure someone does win (I hope), but don’t really count on it being transparent.
I am sorry to hear about your dog, but the way you tell the story had me laughing. LOL
my fiancé, and I just advanced tonight to the next round of this bullshit contest. I’m a former comedian, and I have been openly critical of this “contest“ and I am documenting a bunch of BS involved with it. I am still participating, but I am making a joke of it along the way and I’m going to spill Any of the beans that I can about this laughable mess.
Oh interesting angle on the contest! I’m here for the beans lol
Alas – my husband and I were cut last night – we ranked 8th. But, we had fun doing it – sharing our story with others and watching others have fun enjoying our posts and taking time to vote and show the love for us. We would do it again – even knowing winning is virtually impossible, we’d give it another go😁
My friend in the contest was also cut last night as well.
Just wanted to jump in again with a perspective from someone actively in the contest (And yes I’m real not a bit 😁 @moose_mummau IG, Cody “Moose” Mummau on FB)
Everything I’ve read in the contest rules seems to be followed exactly. It’s been very clear from the start that this is a fundraiser, that the winning spread is an advertorial, and that it’s all designed to raise awareness and support for real charities. That doesn’t feel scammy to me, just like a marketing-driven model, which they’re open about.
We’ve been upfront since day one: we’re only asking for free daily votes, and there’s zero pressure on anyone to pay for votes. We’ve shared daily photos, stories from our marriage, and reflections on what love looks like (also, to be clear, not just the highlight reel, but the real stuff: good days, hard moments, forgiveness, commitment.)
Nobody has tricked us into giving away info. No shady payment schemes. No bait-and-switch promises. Just exactly what the site said it would be.
Sure, I’m curious about how many groups there actually are. I saw someone throw out “27,000 groups,” which would mean over 2 million participants. Honestly, I find that hard to believe. But if it’s even close, making it to the top spot in our group means we’re 1 of 27,000 left. That’s wild.
Still… nothing about this experience has screamed “scam.” I think that’s a poor choice of wording though it obviously brought in the readership.
And here’s the real talk: even if we don’t win, these last few weeks of sharing our story have been encouraging, life-giving, and have opened up meaningful conversations with friends, family, and even strangers about marriage, grace, love, and what lasting relationships look like. And for that alone, I’m glad we said yes. (And win or lose we’d) do it again
It’s the question people are asking, so it wasn’t a poor choice of wording, just direct response to the top query people are putting into Google.
I apologize if it came off as snarky towards your article. The title of the article is a question of whether or not it’s a scam. I feel like scam is a poor word to use in relation to the contest. But I totally understand that you are responding to an oft asked question. If that makes sense.
Yes, thank you for clarifying. I understand your view, as I hesitated before using that title because my friend was in the contest and I didn’t want her to lose votes from it!
Totally agree with you – we never pushed for paid votes, but always alerted it was a fundraiser. It was fun and we would do it again😍We are tickled we made it past a few cuts and knew the top 5 would would most likely not see us through – be we had a blast getting this far💖
My partner and I are top 5. We post on social regularly and do have a small group of people who continue to vote for us. We’re also 1st in our group.
As Moose said wonderfully above- my partner and I feel the same.
Congrats on getting to the top 5! My friends were cut last night at 6th place.
Thank you for writing this and thanks to this page, I was finally able to understand how to see who else is in our group. I saw a comment a while ago stating that there were 20 groups in total, but I don’t know how accurate that is.
My husband and I are in 4th place, and also just doing this for fun. We mostly wanted to help bring back more positive stories into the world because we’ve both been dreaming of each other since we were kids. When we met in real life, we cried our eyes out at how unbelievably magic this world can be.
It’s been so wonderful seeing so many beautiful couples and hearing their stories. I want you to know that even if you’re no longer in the competition, I just know you’ve inspired so many. So many young people especially are giving up with the idea of true love, so I really hope you’re proud of what you’ve done – you just never know who is watching.
We are on Instagram as @mr_mrs_spooky if anyone wants to connect, and our profile is
https://americasfavcouple.org/2025/mr-mrs-spooky
I just voted for you! Good luck 🙂
My wife and I were in 1st place 98% of the runs and dropped to 2nd in the final hours of “top 5” now we’ve just found out we’re a “wildcard” competitor to make it to the quarter finals. Folks have donated money on our behalf. I agree that they could do with some transparency. We joined the contest to raise awareness about our project MicroPARTY, a children’s media project meant to raise children with a life long love of learning, compassion, and critical thinking skills.
I read about the “wildcard” competitors when I was doing the research, so they seem to do that for all their contests. Good luck with the quarter finals!
So… my husband and I have been in this competition since the beginning. I just got a 5 minute voice note from a friend who hopes to illuminate me that this is a scam. I went searching the inter webs for other opinions and found this article. My husband and I made the wild card round and then there’s 3 more rounds left. Quarter finals semi finals and finals.
I totally get why people think this is a scam… but it’s a business and people profit. Sure they are buying ad space in variety, and maybe it is a scam and there’s someone on the inside who is actually going to win… I don’t know … but it’s Been fun to connect with people again. It’ll be very interesting to see who wins and what happens .
That seems to be the overall opinion- that even if it is a bit scammy with the money and the winners, people have still been having fun doing it.
There were also 97 couples in my group if anyone is keeping tabs.
Currently in the quarterfinals right now, everything has been above board in terms of transparency from the company when asked clarifying questions, just excited to still be in it this far along and friends helping to keep my boyfriend and I going in the voting process
Thank you for commenting. Gave you my vote today! It counted double 🙂