Robert Downey Jr. poses as he arrives at the screening of the film "Marvel's The Avengers" for the closing night of the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York April 28, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

"The Avengers" led the movie nominations for the annual People's Choice Awards on Thursday in a field packed with action films, while Maroon 5 and frontman Adam Levine won six nods in music and television categories.

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Justin Bieber, Channing Tatum - People magazine's latest "sexiest man alive" - and actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone also received multiple nominations for the only Hollywood awards show covering film, music and television that is voted on entirely by the public.

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The People's Choice Awards ceremony, set for January 9, is the first in the busy Hollywood awards season, which culminates with the coveted Academy Awards on February 24.

Summer blockbuster "The Avengers" won eight nominations including favorite movie, favorite action movie, and multiple nods for its stars Robert Downey Jr., Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth.

It will compete with superhero movies "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Dark Knight Rises", fantasy film "Snow White and the Huntsman" and futuristic thriller "The Hunger Games" for favorite movie.

The last of the popular "Twilight" films - "Breaking Dawn-Part 2" - released this week, did not fall within the eligibility period for the People's Choice Awards.

But its avid "Twi-hards" picked up a nomination for favorite movie fan following, along with those of "Harry Potter", "The Lord of the Rings", "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Hunger Games".

In music, Adam Levine leapt to the top of the pile on the back of his stint as a judge on TV singing contest "The Voice". Maroon 5 won nominations for favorite band, song, album, and music video, while Levine was nominated for celebrity judge - along with Christina Aguilera and new "X Factor" judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato. "The Voice" was among the contenders for competition TV show.

On the small screen, network comedies "The Big Bang Theory" and "Glee" face off against "Modern Family", while "Gossip Girl", "Grey's Anatomy" and "Grimm" are among the TV drama nominees.

The nominees were chosen by the votes of more than 93 million fans. Voting for the winners in all 48 categories begins on Thursday on website www.PeoplesChoice.com, where a complete list of nominations can be found.