Who was ‘People’s sexiest man alive in 2023?

People, get ready. This is a most prestigious title and I don’t think you could have ever guessed who would be crowned. I know I audibly gasped in my living room.

Attempting to predict who would win has many factors: Who has a huge TV/film project premiering soon? Who is the hottest of them all? And Jimmy Kimmel made a game of guessing, by enlisting his studio audience to attempt to pry clues out of the mysterious man in a suit and a lizard face — using “cutting edge hologram technology” — with his voice disguised.

Audience members asked, “Were you born in America?” to which he replied, “yes,” so the audience member knew the SSMA wasn’t Timothée Chalamet, and “How many kids do you have?” to which he responded, “a lot,” and Kimmel said, “wait – how many kids do you have?” and the SSMA replied, “three,” eliciting a joke from Kimmel that he could eliminate Nick Cannon. So the next questions narrowed down his age to between 50 and 60. And Kimmel provided a clue, stating that the contestant had starred on one of the biggest TV shows of all time, prompting an audience member to ask, “are you Dr. McDreamy?” and the cat was officially out of the bag, revealing none other than Patrick Dempsey as People Magazine‘s Sexiest Man Alive.

Now, for many, this was a much-anticipated, long-awaited, and well deserved anointing. But for others, there were some far more deserving candidates.

For Swifties, the Kelces only recently dropped out of the sky and became worthy of attention, but for an entire fanbase of loyal football fans, Travis and Jason were already princes among men and famous in their right.

For denizens of appreciators of two of the biggest shows to have come out in recent years, the crown was meant for their daddy Pedro Pascal. Pascal left his indelible marks on pop culture with hits The Mandalorian and The Last of Us.

But we must admit, seeing Dr. McDreamy claim the title was oddly satisfying — like having everyone finally appreciate what you’ve known all along — albeit at least a decade late.

What’ll Dempsey do for an encore?

Dempsey’s all set to show off his extensive car racing chops in Michael Mann’s biopic Ferrari, set to release in December. Sure to be another winner, we’re on the edge of our seats for the premiere of what looks to be a standout performance from our beginning and our ending.