Ellen beats Oprah as top TV host
2008-03-26 17:05
Los Angeles - American talk show
host Ellen DeGeneres has topped rival Oprah Winfrey in a
popularity poll of television hosts - while veteran Larry King
was labelled the least sexy.
The poll by website AOL Television asked readers which
daytime TV host made their day and Ellen, who opens The Ellen
DeGeneres Show by dancing with her audience, trounced Oprah
with 46% of the vote, while Oprah only won 19%.
When asked which daytime host made the ideal dinner guest,
again it was Ellen, with 47% of respondents saying they
would rather dine with her, compared to 14% for Oprah,
long considered the queen of daytime TV with The Oprah Winfrey
Show.
The poll, whose results were released on Wednesday,
received more than 1.35 million votes, and AOL Television
Editor in Chief Scott Robson said the poll was unique for the
broad cross-section of respondents who frequent AOL.
"(Our audience) is not just soccer moms. We really do
combine everyone from hipsters to people who could care less
about what happens on either coast," Robson said.
Among other findings, fans of morning talk shows favoured
ABC's Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America over her main
rivals, Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, on NBC's Today.
Morning show host
Sawyer was favoured as the morning show host whom most
people would want to wake to, winning 30% of the vote,
versus 26% for Lauer and 25% for Vieira.
"She has a news background, so she can straddle that line
between coming at you with real news and talking to you as a
real person," Robson said.
The Good Morning America host also was voted the most
likely to make a good US president, with 34% favouring
her over rivals that included Jon Stewart of The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart and Oprah, both with 22%.
Among some of the other findings, Kelly Ripa of Live with
Regis and Kelly was named the sexiest talk show host and the
one with the best hair, while Larry King of Larry King Live,
who has been married seven times, was named least sexy.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck of The View was voted worst
interviewer, and her co-star Whoopi Goldberg was picked to win
in an "all-out View smackdown" among the programme's panel that
includes Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters.