Which 2005 Tony Awards Pundit Had the Clearest Crystal Ball?

Every year Broadway journalists try to predict the Tony Award winners-with varying degrees of success. There were some hotly contested categories this year and a lot of close calls. Which pundit had the clearest crystal ball? This year, Jesse McKinley of The New York Times and David Sheward of Backstage predicted the most Tony Award winners with 21, only picking four categories incorrectly. Broadway.com's own Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek was close behind, with 20 correct predictions.

Sheward had the distinction of being the only journalist to predict Glengarry Glen Ross 's Liev Schreiber would win Best Featured Actor in a Play. Likewise Sheward was the only one to predict Jess Goldstein's period costumes for The Rivals would mean Tony gold and McKinley was the only one to predict Scott Pask would receive the Tony for his The Pillowman sets. Not one person predicted tonight's Best Actor in a Play winner Bill Irwin of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? would take home that award.

Here is a more complete picture of how each pundit did:

Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly*--17 out of 25 correct=68%
David Cote/Adam Feldman, Time Out New York--9 out of 16 correct=56%
Susan Haskins, Theater Talk*--13 out of 16 correct=81%
Michael Kuchwara, The Associated Press*--19 out of 25 correct=76%
Jesse McKinley, The New York Times--21 out of 25 correct=84%
Tom O'Neil, In Touch Weekly*--13 out of 16 correct=81%
Patrick Pacheco, Show People*--19 out of 25 correct=76%
Michael Riedel, The New York Post--18 out of 25 correct=72%
David Sheward, Backstage*--21 out of 25 correct=84%
Paul Wontorek, Broadway.com-20 out of 25 correct=80%
*As predicted on Showbiz Awards' Gold Derby