Top-Ten List Made Up Mainly of Comedians and Talk Show Hosts
* Ellen Degeneres, comedian and host of a very popular daytime talk show,
moves up to #7 from #10.
perhaps due to the recent allegations surrounding a sexual harassment
law suit.
since 2001) are tied at #9 this year.
The four people who dropped off the list this year are William Peterson (CSI star was #8 in 2003), Whoopi Goldberg (was #9 in 2003), Jennifer Aniston (was tied for #10) in 2003 and Martin Sheen (was tied for #10 in 2003).
While Oprah Winfrey is tops with women and older adults aged 65+, David Letterman is #1 among men. Among younger viewers aged 18-29, who are so important to advertisers, Jon Stewart is the most popular.
TABLE 1
FAVORITE TV PERSONALITY
"Who is your favorite TV personality?"
Base: All adults
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002* 2003 2004
Oprah Winfrey 2 2 3 3 3 1 2 1 3 1 1 1
David Letterman 6 6 4 5 7 * * 6 4 3 2 =2
Jon Stewart * * * * * * * * * * =6 =2
Ray Romano * * * * * * * =7 5 2 4 4
Jay Leno * 8 10 =10 8 =6 * =7 6 9 5 5
Bill Cosby 3 4 5 4 4 4 3 10 * * * 6
Ellen Degeneres * * * * * * * * * * =10 7
Bill O'Reilly * * * * * * * * 7 5 3 8
Dr. Phil McGraw * * * * * * * * * 7 =6 =9
Regis Philbin * * * * * * 2 2 * * =9 *
The 2002 survey was conducted in January 2003.
(C) 2004, Harris Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without the express written permission of Harris Interactive.
TABLE 2
FAVORITE TV PERSONALITY AMONG DIFFERENT GROUPS
AMONG: 2004
Men David Letterman
Women Oprah Winfrey
Aged 18-29 Jon Stewart
Aged 65+ Oprah Winfrey
Republicans Ray Romano
Democrats Jon Stewart
Independents Oprah Winfrey
(C) 2004, Harris Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without the express written permission of Harris Interactive.
TABLE 3
DROPPED OUT OF TOP TEN THIS YEAR
Rank in 2003
William Peterson #8
Whoopi Goldberg #9
Jennifer Aniston =#10
Martin Sheen =#10
(C) 2004, Harris Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without the express written permission of Harris Interactive.
Methodology
The Harris Poll(R) was conducted online within the United States between December 8 and 15, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 1,036 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample is not a probability sample.