According to an email from the People’s Choice Awards that was posted at Winchester Family Business, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles were not invited to the awards ceremony because their awards were not going to be shown on air. They could have attended the ceremony if they wanted to, but they would not be given any screen time. They would have just basically been there to sit in the audience and watch. Jensen Ackles confirms this in a video taken by Linz Barker that you can see on youtube.
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