Chris Pizzello/AP Photo

Although she was a no-show at the ceremony, singer and sometimes actress Katy Perry was the big winner at the 38th annual People's Choice Awards in Los Angeles where she was named the winner in five categories, including favorite female artist.

Perry, who would have made her first public appearance since her split from husband Russell Brand had she turned up at the awards show at the Nokia Theatre LA Wednesday night, also won favorite tour headliner, song of the year for "E.T.," favorite music video for the 1980s spoof "Last Friday Night" and TV guest star for her appearance on the CBS hit "How I Met Your Mother."

Check out a slideshow of all of your favorite stars at the People's Choice Awards here!

The pop star tweeted to fans that she would not make the event earlier this week saying, "I want to thank u all for voting for me, fingers crossed!"

"How I Met Your Mother" was also the big winner in the television category, beating out Emmy winner "Modern Family" and hits like "Two and a Half Men" and "Glee" to take the favorite network TV comedy statue.

Emma Stone and Johnny Depp also won fan praise at the gala event when they received the favorite movie actress and favorite movie actor gongs. Stone also took home the favorite comedic movie actress award.

"I moved to L.A. eight years ago this week with my mom, who's right there," Stone said to the crowd. "It is so insane to be standing up here right now. It is hard to describe to you."

Funnyman Adam Sandler was awarded favorite comedic movie actor at the ceremony, and "Real Steel" star Hugh Jackman took home the prize for favorite action movie star, beating out favorites like Ryan Reynolds and Shia LaBeouf.

A solemn moment came at the event, which was hosted by "The Big Bang Theory" star Kaley Cuoco, when veteran actor Morgan Freeman was awarded a favorite movie icon award.

"If I represent something, here's what I hope it is: to all of you who were kind enough to vote for me, I hope I represent a working actor who is forever grateful for this honor," Freeman said.

Earlier he joked, "When I found out that I'd been nominated for the first-ever People's Choice movie icon award, I decided to look up 'icon' and here's what I found: the first definition said an icon is a tiny picture on a computer screen that represents a file."

In the movie categories, two very popular features took the awards: the smash-hit "Bridesmaids" for favorite comedy movie and the Robert Patinson-Reese Witherspoon romance "Water for Elephants" for favorite drama movie.

The final film installment in the adored "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," had four wins, including favorite movie, favorite action movie, favorite book adaptation and favorite ensemble movie cast. Like Perry, none of the cast made it to the ceremony.

Newer shows "Two Broke Girls," Hot in Cleveland," "Supernatural," "Person of Interest," and "Pretty Little Liars" rounded out the television categories.

A full list of all of the nominees and winners is available at PeoplesChoice.com.